OIC Plans Emergency Meeting over Qur’an Desecration in Sweden

By Staff, Agencies

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation [OIC] has decided to hold an emergency meeting over the recent desecration of the Holy Qur'an in the Swedish capital of Stockholm.

Reporting on Friday, the official Saudi Press Agency [SPA] said the intergovernmental body’s Executive Committee was to convene next week “under invitation from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the President of the [OIC's] Islamic Summit” to discuss the act of sacrilege.

In a repeated and state-authorized instance of sacrilege against the Muslim holy book, two men stood outside the Stockholm Central Mosque during the incident on Wednesday and burned a copy of the holy book following a go-ahead given by a Swedish court.

“The meeting will be held in its [the OIC’s] headquarters in [the Saudi port city of] Jeddah and will discuss the consequences of the burning of a copy of the Holy Qur'an in Sweden on the first day of Eid Al-Adha,” the SPA said.

It further mentioned that the meeting next week is scheduled to discuss the measures to be taken against the heinous act and to adapt a collective position on the necessary course of action.

The decision by the OIC followed a phone call between Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and the OIC Secretary-General Hissein Brahim Taha, during which the Iranian top diplomat proposed that the OIC's foreign ministers hold an emergency meeting at the earliest opportunity to address the desecration.

The act of desecration has opened the floodgates of protest across the Muslim world.

The desecration of the Holy Qur’an in Stockholm during a protest authorized by police has drawn strong condemnations worldwide.