Politicians call for the burning of the Holy Koran in Sweden – Newspaper
LAHORE: Political leaders across party lines have condemned the burning of the Holy Quran during a right-wing protest in Sweden.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, PTI Chairman Imran Khan, outgoing Punjab Chief Minister Parvez Elahi and OIC Secretary General strongly condemned the hurtful act on Sunday.
The Prime Minister strongly condemned the despicable act of desecrating the Holy Koran by a right-wing extremist in Sweden the other day.
“No words are enough to adequately condemn the heinous act of desecrating the Holy Koran by a right-wing extremist in Sweden. The garb of freedom of speech cannot be used to hurt the religious sentiments of 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide. This is unacceptable,” the prime minister said in a tweet posted on his official account.
Former Prime Minister Imran Khan “strongly condemned” the act and said his government had sponsored a landmark UN resolution to combat Islamophobia.
Prime Minister Shehbaz, PTI Chairman and OIC chief condemn the act
“Strongly condemn [the] Burning of the Holy Koran yesterday at a protest in Sweden. Last March at the initiative of our government, UNGA passed an OIC-sponsored landmark [resolution] on the International Day Against Islamophobia. It recognized that Islamophobic acts were not an expression of free speech,” he said in a tweet.
Parvez Elahi also took to Twitter to condemn the act.
“[I] strongly condemns the desecration of the Holy Koran in Sweden, he said in a series of tweets while calling the act “despicable” and “hurtful”.
“There should be no room for such acts in civilized societies. No civilized society would even think of desecrating a holy book.”
He added that reverence for the Holy Quran was part of every Muslim’s faith and such acts cannot be tolerated in the guise of freedom of speech.
PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry claimed that such acts of “hate mongers” were a threat to world peace. “The needs of the world[s] peace [but] hatemongers are trying to burn world peace in the fire of their hate,” he tweeted.
“[The] The Stockholm incident has hurt the feelings of 1.5 billion Muslims, those responsible should be convicted of crimes for inciting hatred and sabotaging peace.”
National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani also condemned the burning of a copy of the Holy Quran and asked the Swedish government to take action against those involved in hurting the sentiments of Muslims worldwide under the guise of freedom of speech.
OIC Secretary General Hissein Brahim Taha condemned the act “in the strongest possible way” and called on the Swedish authorities to take
necessary action against the perpetrators of this “hate crime,” he quoted in a release from the OIC secretariat in Jeddah.
He called for increased international efforts to prevent the repetition of such acts and for solidarity in the fight against Islamophobia.
The OIC Secretary General further said that this provocative action committed repeatedly by far-right extremists targeting Muslims, insulted their sacred values and served as another example of the alarming level reached by Islamophobia, hatred, intolerance and xenophobia.
Published in Dawn, January 23, 2023