We condemn Sweden’s continuation of granting extremists licenses to desecrate copies of the Qur’an

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s strong condemnation and denunciation of the repeated and irresponsible actions of the Swedish authorities by granting some extremists official permits authorizing them to burn and desecrate copies of the Holy Quran, in an act that is a systematic provocation of the feelings of millions of Muslims around the world.

In this regard, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will summon the Chargé d’Affaires of the Swedish Embassy in the Kingdom to hand him a protest note containing the Kingdom’s request to the Swedish authorities to take all immediate and necessary measures to stop these disgraceful acts, which violate all religious teachings, international laws and norms, affirming the Kingdom’s categorical rejection of all these acts that fuel hatred between religions and limit dialogue between peoples.

Condemned reactions

It is noteworthy that the first copy of the Qur’an was burned in January by the right-wing Danish-Swedish extremist Rasmus Paludan to denounce Sweden’s request to join NATO and negotiate with Turkey for this purpose.

On June 28, an Iraqi refugee in Sweden, Silwan Momica, burned pages from a copy of the Qur’an in front of Stockholm’s largest mosque on Eid al-Adha.

The two incidents sparked condemning reactions in the Islamic world.