In emergency meeting, Islamic organisation says wilful desecration of the Holy Book is a troubling manifestation of growing hatred, racism and phobia against Muslims and Islam n Calls for sending constant reminder to world community of urgent implementation of international law to prohibit religious hatred.
ISLAMABAD - Denouncing the desecration of Holy Quran in Sweden, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has said that collective measures are needed to prevent acts of desecration to the Holy Quran and international law should be used to stop religious hatred.
The OIC Executive Committee emergency meeting held in Jeddah on Sunday strongly condemned the burning of Holy Quran in Stockholm last week outside a mosque at the time of Eid prayers and urged the Muslim countries to take unified and collective measures to prevent such measures in future.
A man burned a copy of the holy book outside Stockholm’s central mosque on Wednesday, the first day of the Muslim Eid ul Adha holidays.
The act angered OIC member Turkey whose backing Sweden needs to gain entry to the NATO military alliance.
Swedish police had granted permission for a protest to take place. But after the burning, police charged the man who carried it out with agitation against an ethnic or national group.
The incident has triggered large protests in Baghdad in front of the Swedish Embassy. It has also been condemned by the United States.
Opening the debate, OIC Secretary General, Mr Hussein Ibrahim Taah, called upon the Islamic countries to take unified and collective measures to solve the incidents of Islamophobia including incidents of burning of the Holy Quran and insulting our Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
He said that unfortunately, on the first day of the auspicious occasion of Eid ul Azha, when all Muslims around the world were celebrating, a despicable act of reciting the Holy Quran was committed outside the Central Mosque in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden.
“We emphasize the need to send a clear message that the acts of chanting of the Holy Quran and insulting our Holy Prophet Muhammad are not just normal incidents of Islamophobia, and there is a necessity to send a constant reminder to the international community of the urgent implementation of international law, which clearly prohibits any invitation to religious hatred,” he remarked.
He said the wilful desecration of the Holy Quran on the blessed occasion of Eid ul Azha is a troubling manifestation of growing hatred, racism and phobia against Muslims and Islam.
“Such wanton incitement to discrimination, hatred and violence cannot be justified under the pretext of freedom of expression or protest,” he said.
The secretary general said that recurrence of such Islamophobic incidents during the last few months in the West calls into serious question the legal framework which permits such hate-driven actions and behind which the Islamophobes routinely hide.
Pakistan had earlier this week strongly condemned the “despicable act” of the public burning of a copy of the Holy Quran.
“Such wilful incitement to discrimination, hatred and violence cannot be justified under the pretext of freedom of expression and protest,” a statement issued by the Foreign Office in condemnation of the abhorrent incident read.
The FO stated that international law binds all the states to prevent and prohibit any advocacy of “religious hatred” that leads to incitement of violence.
“The recurrence of such Islamophobic incidents during the last few months in the West calls into serious question the legal framework which permits such hate-driven actions.”
Pakistan’s envoy to OIC Fawad Sher reiterated that the right to freedom of expression and opinion does not provide a licence to stoke hatred and sabotage inter-faith harmony. It can certainly not be used as a smokescreen to deliberately vilify Holy Scriptures.
He said that the Pakistani President, Prime Minister, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the senior political leadership of Pakistan have strongly denounced the continued attacks on the sanctity of the Holy Quran and called for an immediate cessation of the trend. He also said that the OIC, mandated by its charter and various resolutions, must enhance its efforts to check the ominous streak of condemnable incidents that involve denigrating the Holy Quran.
“We must join hands and urge the international community to put an end to such deeply offensive and senseless incidents,” he said. Pakistan has once again urged that the international community must undertake credible and concrete measures to prevent the rising incidents of xenophobia, Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hatred, Fawad concluded.