Insulting Muslim Ummah’s Sanctities Unacceptable, Hezbollah Says after Quran Desecration in Sweden
Rasmus Paludan, leader of Danish far-right political party Hard Line, burned a copy of the Holy Book in the Swedish capital of Stockholm on Saturday.
Surrounded by police, Paludan set fire to the copy of the Quran with a lighter following a long diatribe of almost an hour, in which he attacked Islam and immigration in Sweden. About 100 people gathered nearby for a peaceful counterdemonstration.
The sacrilegious move has drawn widespread condemnations in the Muslim world.
Hezbollah in a statement described it as part of a series of disgraceful insults to religious sanctities of Muslims, saying one cannot remain silent in the face of such actions,
The resistance movement held the Swedish government fully responsible for the criminal act and called for punishment for those committing it and making sure that such crimes will never happen again.
It also called on Muslim governments, scholars, and institutions to denounce the move and mobilize the world public opinion against a repetition of such measures.
Egypt’s Al-Azhar Islamic Center also condemned the incident, saying it was the act of terrorists affiliated with the Swedish far-right and that the government of Sweden is an accomplice in the crime.
Al-Azhar urged the international community, world bodies and world leaders to stand up to such attempts at undermining religious sanctities and condemn these criminal acts that are perpetrated in the name of freedom of speech.
The Egyptian foreign ministry also expressed its strong condemnation of the disgraceful act that provokes the feelings of hundreds of millions of Muslims around the world.
It warned of the dangers of the spread of such acts that offend religions and fuel hate speech and violence, calling for upholding the values of tolerance and peaceful coexistence and preventing offense to all religions and their sanctities through such extremist practices that contradict the values of respect for religion.
Iran called the act of desecration as an attempt to stoke hatred and violence against Muslims. 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-Islamism and Islamophobia in their societies.
He added that the desecration of the Quran is a "clear example of spreading hatred and fueling violence against Muslims", which has "nothing to do with freedom of speech and thought".
Morocco, Qatar, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan and Jordan were among other countries that condemned the Quran burning in Sweden.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation also said in a statement that the provocative action targets Muslims, insults their sacred values, and serves as further example of the alarming level reached by Islamophobia. The OIC asked Sweden to punish those behind hate crime.
4116304
