President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Medical Council Dr. Mohammad Rayees Zadeh strongly condemned the desecration of the Holy Quran in Sweden, and further warned that the sacrilegious act can inflict harmful effects on the mental health of followers of religions.
Dr. Rayees Zadeh issued the medical warning in a letter to Swedish Minister for Social Affairs and Public Health Jakob Forssmed and President of the Swedish Medical Association (SMA) Dr. Heidi Stensmyren.
“Unfortunately recurrent permission of the Swedish authority to desecration of the Holy Quran is not only an insult to Muslims but also an insult to all religions and their followers. So it is the duty of every human being to condemn this behavior,” said the letter.
The guardians of health care, he added, should protect public mental health and must inform the Swedish government about the consequences of this action.
The IRIMC president called on the Swedish government to stop the recurrence of this crime which is inconsistent with freedom of faith.
An Iraqi refugee named Salwan Momika desecrated the Muslim holy book outside the Baghdad embassy in Stockholm on Thursday 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, there has been a growing number of insults against Islam and its holy book 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 had stressed that the sacrilegious act show that the arrogant powers’ attacks are aimed at Islam itself.
