ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday “strongly condemned” the public burning of the Qur’an outside a mosque in Stockholm on the occasion of Eid Al-Adha.
A man called Salman Momika was charged by Swedish police with “agitation against an ethnic group” following his desecration and setting fire to pages of the Qur’an outside the main mosque in Stockholm.
“Such willful incitement to discrimination, hatred and violence cannot be justified under pretext of freedom of expression and protest,” Pakistan’s foreign office said on Eid day.
“Under international law, States are duty bound to prohibit any advocacy of religious hatred, leading to incitement of violence … We reiterate that the right to freedom of expression and opinion does not provide a license to stoke hatred and sabotage inter-faith harmony.”
Pakistan said it had conveyed its concerns about the incident to Sweden and urged both the international community and national governments to undertake “credible and concrete measures to prevent the rising incidents of xenophobia, Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hatred.”
Momika, 37, who fled from Iraq to Sweden several years ago, said he wanted to highlight the importance of freedom of speech.
“This is democracy. It is in danger if they tell us we can’t do this,” he said.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Momika’s protest was “legal but not appropriate,” and it was up to the police to permit it or not.
