At the invitation of the Kingdom, the Chairman of the Islamic Summit in its current session and the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation held, at its headquarters in Jeddah yesterday (Sunday), an emergency open-ended meeting of the Executive Committee to discuss the measures towards the repercussions of the incident of burning a copy of the Noble Qur’an that took place in the State of Sweden.
The Saudi Permanent Representative to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Dr. Saleh bin Hamad Al-Suhaibani, delivered the Kingdom’s speech, in which he highly appreciated the active attendance of this meeting to discuss the blatant provocative actions and the repeated despicable acts of attacking the sanctity and sanctity of the Holy Qur’an in Sweden.
He said: “At a time when Muslims all over the world celebrate Eid al-Adha in a beautiful way and happy times that embody the most wonderful images of cohesion and cooperation for the benefit of humanity, and seek peace, safety and harmony, and at the same time when the guests of Rahman perform the Hajj to strengthen the bonds of brotherhood and bonds of coexistence. With all races and genders, and in front of a house purified from the houses of God, Muslims wake up to repeated, hateful attempts, and vile extremist actions with the protection and authorization of the authorities of a country that is considered civilized, and unfortunately, through a blatant incident targeting Islam, and provoking the feelings of millions of Muslims all over the world in the most important and greatest way. The origins of Islamic legislation and its sanctities through repeated provocative abuses, and for the fourth time in a row in the same country in particular, to attempt to desecrate the Noble Qur’an under the false pretext of freedom of opinion and expression, which contradicts the spirit of Articles 19 and 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as the contradiction of the action plan agreed upon by international consensus. In accordance with Human Rights Council Resolution No. 16/18, which combats incitement to hatred and discrimination on the basis of religion or belief.
To prevent practices outside human values
Al-Suhaibani added that the Kingdom expresses its strong condemnation and denunciation of these repeated despicable acts, stressing that these hateful acts cannot be accepted under any justification and they clearly incite hatred, exclusion and racism, and violate divine laws and all decisions of international references and covenants calling for harmony, peace and rapprochement, just as they are at the time It directly contradicts international efforts seeking to spread the values of tolerance, moderation, and rejection of extremism, and undermines the principles of mutual respect necessary for relations between peoples and states.
In this regard, the Kingdom stresses the need to take decisive measures by the international community and this ancient organization of ours to prevent the recurrence of these practices that are outside human values and moral principles, because such blatant actions will only lead to more fanaticism and extremism, spreading hatred and violence, and spreading strife and evils. At a time when people are in dire need of acquaintance, rapprochement and harmony.
In the same regard, the Kingdom affirms the responsibility of those countries to prevent the recurrence of calls for incitement and hate crimes, and to stand firmly against such provocative practices.
Activating the role of the Islamophobia Observatory
Al-Suhaibani continued: The Kingdom hopes that the member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation will help activate the role of the Islamophobia Observatory and support it by all means. To carry out his role in the manner intended by him, and urges the offices of the organization abroad to take the initiative and in coordination with the permanent missions of the member states of the organization to work together in the same direction, and at the same time calls on the General Secretariat to quickly engage constructively with all international stakeholders and influential public opinion makers in the world in order to combat the phenomenon of Islamophobia, and to address such blatant actions by formulating an effective strategy aimed at creating an international environment conducive to civilized harmony and emanating from the organization’s ten-year plan, recalling the operative decisions of previous Islamic summits and ministerial councils and the precious charter of the organization, and investing in close work with the actors and concerned regional and international organizations to raise global awareness of the phenomenon of Islamophobia. It also calls on the Kingdom to place the desecration of the Holy Qur’an and Islamic symbols and sanctities in the priorities of the agenda of the coordination meetings of foreign ministers that will be held on the sidelines of the upcoming session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, as well as the upcoming Islamic Summit and Ministerial Councils.
Cooperation Secretary: unified position and collective measures
The Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Hussain Ibrahim Taha, called on member states to take a unified position and take collective measures to prevent the recurrence of incidents of desecration of copies of the Holy Qur’an and insults to our noble Prophet Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace.
“Unfortunately, on the first day of that auspicious occasion — the first day of Eid al-Adha — when all Muslims around the world were celebrating, a despicable act of desecration of the Holy Qur’an was committed outside the central mosque in Stockholm,” the Secretary-General said. The meeting comes to discuss the appropriate response to that procedure.
The Secretary-General stressed the need to send a clear message that acts of desecration of the Holy Qur’an and insults to the Holy Prophet Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace, and Islamic symbols are not just ordinary Islamophobia incidents, stressing the need to send a continuous reminder to the international community regarding the urgent application of international law, which clearly prohibits any advocacy to religious hatred.
