RIYADH, JUL 2: The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Sunday said that measures need to be taken to avoid repeated acts of the Holy Quran’s desecration, Saudi State TV reported.
The announcement was made during an emergency session over the Holy Quran’s desecration in Sweden last week. 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 was charged by Swedish police with agitation against an ethnic or national group and a violation of a ban on fires that was in place in Stockholm since mid-June.
The act drew strong criticism from several countries, including Pakistan, Turkiye, Jordan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Iraq and Iran.
The OIC had announced a day after the incident that it would be convening an emergency meeting of its executive committee to discuss the matter.
The intergovernmental organisation of 57 countries had said in a statement that the meeting was 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 had added.
In an earlier statement, the OIC had strongly condemned the incident, saying that such an act contradicted “international efforts to spread the values of tolerance, moderation, and renunciation of extremism”.
It had also reiterated its condemnation of such “reprehensible acts that some extremists deliberately commit” and urged relevant governments around the world to “take effective measures to prevent its recurrence”.
The OIC had also emphasised the importance of adhering to the UN Charter in terms of promoting and encouraging respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all at the global level.
Iran holds off sending ambassador to Sweden in protest
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said today that the country would Iran refrain from sending a new ambassador to Sweden in protest over the incident.
Iran’s foreign ministry had summoned Sweden’s charge d’affaires on Thursday to condemn what it said was an insult to the most sacred Islamic sanctities.
“Although administrative procedures to appoint a new ambassador to Sweden have ended, the process of dispatching them has been held off due to the Swedish government’s issuing of a permit to desecrate the Holy Quran,” Amirabdollahian said on Twitter on Sunday.
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