UN to hold urgent session on Quran burning incident
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The urgent debate comes at the request of Pakistan on behalf of some members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
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Delegates attend the opening day of the 40th session of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council on February 25, 2019, in Geneva. (AFP)
The United Nations Human Rights Council said it will hold an urgent session in the upcoming days to tackle recent incidents of Quran burning in Europe, a council spokesperson said Tuesday.
"The UN Human Rights Council will hold an urgent debate to discuss the alarming rise in premeditated and public acts of religious hatred, as manifested by the current desecration of the holy Quran in some European and other countries," council spokesperson Pascal Sim told reporters, citing a request from Pakistan on behalf of some members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
This comes just one day after Pope Francis denounced the decision by Sweden to allow the desecration of a copy of the Quran outside a Stockholm mosque, voicing “anger and disgust” over the move.
Last 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 before carrying out his act.
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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.
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 European Union condemned Saturday the Quran burning that took place in Sweden, urging for the avoidance of escalation and underlining that in the eyes of the bloc, the burning of any holy book is a "provocation". The condemnation came in a statement issued by the European External Action Service (EEAS).
