Iran urges UN chief to take hard line on Qur'an desecration

Following repeated desecration of the Holy Qur’an in Sweden, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has written to Antonio Guterres, urging the UN secretary-general to take a hard line on such acts of religious sacrilege.

The top diplomat addressed the letter to the UN chief on Thursday, hours after Salwan Momika, a Sweden-based Iraqi refugee, stomped on a copy of the Qur’an and kicked the Muslim holy book during a demonstration outside Stockholm’s main mosque amid strict protection provided for the rally by the Swedish police.

The act of sacrilege has opened the floodgates of protest across the world’s Muslim community, including in Iran, which has summoned the Swedish ambassador to Tehran, conveying the Islamic Republic’s vehement condemnation of the heinous act.

This was the second time Momika was disrespecting the Qur’an amid the approval of Sweden’s authorities. He had set a copy of the holy book on fire last month too, prompting similar raging protests across the Muslim world and causing the Iranian Foreign Ministry to summon Sweden’s chargé d’affaires.

Writing to Guterres, Amir-Abdollahian reminded that the act of sacrilege had caused “serious harm” to the sentiments of Muslims and other followers of divine religions across the world. “The shock and concern about such insulting actions is on the rise,” the foreign minister added.

Iran strongly denounces the Swedish authorities’ issuance of their approval for the provocative act, the letter went on.

Sacrilege pursues ‘Islamophobia, promotion of extremism’

“Iran strongly warns that continuation of such actions under the cover of freedom of speech constitutes an open insult to the entirety of Muslims and serves to provoke various communities,” Amir-Abdollahian said, cautioning that such acts of sacrilege “pursue Islamophobia and promotion of extremism.”

These acts of desecration, the foreign minister further warned, “are to be ensured by irreparable consequences and repercussions, such as an expansion of hatred, violence, and xenophobia across various communities.”

Continuation of these insulting behaviors ultimately serves to pose “serious threats to peace and peaceful coexistence among members of various divine religions,” added the letter.

Amir-Abdollahian finally urged Guterres to take the necessary measures that would prevent a repetition of such profanity, calling on the UN chief to demand the world body’s members to “seriously confront those ordering and perpetrating such [insulting] actions.”

Need for ‘coordinated deterrent measures’

Separately, in a tweet on Thursday evening, the minister strongly slammed the act of desecration and the Swedish government’s “irresponsible” measure to allow it to happen.

“Insulting beliefs and divine texts have no place in divine religions,” he wrote.

“Iran, along with other Islamic countries and those that revere holy books, is ready to take coordinated deterrent measures,” Amir-Abdollahian said.