Muslim nations demand action after ‘Islamophobic’ Quran burning
Muslim A motion at the United Nations Human Rights Council calls for action in response to Quran burning incidents in Sweden, which Pakistan claims incited “religious hatred.”
Muslim countries such as Iran and Pakistan have said that desecration of the holy Quran constitutes incitement to violence and have demanded accountability after a series of stunts in Sweden sparked global outrage.
In response to the latest incident last month, a motion filed at the United Nations human rights body on Tuesday calls on countries to review their laws and close gaps that may “impede the prevention and prosecution of acts and advocacy of religious hatred.”
The debate has revealed schisms in the UN Human Rights Council between the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and Western members concerned about the motion’s implications for free speech as well as challenges to long-held rights-protection practices.
Last month, during the Eid al-Adha holiday, an Iraqi immigrant in Sweden ripped, burned, and stomped on the Quran outside a Stockholm mosque, causing outrage across the Muslim world and angry protests in several Pakistani cities.
“We must see this clearly for what it is: incitement to religious hatred, discrimination, and attempts to incite violence,” Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said via video to the Geneva-based council. He went on to say that such crimes were committed with “government sanction and a sense of impunity.”
‘Irresponsible and wrong’
Bhutto Zardari’s remarks were echoed by ministers from Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia, the latter of whom filed a complaint with the UN calling the Quran burning an act of “Islamophobia.”
“Stop abusing freedom of expression,” said Retno Marsudi, Indonesia’s Foreign Minister. “Silence indicates complicity.”
Members of a Danish far-right group burned a copy of the Quran in Stockholm in 2020, just days after a similar incident in Malmo, Sweden’s southernmost city.
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s Foreign Minister, urged Sweden and European nations to take “urgent and effective measures” to combat such incidents.
Qatar’s Minister of State for International Cooperation, Lolwah Rashid Al-Khater, reiterated the gulf state’s condemnation and blamed agendas that “plant hatred and fuel seditions among Muslims and their communities’ people, in addition to provoking the belief of billions of people worldwide.”
Some Western countries condemned the stunts while also defending “free speech.”
The acts in Sweden were described as a “dreadful provocation” by Germany’s UN Ambassador Katharina Stasch, who added that “freedom of speech sometimes also means bearing opinions that may seem almost unbearable.”
Human rights, according to France’s UN envoy, are about protecting people, not religions and their symbols.
Volker Turk, the UN human rights chief, told the council that inflammatory acts against Muslims and other religions or minorities are “offensive, irresponsible, and wrong.”
Muslim Taliban targets ‘Sweden’
The Taliban administration said in a statement that Sweden had ceased all activities in Afghanistan “after insulting the holy Quran and granting permission for insulting Muslim beliefs.”
It did not specify which organizations would be affected by the ban.
Since the Taliban took over in Afghanistan in 2021, Sweden has had no embassy there.
According to the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (SCA), the aid organization is seeking clarification from authorities.
“SCA is not a government agency in Sweden.” “The SCA is independent and impartial in its dealings with all political stakeholders and states, and it strongly condemns all desecration of the holy Quran,” the NGO stated in a statement.
“For over 40 years, SCA has worked in close collaboration with the rural population in Afghanistan, with deep respect for both Islam and local traditions.”
Thousands of Afghans work for the organization in health, education, and rural development across the country. Last year, SCA’s health clinics served 2.5 million patients.
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