Quran burning draws global condemnation

Agencies | Ankara

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com   

The burning of the Holy Quran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm yesterday drew strong condemnation worldwide.

The Quran burning was carried out by Rasmus Paludan, leader of Danish far-right political party Hard Line.

Paludan, who also has Swedish citizenship, has held a number of demonstrations in the past where he has burned the Quran.

In the permit he obtained from police, it says his protest was held against Islam and what it called Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s attempt to influence freedom of expression in Sweden.

Several Arab countries including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan and Kuwait strongly denounced Swedish authorities for allowing an anti-immigrant politician from the far-right fringe to burn the sacred book in Stockholm.

“Saudi Arabia calls for spreading the values of dialogue, tolerance, and coexistence, and rejects hatred and extremism,” the Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

In a statement, the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MoFAIC) affirmed the UAE’s rejection of all practices aimed at destabilising security and stability in contravention of human and moral values and principles.

The incident occurred amid protests in Stockholm yesterday against Turkey and Sweden’s bid to join NATO, sharply heightening tensions with Turkey.

The Turkish ministry urged Sweden to take necessary actions against the perpetrators and invited all countries to take concrete steps.

Earlier yesterday, Turkey said that due to a lack of measures to restrict protests, it had cancelled a planned visit to Ankara by the Swedish defence minister.

“At this point, the visit of Swedish Defence Minister Pal Jonson to Turkey on January 27 has become meaningless.

So, we cancelled the visit,” Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said.