Germany condemns Quran burning in Sweden

By Oliver Towfigh Nia

BERLIN (AA) – A German Foreign Ministry spokesman on Monday condemned the burning of a copy of Quran in Sweden.

“We condemn the action over the weekend. It was disrespectful and highly inappropriate and we also doubt that this action represents the view of the majority of Swedish society,” Christian Wagner told media representatives in Berlin.

“Provocations of this kind are intended to provoke division…,” he added, referring to the action of Rasmus Paludan, the leader of the far-right Danish party Stram Kurs (Hard Line) who, under the protection of police and with permission from the government, burned a copy of the Quran outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm on Saturday.

Condemnations continued to pour in from across the Arab and Islamic world over the burning of a copy of Islam’s holy book.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry condemned the burning of Quran in Stockholm as a “vile attack.”

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the vile attack on our holy book, the Quran, in Sweden today (21 January), despite our repeated warnings earlier," a ministry statement said on Saturday.

In response to Sweden’s permission of the incident, Ankara canceled Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson’s upcoming visit to Türkiye.

Egypt’s Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, the highest seat of Sunni Islamic learning, also decried the Quran burning as a “shameful act" and a violation of “all international laws and covenants that stipulate the necessity of respecting the sanctities of peoples, their beliefs and their religions."

It called for drawing up international legislation “to ensure the necessary guarantees to protect the rights of Muslims to practice their religious rites in the societies where they live.”

The International Union for Muslim Scholars called on the Muslim countries to summon the Swedish ambassadors to demand an apology from the Swedish government over the incident.