OIC envoys urge governments to fight Islamophobia amid recurring Qur’an desecration in Europe

In a statement released on Monday, the envoys representing the 57-member OIC in the UK warned that acts contemptuous of any religion spark tensions, as well as anger, hatred, and violence.

They also underlined that “all relevant stakeholders, including governments, should redouble efforts to address discrimination, xenophobia, and hate speech in accordance with international human rights law.”

“Governments must not tolerate extremism or the promotion of hatred and lslamophobia, but rather prevent such practices which disrespect of other beliefs and which cannot in any way be categorized as freedom of expression,” they added.

Mehdi Hosseini Matin, the chargé d’affaires of the Iranian Embassy in Britain, said in an X the statement was proposed by the Islamic Republic of Iran embassy at the initiative of the Iraq Embassy in London.

Qur’an desecrated for fourth time in two months

The statement was released the same day that two Sweden-based Iraqi men, Salwan Momika and Salwan Najem, desecrated the Qur’an, Islam’s holiest book, for the fourth time in recent months.

They kicked the holy scripture and burned several of its pages in front of the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm amid a heavy police presence and a counter-protest.

“I am burning the Qur’an for the fourth time and will burn it for the fifth time on Thursday outside the Iranian Embassy,” said Momika, who was identified as a  by Iran’s Intelligence Ministry.

Monday’s incident was the second time Momika and Najem burned the Qur’an outside the Swedish Parliament.

They did similar sacrilegious acts in front of Stockholm’s central mosque and Iraq’s embassy in recent months.

The blasphemous acts, which had been authorized by the Swedish police under the pretext of free-speech laws, sparked a wave of anger and condemnations across the Muslim world.

In Denmark too, the far-right Danish group Danske Patrioter has recently set copies of the Holy Qur’an alight in front of the missions of several Muslim countries in Copenhagen.