[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text dp_text_size=”size-4″]JEDDAH: The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) called for collective actions to prevent future desecration of the Holy Quran on Sunday, only days after such an incident outside a mosque in Stockholm, Sweden.
The 57-member body convened in Jeddah to respond to the event on Wednesday in which an Iraqi immigrant in Sweden, Salwan Momika, 37, perpetrated the Islamophobic act. The incident occurred during Eidul Adha in Europe.
According to a statement issued following the “extraordinary” meeting on Sunday, the OIC asked member states to “take unified and collective measures to prevent the recurrence of incidents of desecration of the Quran.”
The OIC Secretary General, Hissein Brahim Taha, “stressed the need to send a clear message that acts of desecration” of the Quran are “not mere ordinary Islamophobia incidents,” according to the statement.
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“We must constantly remind the international community of the importance of applying international law, which clearly prohibits any advocacy of religious hatred.”
Taha criticised Momika’s “despicable act,” echoing widespread condemnation that has included protests at the Swedish embassy in Baghdad, as well as summoning Swedish envoys in Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Morocco.
In response to the Swedish government’s approval of Momika, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Twitter on Sunday that his country will not send a new ambassador to Sweden, Hojjatollah Faghani.
The Swedish government, on the other hand, condemned the “Islamophobic” act outside Stockholm’s major mosque as “committed by individuals at demonstrations in Sweden [that] can be offensive to Muslims” on Sunday.
Sweden’s foreign ministry issued a statement in response to the OIC’s appeal for collective measures to prevent such anti-Islamic acts, saying, “We strongly condemn these acts, which in no way reflect the views of the Swedish government.”
According to the statement, it was “an offensive and disrespectful act and a clear provocation,” and that racism, xenophobia, and similar intolerance had no place in Sweden or Europe.
Momika was granted a permit in accordance with free speech rights in Sweden, but officials later claimed they had initiated an investigation into “agitation against an ethnic group,” adding that he committed the offence relatively close to the mosque.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
