Worldwide Condemnations Pour After Swedish Far-right Leader Burns Quran
Turkey condemns burning of Qur’an during far-right protest in Sweden
Turkey has condemned a demonstration involving the burning of Qur’ans in Sweden on Saturday, further inflaming tensions between the two countries amid Stockholm’s Nato bid.
The protest in Stockholm, which took place under heavy police protection in front of Turkey’s embassy, gathered about 100 people and a crowd of reporters, Agence France-Presse reported.
Far-right politician Rasmus Paludan, who staged the event, gave an hour-long speech against Islam and immigration before setting fire to a copy of the Qur’an.
A day prior, Turkey’s foreign ministry summoned Sweden’s ambassador over the permission granted to Paludan’s protest. It was the second time Sweden’s ambassador to Turkey has been summoned this month, after having had to answer for a 12 January stunt during which a Kurdish group hung an effigy of Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in Stockholm.
Worldwide condemnations pour in over Sweden allowing Quran burning
On Sunday, several countries worldwide continued to condemn Sweden allowing a politician to burn a copy of the Quran, Islam’s holy book, under police protection in Stockholm.
With permission from the government, Rasmus Paludan, the leader of the Hard Line party, burned a copy of the Quran outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm on Saturday.
“Saudi Arabia calls for spreading the values of dialogue, tolerance and coexistence and rejects hatred and extremism,” the Saudi Foreign Ministry said.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs affirms the State of Qatar’s total rejection of all forms of hate speech based on religion or race and rejecting the involvement of sanctities in political disputes. Furthermore, the ministry warns that hate campaigns against Islam and the discourse of Islamophobia witnessed a dangerous escalation through the continued frequent calls for repeated targeting of Muslims worldwide,” Qatar said.
The incident “hurts Muslims’ sentiments across the world and marks serious provocation,” Kuwait’s foreign minister, Sheikh Salem Abdullah Al Jaber Al Sabah, said in statements cited by the state-run Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).
He called the international community “to shoulder responsibility by stopping such unacceptable acts and denouncing all forms of hatred and extremism and bringing the perpetrators to accountability.”
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 worldwide.”
“These extremist practices are inconsistent with the values of respect for others, freedom of belief, human rights and fundamental human freedoms,” it added.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani 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.”
Kanaani said despite the strong emphasis on human rights in Islam, Europeans continue to “institutionalize anti-Islam sentiment and Islamophobia” in their societies.
Pakistan also condemned the burning of the Holy Quran in Sweden, describing it as a “senseless and provocative Islamophobic act.”
“This senseless and provocative Islamophobic act hurts the religious sensitivities of over 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide,” said the Pakistani Foreign Ministry.
Islamabad urged the international community to show a “common resolve” against Islamophobia, xenophobia, intolerance and incitement to violence based on religion or belief and work together to promote inter-faith harmony and peaceful coexistence.
Morocco said it was “astonished” the authorities had allowed it to take place “in front of the Swedish forces of order.”
(With Inputs From News Agencies)
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