The European Union joined several Muslim nations on Saturday in condemning the latest incident of desecration of the Holy Quran in Sweden while the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) would be convening an emergency meeting on the matter next week.
The censure comes after a man, who fled from Iraq to Sweden several years ago, tore up and burned the Holy Quran outside Stockholm’s central mosque on Wednesday— the first day of Eidul Azha in the country. He has been charged by Swedish police with agitation against an ethnic or national group and a violation of a ban on fires that has been in place in Stockholm since mid-June.
The act has drawn strong criticism from several countries, including Pakistan, Turkiye, Jordan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Iraq and Iran.
In its condemnation issued today, the EU said the act of burning the Holy Quran or any other holy book was “offensive, and disrespectful and a clear act of provocation.”
“Manifestations of racism, xenophobia and related intolerance have no place in Europe,” Nabila Massrali, the EU spokesperson for foreign affairs and security policy, said in a statement.
“The EU joins the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in its strong rejection of the burning of a [copy of the Holy] Quran by an individual in Sweden. This act in no way reflects the opinions of the European Union.”
She added, “It is even more deplorable that such an act was carried out on the important Muslim celebration of Eidul Azha.”
OIC convenes emergency meeting
Meanwhile, the OIC announced a day after the incident that it would be convening an emergency meeting next week to discuss the matter.
The intergovernmental organisation of 57 countries said in a statement that the meeting had been called by Saudi Arabia in its capacity as chair of the Islamic Summit Conference and would take place at the OIC headquarters in the Saudi city of Jeddah.
The emergency meeting would also go over the procedures for dealing with the fallout from the incident, it added.
In an earlier statement, the OIC strongly condemned the incident, saying that such an act contradicted “international efforts to spread the values of tolerance, moderation, and renunciation of extremism.”
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