The public burning of the Koran in front of a mosque in Stockholm had caused outrage not only in Islamic countries. Now there is to be an urgent debate before the Human Rights Council.
Following the Koran burning in Sweden, an urgent debate is being held at the United Nations Human Rights Council at the request of Islamic countries. Pakistan has called on behalf of several states to “discuss the alarming increase in deliberate and public acts of religious hatred, which is currently manifested in the desecration of the Koran in Europe and other countries,” the spokesman for the council said in Geneva on Tuesday. The debate is expected to take place later this week, he said.
A Koran was set on fire in front of a mosque during a demonstration in Stockholm last week. The police approved the protest after other actions of this kind were banned in February. Willful desecration of the Koran is considered blasphemous in Islam. The burning in Sweden has sparked demonstrations in Iran and Iraq, as well as official criticism from various Islamic-majority countries.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan again condemned the burning of the Koran on Tuesday and criticized the fact that the Swedish security apparatus does not prevent such incidents. Against this background, from a Turkish point of view, it is debatable whether Sweden’s NATO membership would help the alliance to become more strong or cause more problems, he said, according to the state news agency Anadolu in Ankara.
The Turkish leadership has so far blocked Sweden’s accession to NATO and, among other things, accuses Sweden of taking insufficient action against “terrorist organizations”.
Source: Stern
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