Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian called on the Islamic nations to stand united and give a firm response to Sweden on the recent desecration of the Holy Quran.
The Iranian minister raised the issue during a phone call with Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Hissein Brahim Taha on Friday.
Expressed deep regret over the insulting and provocative move, Amir Abdollahian proposed that an urgent ministerial meeting of the OIC be held at the earliest for exchanges of views over the fresh desecration of the Holy Quran in Sweden.
“If the Swedish government does not take an effective measure immediately, Muslim countries should concertedly give a firm response to the desecration of the divine scripture, the Holy Quran,” he stressed.
The OIC secretary general, for his part, condemned the sacrilegious move and promised to put a ministerial OIC meeting on agenda in consultation with the member states.
The two sides also emphasized the need for Muslim countries to take a concerted and firm measure in order to prevent a repetition of such insults.
The thelephone conversation came a day after Salwan Momika, an Iraqi refugee, desecrated the Muslim holy book outside the Baghdad embassy in Stockholm amid strict protection provided by the Swedish police. The immigrant also burned pages of a copy of the Holy Quran in front of Stockholm’s largest mosque in late June during Eid al-Adha.
On Friday, huge crowds of Iranians held rallies in Tehran and other cities to condemn the sacrilege of Quran in the European country. Hundreds of mostly black-clad demonstrators also gathered outside Stockholm’s Tehran embassy and demanded its closure and the expulsion of Sweden’s ambassador.
Sweden has repeatedly permitted Quran burnings in recent years. In January, a Swedish-Danish right-wing extremist burned a copy of the Quran near the Turkish embassy in Stockholm.
Since last year, the frequency of insults against Islam and its holy book has been on the rise in Europe. Several European countries have been playing host to such despicable acts on their soils over the past months, drawing far-and-wide condemnation from the world’s Muslim countries.
Tehran describes the sacrilegious move as a blatant insult to Islam and Muslims across the world, and cautions that some European countries are allowing extremist groups to spread hatred against Islamic values and sanctities.
Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei stressed that the sacrilegious act show that the arrogant powers’ attacks are aimed at Islam itself.
