ISLAMABAD: Pakistan vehemently condemned the abhorrent act of burning the Quran in public outside a mosque in Sweden during the celebration of Eid al-Adha, the Foreign Office said.
A Swedish militant identified as Salwan Momika, 37, burned a copy of the Muslim holy book under police protection in front of a Stockholm mosque on Wednesday, in a provocative act timed to coincide with Eid celebrations.
The act has elicited widespread condemnation from the Islamic world, including Pakistan, Turkey, Jordan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Iraq, Iran, Senegal, Morocco, and Mauritania.
Expressing strong disapproval of the incident, the Foreign Office said that such deliberate actions inciting discrimination, hatred, and violence cannot be justified under the guise of freedom of expression and protest.
According to international law, it is the responsibility of states to prohibit any promotion of religious hatred that leads to incitement of violence. The repeated occurrence of Islamophobic incidents in the West raises serious concerns about the legal framework that allows such hate-driven actions.
The statement emphasised that the right to freedom of expression and opinion should not be misused to fuel hatred or disrupt interfaith harmony. Pakistan’s concerns regarding this incident will be conveyed to Sweden, it added.
The Foreign Office further urged the international community and national governments to take concrete measures to prevent the escalating incidents of xenophobia, Islamophobia, and anti-Muslim hatred.
The militant told Swedish media Thursday that he intended to burn another Koran within 10 days.
Speaking to newspaper Expressen, Momika said he knew his action would provoke reactions and that he had received “thousands of death threats”. Nonetheless, he was planning further actions in the coming weeks, he said.
“Within 10 days I will burn the Iraqi flag and the Koran in front of Iraq’s embassy in Stockholm,” he said.
— With AFP, Anadolu Agency
