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July 07, 2023
NA Urges ‘Appropriate Steps’ against Desecration of Holy Qur’an
Islamabad: A joint session of the Parliament on Thursday passed a resolution urging Sweden to take “appropriate steps” against perpetrators involved in the recent incident of the Holy Qur’an’s desecration in Stockholm.
The incident took place last week when a man, who fled from Iraq to Sweden several years ago, tore up and burned a copy of the Holy Qur’an outside Stockholm’s central mosque on the first day of Eid al-Adha there.
The act has drawn strong criticism from several countries, including Pakistan, Turkiye, Jordan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Iraq and Iran, as well as the European Union.
During a joint session of the Parliament Thursday — which was convened to register protest over the Sweden incident — lawmakers unanimously passed a resolution strongly condemning the incident.
The resolution, presented by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Murtaza Javed Abbasi, said the house believed in respecting all religions, beliefs and holy books.
“This House urges that appropriate steps be taken by Swedish authorities against the perpetrator(s) including but not limited to legal action, and to ensure that no such act takes place in the future,” the resolution said.
It added that the house urged incidents of Islamophobia should be dealt with the same seriousness as hate against other religions.
“This house urges that relevant international organizations and states must legislate to criminalize desecration of holy symbols of religions including holy books, personalities, places of worship and followers.”
According to the resolution, the house also appreciated the steps taken by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) — which called an emergency meeting to condemn the incident earlier this week in Jeddah — “to compile recommendations and devise a collective future strategy to counter Islamophobia”.
“This house resolves that the international community take appropriate measures for promoting interfaith harmony to ensure that any act that hurts religious sentiments may never take place in the future,” it added.
The resolution was passed after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, during a speech at the outset of the session, urged National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf to constitute a committee for the purpose of condemning the desecration of the Holy Qur’an and suggesting measures to prevent such incidents in the future.
“It will be my responsibility to send the resolution and recommendations to Sweden,” he said. - Dawn
Courtesy Dawn
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