UN Human Rights body addresses Quran burnings, Islamophobia

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
11 Jul 2023 18:57
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Volker Turk, the UN human rights chief, affirms that Koran-burning incidents serve no purpose but to divide communities and incite anger.

Volker Turk speaks at a meeting in Bangkok, Thailand on Friday, May 29, 2015. (AP)

The United Nations Human Rights Council held an emergency meeting Tuesday to discuss recent Quran-burning events.

According to UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk, these incidents "appear to have been manufactured to express contempt and inflame anger; to drive wedges between people; and to provoke, transforming differences of perspective into hatred and, perhaps, violence."

On June 28, a man named Salwan Momika, 37, burned a copy of the Muslim Holy book outside the Stockholm Central Mosque. He was granted a permit from Swedish authorities before carrying out his act.

The incident coincided with the beginning of the Eid Al-Adha celebration and the end of the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, inciting outrage throughout the Muslim world.

Reliable information indicates that Salwan Momika was born in Iraq in 1986 and started working for the Israeli Mossad in 2019, a statement from the Iranian Ministry of Security said.

Nations like Pakistan and others pushed for a debate around "the alarming rise in premeditated and public acts of religious hatred as manifested by recurrent desecration of the Holy Koran in some European and other countries."

Pakistan and other Organization of Islamic Cooperation nations expect to approve a resolution on the matter on Tuesday or later this week.

Turk urged "respect for others," regardless of personal beliefs, adding that "speech and inflammatory acts against Muslims; Islamophobia; anti-Semitism; and actions and speech that target Christians -- or minority groups such as Ahmadis, Baha'is or Yazidis -- are manifestations of utter disrespect. They are offensive, irresponsible and wrong."

The UN chief added that hate speech is on the rise everywhere thanks to the "tidal forces of social media, and in a context of increasing international and national discord and polarisation, hate speech of every kind is rising, everywhere," detailing that hate speech is not only harmful to individuals but damaging for social cohesion.

According to the Swedish government, the burning was considered "Islamophobic" but nevertheless called the act of desecration a "constitutionally-protected right to freedom of assembly, expression, and demonstration."

Pope Francis expressed his "disgust" with the desecration and denounced the burning, stating that “any book considered sacred by its authors must be respected out of respect for its believers, and freedom of expression must never be used as an excuse to despise others, and to allow this, must be rejected and condemned."