Int’l Mechanisms Needed to Prevent Desecration of Religious Sanctities in Sweden
Khalil Hassan made the remark in an address to an online conference held to discuss the desecration of the Holy Quran from the human rights viewpoint.
The International Quran News Agency (IQNA) staged the webinar, titled “Looking at Quran Desecration from International Human Rights Viewpoint,” on Sunday.
Mohsen Ghanei, an Iranian expert on international affairs, Bahraini rights activist Baqer Darwish, and Sheikh Yusuf Qarut, a representative of Lebanon’s Supreme Islamic Shia Council in Sweden, were among other speakers at the online conference.
In his address, Khalil Hassan said the recent acts of sacrilege in Sweden are supported by far-right and racist parties.
Far-right parties’ figures in Sweden publish racist content in media so as to provoke people against Muslims and migrants, he stated.
He said there are efforts underway to confront this trend and counter attempts at Quran burning and all projects aimed at replacing dialogue among civilization with clashes among civilizations.
Khalil Hassan hailed the recent meeting of the UN Human Rights Council that condemned the Quran burning in Sweden and considered it an insult to religious sanctities.
Using the statement issued in that meeting, “we are trying to file lawsuits against those trying to desecrate religious sanctities,” he added.
This statement can pave the way for filing complaints in courts of law against extremists, governments and parties that seek to insult the religious symbols of Islam and other religions, the Bahraini analyst went on to say.
He also hailed the move by Muslim countries to condemn acts of sacrilege in Sweden and the stances of Muslim scholars who have called for boycotting Swedish products.
He said these stances have been effective and the Swedish foreign minister’s call for holding a joint session with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) shows a retreat on the part of Stockholm as Sweden fears a rise in tensions that could affect its ties with the Muslim and Arab world.
The online conference came as a new wave of Islamophobic acts of Quran desecration have started in Sweden and Denmark since late last month.
The Nordic countries allow the blasphemies to happen under the guise of the so-called freedom of speech despite wide condemnations from Muslim and non-Muslim states and even in the face of a UN Human Rights Council resolution adopted earlier this month.
