Saudi and Iraq envoy to protest Quran burning in Sweden

 

Saudi summons Swedish envoy to protest Quran burning.

The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs has summoned the Swedish Ambassador in Riyadh, Petra Menander, to denounce the burning of a copy of the Holy Quran outside a mosque in Stockholm last Wednesday.

During the meeting, the Saudi Foreign Ministry called on Sweden to "stop all actions that directly contradict international efforts seeking to spread the values of tolerance, moderation and rejection of extremism, and undermine the necessary mutual respect for relations between peoples and states."

The kingdom has previously condemned the incident in which 37-year-old Salwan Momika stomped on the Muslim holy book and set several pages alight.

The burning of the Quran coincided with the first days of Eid Al-Adha, which sparked a diplomatic backlash across the Muslim world, with several countries summoning the Swedish envoys to condemn the act.

In an extraordinary meeting held in Jeddah, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) urged a unified position and collective measures to prevent the recurrence of the incident.

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Iraq summons Sweden's diplomat over burning of Quran.

Iraq's Foreign Ministry summoned Sweden's charge d'affaires, Hakan Rooth, over the incident involving the burning of a copy of the Muslim holy book Quran by far-right extremists in Sweden.

On Thursday, Rasmus Paludan, the Danish leader of the far-right Stram Kurs (Hard Line) Party, burned a copy of the Holy Quran in southern Linkoping in Sweden, according to media reports.

In a statement, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said it lodged a protest with the Swedish diplomat over the burning of the Muslim holy book.

The ministry warned that the burning "bears grave implications on Sweden's relations with all Muslims."

The statement called on the Swedish government to intervene to stop any acts that provoke religious sentiments.

Plans by a far-right group to publicly burn copies of the Quran sparked violent clashes with counter-demonstrators for the third day running in Sweden, police said on Sunday.

Litter bins, a bus and a car were all set on fire in a series of incidents in the southern city of Malmo overnight, police said in a statement.

"The situation calmed down towards 3:00 a.m. (1 a.m. GMT)," police spokesperson Kim Hild told SR public radio, adding that no officers were hurt, but a number of members of the public were slightly injured.

Nearly 20 complaints had been filed, including for vandalism.

The year 2019 distinguished itself greatly by cold and ruthless Islamophobic terrorist attacks in places such as New Zealand’s Christchurch, Germany, the U.K., France and Norway.

Mosques have been targeted all across Europe, resulting in deaths and injuring dozens.

Some European governments work hard to track and neutralize far-right terrorist groups. On the other hand, they participate in the normalization of Islamophobic conversations in Europe through discriminative declarations, bills and security policies targeting Muslims.

Moreover, mainstream media and private institutions are also responsible for anti-Muslim feelings as they continuously spread disinformation that harms the Muslim community.

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