News
June 30 , 2023
Despicable Act: Pakistan Strongly Condemns Desecration of Holy Qur’an in Sweden
Islamabad: The Foreign Office (FO) on Thursday strongly condemned the despicable act of the desecration of the Holy Qur’an outside a mosque in Sweden on Eid al-Adha.
The condemnation comes a day after a man tore up and burned the Holy Qur’an outside Stockholm’s central mosque.
After the burning, Swedish police charged the man who set fire to the Holy Qur’an with agitation against an ethnic or national group and with a violation of a ban on fires that has been in place in Stockholm since mid-June.
In a statement issued today, the FO said “such willful incitement to discrimination, hatred and violence cannot be justified under the pretext of freedom of expression and protest”.
“Under international law, states are duty-bound to prohibit any advocacy of religious hatred, leading to the incitement of violence,” it stated.
“The recurrence of such Islamophobic incidents during the last few months in the West calls into serious question the legal framework which permits such hate-driven actions.
“We reiterate that the right to freedom of expression and opinion does not provide a license to stoke hatred and sabotage inter-faith harmony,” the FO statement stressed.
It further stated that Pakistan’s concerns about the incident were being conveyed to Sweden.
The FO urged the international community and the national governments to undertake “credible and concrete measures to prevent the rising incidents of xenophobia, Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hatred”.
Members of the executive committee of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan (SCBAP) also issued a condemnation against the “abhorrent act”.
“Such Islamophobic act has deeply offended and hurt the sentiments of the legal fraternity of Pakistan and all Muslim across the world. Such incidents cannot be shadowed under the guise of freedom of expression,” said the legal body’s president, Abid S. Zuberi. “Time and again we have witnessed such hateful actions against Islam, either by disrespecting the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) or the Holy Qur’an.”
On Wednesday, Salwan Momika, 37, who fled from Iraq to Sweden several years ago, had asked police for permission to commit the act “to express my opinion about the Qur’an”.
Ahead of the protest, Momika told news agency TT he also wanted to highlight the importance of freedom of speech.
“This is democracy. It is in danger if they tell us we can’t do this,” Momika said.
Under a heavy police presence and with around a dozen opponents shouting at him in Arabic, Momika, dressed in beige trousers and a shirt, addressed the crowd of several dozen through a megaphone.
At various times, he stomped on the Holy Qur’an and lit a few pages on fire while waving Swedish flags, journalists at the scene said.