Quran burning: OIC suspends Sweden special envoy’s status

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has suspended the statues of Sweden’s special envoy over repeated incidents of Quran desecration in Stockholm that sparked angry protests in many Muslim countries.

The 57-member bloc said on Sunday that the suspension was due to the “ granting by the Swedish authorities of licenses that enabled the repeated abuse of the sanctity of the Holy Quran and Islamic symbols.”

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation's decision came after the bloc's executive committee held a July 2 meeting following an earlier Holy Quran-burning incident.

The committee asked the secretary-general to consider suspending the status of the special envoy from “any country in which copies of the Holy Quran or other Islamic values and symbols are desecrated with the consent of the authorities concerned,” according to Sunday's statement.

The organisation said it had sent a letter to Sweden's foreign minister conveying the decision.

A public burning of the Holy Quran in Denmark on Friday sparked more protests in Iraq, some of them violent. Protesters clashed with police as they attempted to storm the Green Zone in Baghdad where the Danish embassy is located, and in Basra, demonstrators torched facilities belonging to a demining project of the Danish Refugee Council.

Denmark's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday condemned the burning of the Holy Quran.

“Burning of holy texts and other religious symbols is a shameful act that disrespects the religion of others,” it said. “It is a provocative act that hurts many people and creates division between different religions and cultures.”

It added, however, that “freedom of expression and freedom of assembly must be respected.”

While many countries around the world still have laws criminalizing blasphemy, Sweden and Denmark do not, and burning of holy texts is not specifically prohibited by law.

Last month, a man desecrated the Holy Quran in Sweden’s capital Stockholm, drawing strong condemnations from several Muslim states, including Afghanistan, the OIC, the European Union, Pope Francis and the Swedish government, among others.

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