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By Sardar Khan Niazi
Drawing on the dark history of the burning of the Holy Quran, an anti-Muslim far-right provocateur has once again publicly set fire to the Holy Quran in Stockholm. Sweden’s government must call it a hate crime.
Pakistan has strongly condemned the despicable act of burning a copy of the Holy Quran by extremists outside Stockholm’s central mosque in Sweden on Wednesday, which marked the first day of Eid-ul-Azha.
Islamabad expressed concern over such a heinous act of insulting the sacred values and religious symbols of the Muslims in the name of freedom of expression.
Such a step contradicts the respect of others’ values, creeds, and religions and sparks hatred and extremism, posing threats to the security of societies and peoples.
The burning of the Holy Quran is a blatant violation and provocation of Muslims’ feelings all over the world. We urge all concerned to put an end to such unwarranted provocations for the sake of harmony and peaceful coexistence.
We call on the international community to act urgently and enact an international law criminalizing the insulting of prophets, religions, and religious symbols to counter such actions that foment sedition and hatred.
The Holy Quran is sacred for Muslims and should be sacred for others. This disgraceful act has drawn widespread condemnation from Saudi Arabia and other Muslim nations.
The European Union also condemned the burning of the Holy Quran and warned of racism. EU strongly rejected the burning of the Holy Quran and said that this act does not in any way reflects the views of the union, pointing out that burning the Holy Quran or other holy books is desecration, disrespectful, and a clearly provocative act.
Racism, xenophobia, and any act of hatred have no place in Europe. It is deeply regrettable that such an act was carried out during the Muslim celebration of Eid-ul-Azha, EU added.
This hateful act cannot be accepted with any justification, and it clearly incites hatred, exclusion, and racism, and directly contradicts international efforts seeking to spread the values of tolerance, moderation, and rejection of extremism, and undermines the necessary mutual respect for relations between peoples and states.
We urge the international community to put an end to such unwarranted provocations for the sake of harmony and peaceful coexistence.
We denounce this absurd and heinous crime, carried out under the protection of the police and under the claim of practicing freedom of expression, while in reality, it abuses, among many things, the true concept of freedom; which calls for respecting and not provoking others under any pretext.
We warn against the dangers of these practices that fuel hatred, provoke religious sentiments, and serve only the agendas of extremism.
The Stockholm incident has hurt the sentiments of 1.5bn Muslims, those responsible should be booked in criminal offenses for inciting hatred and sabotaging peace.
We ask the Swedish government to take action against those involved in hurting the sentiments of Muslims all over the world under the guise of freedom of expression In order to prevent the recurrence of such acts.
Such provocative action committed repeatedly by far-right extremists targets Muslims, insults their sacred values, and serves as an example of the alarming level reached by Islamophobia, hate, intolerance, and xenophobia.
International law binds all the states to prevent and prohibit any advocacy of religious hatred that leads to incitement of violence.
The recurrence of such Islamophobia incidents in the West calls into serious question the legal framework, which permits such hate-driven actions. The right to freedom of expression and opinion does not provide a license to stoke hatred and sabotage inter-faith harmony.
The international community must undertake credible and concrete measures to prevent the rising incidents of xenophobia, Islamophobia, and anti-Muslim hatred.
