Global outcry over desecration of Qur’an in Sweden
The burning of the Holy Qur’an outside the main mosque in the Swedish capital city of Stockholm on one of the holiest days in Islam sparked outrage in many Muslim countries and widespread condemnations of Swedish authorities.
Two men, watched by a crowd of people and protected by the Swedish police forces, first waved two Swedish flags as the national anthem blasted over a speaker system and then, tore pages out of a Qur’an and burned them outside a mosque on Wednesday.
A Swedish court and police authorities have given permission to anti-Islam extremists to desecrate the holy book of Muslims.
In an application for the permit, one of the men, Salwan Momika, identified by Swedish media as an Iraqi immigrant living in Sweden, said he wanted to “express his opinion about the Qur’an” by tearing it up and burning it. The police had granted a permit for the demonstration after a Swedish court ruled that banning it would impinge on the right to freedom of speech.
The timing of the burning of Islam’s holy book, during the important Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, further angered and pained Muslims in many countries, who were celebrating the holiday, which honors the end of the Hajj pilgrimage.
On Friday, Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi said that disrespecting the Holy Qur’an is actually disrespecting all divine religions, humanity, and divine values, adding that the Muslim world will not let it pass.
Dismissing the claim that such acts are in support of freedom of expression, Raeisi said that those people “oppose freedom and want to impose their despotism as freedom of expression on humanity”.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has also summoned Sweden’s chargé d’affaires in the capital Tehran in protest at the desecration of the Holy Qur’an in the European country amid the approval of Swedish authorities in the name of “freedom of speech”.
“Branding such moves as acts of democracy and freedom will only fuel further terrorism and extremism, and will boomerang on the West,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian wrote in a post published on his Twitter page on Thursday.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani also said that acts of insult against holy books serve as an instance of inclination towards aggression and hatemongering, and counter authentic human rights values.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation also roundly condemned the desecration. It warned in a statement on Thursday about the dangers and consequences of such actions, emphasizing that the move is in contradiction to efforts to promote coexistence and moderation.
Morocco went beyond a statement of condemnation and recalled its ambassador to Sweden for an indefinite period.
The United States condemned the burning but failed to show restraint and shoehorned that issuing the permit for the demonstration supported freedom of expression.
In another move that lays bare Washington’s lack of prudence, a US Department of State spokesperson, Vedant Patel, expressed the government’s opposition to the burning of the Qur’an while also urging outraged Turkey to approve Sweden’s NATO bid.