The Danish government was informed of Pakistan’s strong protest against the destruction of the Holy Quran and the dishonoring of the Pakistani flag in Copenhagen on Thursday, and Pakistan issued a strong condemnation from its capital ISLAMABAD.
The Foreign Office said in a statement that they anticipate “all measures necessary” to be taken by the Danish authorities to prevent acts of intolerance and incitement.
Such atrocities are committed with the explicit goal of offending the world’s two billion Muslims and sowing discord among societies and nations. By any standard, these actions do not represent free speech. The right to engage in provocative acts of religious hatred cannot be legitimized under the guise of the right to free speech, assembly, and protest. “speech and inflammatory acts against Muslims are offensive, irresponsible, and wrong,” the statement continued, quoting the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Pakistan has long argued that with freedom of speech comes accountability. Governments at all levels, as well as regional and global organizations, must speak out against, condemn, and take preventative measures against acts of Islamophobia and religious bigotry. Countries are obligated to address, prevent, and prosecute crimes of religious hatred as advocated by the United Nations Human Rights Council. The world community as a whole ought to speak out against Islamophobia and encourage religious tolerance and peaceful coexistence, it said.
For its part, Pakistan would keep bringing up the issue of Islamophobia on the global stage. Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari spoke with his Iranian, Saudi Arabian, and Turkish counterparts as well as the Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference and the Secretary General of the United Nations about this topic extensively over the phone. As the statement came to a close, it was noted that the OIC Headquarters in Jeddah and the Human Rights Council in Geneva were discussing issues related to these ongoing acts of Islamophobia.
Foreign Minister says Sweden is taking steps to prevent future incidents of Holy Quran desecration.
After similar rallies in Denmark and Sweden over recent weeks, which have angered Muslims, a small group of anti-Islam demonstrators set fire to copies of the Holy Quran outside the Egyptian and Turkish embassies in Copenhagen earlier this week.
Both Denmark and Sweden have stated that they are opposed to the burning of the Quran, but that they are powerless to stop it due to free speech laws. Protesters in Iraq burned down the Swedish embassy in Baghdad last week.
The “Danish Patriots” organization held a demonstration in Copenhagen on Tuesday, following two days of Holy Quran burnings in front of the Iraqi consulate. There have been two such events in Sweden in the previous month.
On Tuesday, Turkey’s foreign ministry strongly condemned the “continuing attacks” on the Holy Quran, saying that the Danish authorities’ tolerance of such behavior shows that they fail to see the “severity” of the consequences such actions can have. On Monday, Turkey demanded that Denmark do everything it takes to stop this act of “hate crime” against Islam.
On Tuesday, the state news agency said, citing the foreign ministry, that Bahrain had summoned the Swedish chargé d’affaires and sent her a formal protest letter against authorizing the burning of the Koran in Stockholm.
On Monday, the Iraqi foreign ministry demanded that European Union authorities “quickly reconsider so-called freedom of expression and the right to demonstrate” in the wake of the Koran burnings.
Tuesday, Egyptian officials called the Swedish charge d’affaires to express their outrage about the burning of Korans.
Denmark has condemned the burnings as “provocative and shameful acts” but claims it cannot prevent peaceful protesters from gathering.
On Tuesday, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen claimed he had “had a constructive phone call” with his Iraqi counterpart, Fuad Hussein, about relations between the two nations and the recent Koran burnings.
“Reiterated DK’s strong rejection of these despicable actions taken by some. He said on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, that “all protests must remain peaceful.”
Danish regulations, according to law professor Trine Baumbach of the University of Copenhagen, provide people more leeway to express themselves during demonstrations. “It’s not limited to talking to people. Some people find that burning things is a cathartic approach to release their emotions.
