Iraq’s overseas minister has known as for the Group for Islamic Cooperation to kind a committee for talks with the European Union over its member international locations allowing the desecration of the Quran and to enlist volunteers to file lawsuits to halt th…
ByABBY SEWELL and DAVID KEYTON
BEIRUT — Iraq’s overseas minister known as Monday for the Group for Islamic Cooperation to kind a committee for talks with the European Union over its member international locations allowing the desecration of the Quran and to enlist volunteers to file lawsuits to halt the observe.
Overseas Minister Fouad Hussein additionally known as on the United Nations to “take measures to stop these incidents.”
Hussein made his assertion throughout an emergency on-line assembly of overseas ministers from the Jeddah-based group to debate latest incidents wherein the Islamic holy e-book was burned or in any other case defaced at formally permitted protests in Sweden and Denmark.
The physique didn’t concern any determination or official assertion after Monday’s assembly.
Forward of the assembly, two males who had beforehand burned a replica of the Quran in Sweden did so as soon as once more, in entrance of a crowd of some dozen onlookers and about 20 counter-protesters.
In each Sweden and Denmark, t right here is not any legislation in opposition to blasphemy, and freedom of expression is mostly held in excessive regard.
However because the latest Quran burnings have sparked offended demonstrations and diplomatic backlash in Muslim international locations, officers within the Scandinavian international locations have begun to think about whether or not there needs to be curbs on public defacement of holy books or different non secular symbols.
Denmark’s overseas minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, stated Sunday in an interview with Danish public broadcaster DR that the federal government is searching for a “authorized device” to ban such inflammatory acts with out compromising freedom of expression.
In Sweden, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson stated Sunday on Instagram that his authorities is analyzing the authorized state of affairs relating to desecration of the Quran and different holy books, given the animosity such acts are stirring up in opposition to Sweden.
Earlier than Monday’s assembly, the OIC had already suspended the standing of Sweden’s particular envoy over the Quran burnings.
Sweden’s Overseas Minister Tobias Billström stated in an announcement that he spoke in latest days with counterparts in OIC international locations to clarify how Sweden’s freedom of expression works and that police make unbiased selections on protest purposes. He added that “the federal government could be very clear in its distance from the Islamophobic acts carried out by people at demonstrations in Sweden.”
The Danish overseas minister stated his “authorities condemned and denounced the insult” to the Quran and “that it’s finding out this concern with nice curiosity.”
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Keyton reported from Stockholm. Related Press workers author Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed to this report.