Over the desecration of the Quran, the Saudi-led OIC group suspends Sweden’s Special Envoy

Due to a succession of Quran burnings in Stockholm that provoked outrage and large-scale demonstrations in a number of Muslim nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has suspended the position of Sweden’s special ambassador.

The suspension was caused, according to the group made up of 57 countries with a majority of Muslims, by “the Swedish authorities’ granting of licenses that enabled the repeated abuse of the sanctity of the Holy Quran and Islamic symbols.”

During recent open protests in the Swedish capital, the Islamic holy book was burnt or desecrated. A self-described atheist Iraqi guy with Christian roots who resides in Sweden has declared intentions to burn the Quran in front of the Iraqi Embassy in Stockholm on Thursday.

Demonstrators The Swedish Embassy in Iraq was attacked, and the Iraqi government severed diplomatic ties with Sweden. The guy in Sweden ultimately kicked and walked on the Islamic holy book but refrained from lighting it on fire.

Following a previous event involving the burning of the Quran on July 2, the executive committee of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation made its decision.

The committee requested that the secretary-general take into account suspending the status of any special envoy from “any country in which copies of the Holy Qur’an or other Islamic values and symbols are desecrated with the consent of the authorities concerned,” according to a statement released on Sunday.

The group claimed to have informed Sweden’s foreign minister of their choice in a letter.

Friday’s public Quran burning in Denmark spurred more, sometimes violent demonstrations in Iraq. In an effort to breach the Green Zone in Baghdad, where the Danish embassy is situated, protesters battled with police. In Basra, protesters set fire to buildings that were part of a demining operation run by the Danish Refugee Council.

The burning of the Quran was denounced on Sunday by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“Burning of holy texts and other religious symbols is a shameful act that disrespects the religion of others,” it said. It is a provocative act that divides people of various faiths and cultures and causes numerous harms. But it also said that “freedom of assembly and expression must be respected.”

Sweden and Denmark do not have laws that expressly prohibit burning religious materials, but many other nations still have blasphemy laws in place.