Swedish Gov’t Legally-Bound to Prevent Quran Desecration: Expert
Mohsen Qanei 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.
Sweden-based Bahraini analyst Khalil Hassan, 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.
Qanei said that according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, there are limits to freedom of expression.
The Stockholm government has a legal duty to prevent acts of sacrilege but the problem is that Sweden and other EU member states consider Quran burning not an act but a disrespectful behavior, he stated.
Qanei said the Swedish government cannot attribute such actions to one individual and shirk responsibility because they are taken with the support and permission of the government.
He said that based on the Vienna Declaration and Program of Action, all human rights are equal, interrelated and inseparable and one cannot consider some rights as being more valuable than others.
“However, Western countries have a biased view regarding freedom of expression versus freedom of religion.”
The expert further said the repetition of the acts of sacrilege in Sweden and Denmark with the support of the two countries’ governments shows that it is a systemic issue and a prearranged project.
The continuation of this process would be dangerous for European countries and would threaten world peace, mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence, he added.
He further said that in order to confront such Islamophobic acts in the West, Muslim countries need to pursue the case within the framework of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and by forming international alliances.
At the public level, a campaign to boycott Swedish products has already been launched but forming alliances against Sweden with the unanimous support of all 57 member states of the OIC would be a more fundamental measure, he went on to say.
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.
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