Iran summons Swedish envoy, slams Stockholm for allowing Quran burning
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Tehran demands Swedish authorities carry out their obvious responsibility in preventing insults against Muslim holy values.
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The building of the Iranian Foreign Ministry in Tehran, Iran
Iran summoned Sweden's chargé d'affaires on Thursday to sound its objection to the burning of the Holy Quran in the European country, approved by Stockholm under the guise of "freedom of speech".
The Swedish diplomat was called upon by the director-general for Western Europe in Iran's Foreign Ministry.
On Wednesday, 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 prior to carrying out his act.
Two weeks earlier, a Swedish appeals court rejected the police's decision to deny permits for those who wanted to wage protests involving the burning of the Quran.
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Momika's desecration of the Quran was made to coincide with the Muslim festivity of Eid al-Adha, which commemorates the end of the annual Hajj pilgrimage and is celebrated by hundreds of millions of Muslims around the world.
The repeated incident spread outrage across Muslim countries and was highly denounced by its prominent figures and top institutions.
Upon summoning the Swedish diplomat, the Iranian official conveyed the Islamic Republic's strong condemnation of the act of sacrilege against the most important of Islamic sanctities.
Stockholm's authorization of such an act and its silence incentivized those violating the most fundamental essences of human rights, namely the principle of respecting religious values and sanctities, the Iranian official told the chargé d'affaires.
The official noted that the event was held while Muslim Hajj rituals were in place, which therefore only served to incite hate and excuse acts of aggression by exploiting the principle of free speech.
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He also reminded the Swedish diplomat that this is not the first time that his government permitted similar actions, adding that these public attacks on Muslim sancitities would not have been repeated had Stockholm confronted them in the past.
The Iranian official informed the diplomat that the Islamic Republic will not tolerate any violation targeting the Holy Quran, and called on Sweden to carry out its obvious responsibilities and prevent the insulting of Muslim religious values.
The chargé d'affaires claimed that Sweden stands against all Islamophobic actions, adding that he will convey Iran's protest to his government.
