Turkish FM condemns acts of Quran desecration in Sweden

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
28 Jun 2023 21:08

This comes after a man named Salwan Momika had earlier in the day burned a copy of the Quran outside Stockholm's main mosque.

Salwan Momika, 37, who fled from Iraq to Sweden several years ago, protested outside Stockholm's main mosque (AFP)

Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Wednesday that the recent acts of Quran desecration in Sweden are "vile" and "despicable," and said that such actions can not be tolerated under the pretext of freedom of expression.

This comes after a man named Salwan Momika had earlier in the day burned a copy of the Quran outside Stockholm's main mosque. Momika was granted a permit from Swedish authorities prior to carrying out his act.

"I curse the despicable act committed against our Holy Book, the Holy Koran, on the first day of Eid al-Adha," Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Twitter.

"It is unacceptable to allow these anti-Islamic actions under the pretext of freedom of expression.

"Turning a blind eye to such atrocious acts is to be complicit," he added.

Mübarek Kurban Bayramı’nın ilk gününde Kutsal Kitabımız Kur’an-ı Kerim’e yönelik #İsveç’te yapılan aşağılık eylemi lanetliyorum!#İslamkarşıtı bu eylemlere ifade özgürlüğü bahanesiyle izin verilmesi kabul edilemez.

Bu tarz menfur eylemlere göz yummak suça ortak olmaktır.
— Hakan Fidan (@HakanFidan) June 28, 2023

Momika, who is 37 years of age, fled Iraq to Sweden several years ago.

Two weeks prior to this, 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.

Talks on Sweden's ascension to NATO have been stalling since the burning of the Quran took place near Turkey's embassy in Sweden earlier this year.

On June 7, Fidan said that Sweden must take concrete steps in order to join the NATO alliance.

"Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan had a phone conversation with Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom. During the talk, he congratulated his colleague Minister Fidan on his new appointment. Minister Fidan also stressed that concrete steps must be taken for Sweden to join NATO," a statement by the Turkish Foreign Ministry read on June 7.

The statement added that both ministers convened on the restoring of dialogue following a meeting of the Standing Joint Mechanism on Sweden's NATO membership.

Earlier in the day, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced that Turkey, Sweden, Finland, and NATO will be holding a meeting in Brussels to discuss Sweden's ascension to NATO.

"We agreed to convene a new meeting of Finland, Sweden, Turkey, and NATO. This meeting will take place in Brussels next week. I will chair the meeting and it will be a high-level meeting with the foreign ministers, the chiefs of intelligence, and national security advisers. And the purpose of that meeting is, of course, to make progress so we can have a positive decision at the Vilnius summit on Swedish membership," Stoltenberg said.