OIC: Measures needed to prevent desecration of Qur’an
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation said collective measures are needed to prevent acts of desecration to the Muslims’ holy book, Qur’an, and international law should be used to stop religious hatred days after a copy of the book was torched outside a Stockholm mosque.
The statement by the Saudi-based organization was issued after an extraordinary meeting in Saudi Arabia.
The 57-member body met on Sunday to respond to the Wednesday’s incident in which an Iraqi citizen living in Sweden, Salwan Momika, 37, set several pages of the holy book alight.
The OIC urged member states to “take unified and collective measures to prevent the recurrence of incidents of desecration of copies of the” Qur’an.
The body’s secretary general, Hissein Brahim Taha, “stressed the need to send a clear message that acts of desecration” of the Qur’an are “not mere ordinary Islamophobia incidents,” the statement said.
“We must send constant reminders to the international community regarding the urgent application of international law, which clearly prohibits any advocacy of religious hatred.”
The act outside the Stockholm Central Mosque prompted international condemnation.
Several Muslim countries have also summoned Swedish ambassadors in protest.
Swedish police had granted Momika a permit in line with free speech protections, but authorities later said they had opened an investigation over “agitation