World Leaders Condemned Swedish Far-Right Politician For Burning The Quran
World leaders condemned the burning of the Quran by a Swedish far-right politician, Rasmus Paludan.
Rasmus had set fire to the holy book on 21 January in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm.
Sweden and Turkey condemned the act
In response to the Quran burning incident, several world leaders condemned the act, including Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.
In a tweet, he “expressed sympathy” for all Muslims for what had happened in Stockholm.
He described the book burning as a “deeply disrespectful act”.
“Freedom of expression is a fundamental part of democracy. But what is legal is not necessarily appropriate,” he wrote.
Turkey, on the other hand, had cancelled Swedish Defence Minister’s scheduled visit to the country on 27 January.
Turkish defence minister Hulusi Akar said that the visit is no longer important as they continued to allow “disgusting” protests.
Muslim Leaders’ Condemnation
Other world leaders joined in the condemnation, mostly among Muslim countries.
Morocco’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs was “surprised” by the Swedish authorities for authorising the “unacceptable act”.
Likewise, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry rejected “hatred and extremism” and called for spreading the values of dialogue, tolerance and coexistence.
In addition to that, Saudi’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al-Sheikh described the incident as an “absurd and disgraceful act”.
Closer to home, the newly minted Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said that Malaysia “denounces the repeated hate crimes targeting Muslims in the world as well as all forms of incitement to hatred and the fanning of racism in word or deed and views with grave concern the rising tide of hate speech on account of faith or ethnicity”.
In his statement, he added that “such a blatant defilement of Islam's holy book by the Swedish politician and the inaction are tantamount to fomenting Islamophobia and constitutes a grave provocation to the sensitivities of not just Turkey but more than two billion Muslims in the world.”
Not The First Time
Rasmus is no stranger to planning to burn the Quran.
He was banned in Belgium in 2020 for plans to burn the Quran in Brussels.
He had also suggested the same in France, which failed as he was deported.
In 2019, he was sentenced to 14 days in jail for racist speech in Denmark. He was also slapped with a month in jail and two additional months of suspended sentence for 14 other charges, including racism and defamation.
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