Swedish government condemns burning of Koran during protest

The Swedish government on Sunday condemned the burning of a Koran outside the main mosque in Stockholm, calling it an “Islamophobic” act, after the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) called for such an incident to be avoided.

The government fully understands that Islamophobic acts committed by individuals during protests in Sweden can be offensive to Muslims.

“We strongly condemn such acts, which in no way reflect the views of the Swedish government,” the Foreign Ministry said in a press release, while emphasizing that in Sweden, freedom of expression was protected by the Constitution.

This position came shortly after the OIC, an international organization of 57 countries, called for preventing copies of the Koran from being burned again.

“The OIC has urged its member states to take collective action to prevent further desecration of copies (of the Quran)”, according to a statement issued after the organisation’s extraordinary meeting, at its headquarters in Jeddah (west) in Saudi Arabia.