After the series of burning the Qur’an in Stockholm, which sparked anger and mass protests in a number of Islamic countries, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation decided, on Sunday, to suspend the status of the Special Envoy to Sweden.
The organization, made up of 57 Muslim-majority countries, said on Sunday that the suspension came because “the Swedish authorities were granted licenses that made it possible to repeat the violation of the sanctity of the Holy Quran and Islamic symbols.”
The Islamic Bible was burned or defaced during recent public demonstrations in the Swedish capital.
An Iraqi man living in Sweden announced plans to burn the Quran in front of the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm on Thursday.
Demonstrators in Iraq stormed the Swedish embassy and the Iraqi government cut off diplomatic relations with Sweden.
In the end, the man in Sweden kicked and stepped on the Koran but refrained from setting it on fire.
The OIC’s decision came after the bloc’s executive committee held a meeting on July 2 after the incident of burning the Qur’an earlier.
The committee asked the Secretary-General to consider suspending the status of the special envoy from “any country in which copies of the Holy Qur’an or other Islamic values and symbols are desecrated with the approval of the concerned authorities,” according to Sunday’s statement.
The organization said it had sent a letter to Sweden’s foreign minister about the decision.
And the burning of the Qur’an in Denmark, again on Friday, sparked more protests in Iraq, some of them violent.
Demonstrators clashed with the police while trying to storm the Green Zone in Baghdad, where the Danish embassy is located.
In Basra, demonstrators set fire to facilities belonging to a demining project of the Danish Refugee Council.
On Sunday, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the burning of the Noble Qur’an.
“The burning of sacred texts and other religious symbols is a shameful act that disparages the religion of others. It is a provocative act that harms many people and creates division between different religions and cultures,” the statement said.
But, he added, “freedom of expression and freedom of assembly must be respected.”
While many countries around the world still have laws criminalizing blasphemy, Sweden and Denmark do not, and the burning of sacred texts is not specifically prohibited by law.
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2023-07-23 19:20:45
