The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) held an extraordinary virtual session of the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) of member states on July 31 to discuss the repeated incidents of desecration and burning of copies of the Holy Quran in Sweden and Denmark.

The OIC CFM session was convened at the request of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Chair of the 14th Islamic Summit, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Iraq in response to a statement issued by the OIC executive committee on July 2, which addressed the burning of a copy of the Holy Quran in Sweden and called for high-level emergency meetings of the group.

Tajik MFA information department says the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Farhod Salim represented Tajikistan at that session.  

Salim reportedly noted that the Quran’s message of peace, compassion and tolerance and its emphasis on learning, knowledge and science, are of outmost necessity for entire humanity at all times.

OIC’s official website says the session approved the Resolution on the Repeated Crimes of Desecration and Burning of Copies of al-Mus’haf ash-Sharif in the Kingdom of Sweden and the Kingdom of Denmark.

The Resolution strongly condemns the recent despicable acts of aggression against the sanctity of the al-Mus’haf ash-Sharif in the Kingdom of Sweden and deeply regrets the continued issuance by the authorities of a permit allowing that action to occur, and the failure to take the necessary measures to prevent such acts in Sweden and Denmark.

It considers that not taking measures by the authorities in Sweden and Denmark to prevent the recurrence of such acts is contrary to UN Security Council Resolution No.2686 (2023) adopted on 14th June 2023 pertaining to international tolerance, peace, and security.

The session decides to dispatch an OIC delegation led by the Secretary General to engage the Commission of the European Union to express the strong condemnation of the OIC Member States the crimes of desecration of al-Mus’haf ash-Sharif, call on them to take the necessary measures to prevent the recurrence of such criminal acts under the pretext of freedom of expression.

The session participants condemn all attempts to denigrate the sanctity of al-Mus’haf ash-Sharif as well as other sacred books, values and symbols of Islam and other religions under the garb of freedom of expression, which is contrary to the spirit of Articles (19) and (20) of the ICCPR and call upon the international community to unanimously stand against those provocative attempts.

The session calls on Muslim civil society, organizations in the Member States to team up with their counterparts to work with their counterparts in those countries where Islamophobic attacks against the copies of al-Mus’haf ash-Sharif and other sacred values take place to resort to local courts and exhaust domestic remedies, before taking their cases to international judicial bodies, where applicable.

It urges the Member States to consider taking any necessary decisions and actions that they deem appropriate in their relations with the countries where the desecration of the Holy Quran is taking place.