Egypt’s al-Azhar calls for boycotts over Koran burning in Sweden
Egypt’s Al-Azhar, the Sunni Muslim world’s most prestigious educational institution, has called for a boycott of Swedish and Dutch products after far-right protesters destroyed Korans in those countries.
Al-Azhar, in a statement on Wednesday, called on “Muslims to boycott Dutch and Swedish products.”
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It also called for “an appropriate response from the governments of these two countries” which it accused were “protecting heinous and barbaric crimes in the name of ‘freedom of expression’.”
Swedish-Danish far-right politician Rasmus Paludan set fire to a copy of the Muslim holy book in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm on Saturday, raising tensions as Sweden woos Ankara over its bid to join NATO.
The following day, Edwin Wagensveld, who heads the Dutch branch of the German anti-Islam group Pegida, tore pages from the Koran during a one-man protest outside parliament.
Pictures on social media also showed him walking on the torn pages of the holy book.
The desecration of the Koran sparked strong protests from Ankara and furious demonstrations in several capitals of the Muslim world, including in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria and Yemen.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry “strongly condemned” the Koran burning and expressed “deep concern over the recurrence of such events and the recent Islamophobic escalation in a certain number of European countries.”
Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson condemned Paludan’s actions as “deeply disrespectful”, while the US called it “disgusting”.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Monday that the burning was the work of “a provocateur” who “may have deliberately tried to drive distance between two close partners of ours – Turkey and Sweden.”
On Tuesday, Turkey postponed NATO accession talks with Sweden and Finland, after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned Stockholm for allowing weekend protests that included the burning of the Koran.
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