OIC calls foreign ministers’ meeting on July 31 to discuss repeated desecration of Holy Qur’an 

ISLAMABAD: The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will hold an extraordinary virtual session of the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) of member states on July 31 to discuss the repeated incidents of desecration and burning of copies of the Holy Qur’an in Sweden and Denmark, Pakistani state media reported on Friday. 

The development comes days after a group of anti-Islam activists desecrated the Islamic scripture outside the Pakistani, Egyptian and Turkish embassies in Copenhagen after similar incidents in Sweden that have enraged Muslims in the last few weeks. 

The OIC CFM session is being convened at the request of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Chair of the 14th Islamic Summit, and the Republic of Iraq in response to a statement issued by the OIC executive committee on July 2, which addressed the burning of a copy of the Holy Qur’an in Sweden and called for high-level emergency meetings of the group. 

“The meeting is being held considering the OIC Secretary-General Hissein Brahim Taha’s consultations with the member states regarding the implementation of the final statement issued by the Executive Committee,” the Pakistani state-run APP news agency reported. 

“Further measures are also being considered in response to the repeated provocative actions that represent deliberate religious hatred and intolerance.” 

Demonstrations have raged across the Muslim world, particularly Iran and Iraq, after Denmark and Sweden recently allowed the burning of the Qur’an under rules protecting free speech. Protesters in Iraq set the Swedish embassy in Baghdad alight on Thursday. 

Pakistan on Thursday condemned the desecration of the holy book and dishonoring of its flag outside the country’s embassy in Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen, urging the authorities in the Scandinavian country to “stop such act of hatred and incitement.” 

Also, the United Nations General Assembly this week adopted a resolution, co-sponsored by Pakistan, to counter hate speech and condemn attacks on places of worship, religious symbols, and holy books. 

Pakistan’s Mission Counsellor Bilal Chaudhry, expressing his “profound satisfaction” over the adoption of the resolution, said the text resonated with the resolution on religious hatred, presented by Pakistan on behalf of the OIC, recently adopted at the Human Rights Council in Geneva. 

The landmark resolution condemned “all advocacy and manifestations of religious hatred, including recent public and premeditated acts that have desecrated the Qur’an” and called for countries to adopt laws enabling them to bring to justice those responsible for such acts, he pointed out.