Condemnations continued to pour in from across the Arab and Islamic worlds over the burning of a copy of the Quran, Islam’s holy book, by a Swedish-Danish right-wing extremist in the Swedish capital, Stockholm.
Rasmus Paludan, the leader of the Stram Kurs (Hard Line) Party, under the protection of police and with permission from the government, burned a copy of the Quran outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm on Saturday.
Iran termed the Quran burning as an attempt to stoke hatred and violence against Muslims. Tehran said some European countries under the false pretext of advocating freedom of speech “allow extremist and radical elements to spread hatred against Islamic sanctities and values.”
Saudi Arabia condemned the Swedish authorities for allowing the far-right politician to burn the Quran. In a statement, the Saudi Foreign Ministry affirmed “the kingdom’s firm position calling for the importance of spreading the values of dialogue, tolerance and coexistence, and rejecting hatred and extremism.”
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry decried the Quran burning as a “disgraceful act.” A ministry statement warned that this “disgraceful act provokes the feelings of hundreds of millions of Muslims around the world.”
The Turkish Foreign Ministry condemned the burning of Islam’s holy book in Stockholm as a “vile attack.” “We condemn in the strongest possible terms the vile attack on our holy book, the Quran, in Sweden today (21 January), despite our repeated warnings earlier,” a ministry statement said.
Oman termed the Quran burning as an “act of provocation to the feelings of Muslims and incitement to violence and hatred, by extremists in Sweden.” It underlined the need for international efforts to consolidate the values of tolerance and coexistence and criminalize all acts that promote the ideology of hatred.
Pakistan termed the incident as a “senseless and provocative Islamophobic act that hurts the religious sensitivities of over 1.5 billion Muslims around the world.” Such actions are “not covered under any legitimate expression of the right to freedom of expression or opinion, which carries responsibilities under international human rights law, such as the obligation not to carry out hate speech and incite people to violence,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Qatar also denounced in the strongest terms Sweden’s permission to burn the Quran outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm. “This heinous incident is an act of incitement and a serious provocation to the feelings of more than two billion Muslims in the world,” the Qatari Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Jordan, Morocco, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh and The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) also condemned the Quran burning as a provocative action.
The International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS) called on the Muslim countries to summon the Swedish ambassadors to demand an apology from the Swedish government over the incident. (+)