OIC plans emergency meeting over Qur’an desecration
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has decided to hold an emergency meeting over the recent desecration of the Holy Qur’an in the Swedish capital of Stockholm.
The intergovernmental body’s Executive Committee is to convene in Jeddah next week “under the invitation from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the President of the [OIC’s] Islamic Summit” to discuss the act of sacrilege, Mehr news agency reported.
The meeting next week is scheduled to discuss the measures to be taken against the heinous act and to adopt a collective position on the necessary course of action.
The decision by the OIC followed a phone call between Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and the OIC Secretary-General Hissein Brahim Taha, during which the Iranian top diplomat proposed that the OIC’s foreign ministers hold an emergency meeting at the earliest opportunity to address the desecration.
The OIC chief, for his part, hailed Iran’s leading role in the organization and the attention it gives to the condemnation of the blasphemous act.
In a repeated and state-authorized act of sacrilege against the Muslim holy book, two men stood outside the Stockholm Central Mosque on Wednesday and burned a copy of the Qur’an.
The move was made to coincide with the Muslim festivity of Eid al-Adha, which marks the conclusion of the annual Hajj pilgrimage that is attended by millions of Muslims from across the world.
The act of desecration has opened the floodgates of protest across the Muslim world.
On Friday, Iran’s President Ebrahim Raeisi said the Muslim world would never overlook the recent act of sacrilege against “the most valuable divine book” in a Western country that claims to defend free expression.
“An insult to our beloved Qur’an is an insult to all divine religions, humanity, and all divine values, which the Islamic society will not tolerate,” he said.