In response to the Quran-burning incident in Sweden, India supports a UNHRC resolution condemning “religious hatred”

India supported a resolution passed by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on combating religious hate that serves as encouragement to discrimination, hostility, or violence in the wake of the Quran-burning event in Sweden that drew worldwide criticism. Pakistan presented the resolution.

Many emerging nations in Africa, as well as China, India, and Middle Eastern nations, supported the 28-12 vote with seven abstentions. Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, Khalil Hashmi, emphasized after the decision that the proposal “does not seek to curtail the right to free speech,” but rather attempts to establish a “prudent balance” between it and “special duties and responsibilities”.

Quran burning
In June, a man tore apart and set fire to a Quran outside the main mosque in Stockholm. Police eventually filed charges against the guy for violating a fire prohibition and inciting racial or national disturbance. The event took place after Swedish police granted permission for a brief protest to be held outside a mosque in Stockholm during which the organizers said they would “tear up the Quran and burn it.”

This is not a one-off occurrence. After a Danish far-right politician set fire to a copy of the Quran close to the Turkish embassy in Stockholm at the end of January of this year, Turkey put the negotiations with Sweden over its NATO application on hold.

The US ambassador to the council, Michele Taylor, said that the US “strongly condemns the acts that have precipitated today’s discussion, including desecration of the Holy Quran on June 28” in reference to a recent event in Sweden that sparked outrage in certain Muslim communities.

Taylor expressed her “true heartbreak” at the council’s inability to come to an agreement after the vote “in condemning what we all agree are deplorable acts of anti-Muslim hatred, while also respecting freedom of expression.”

India’s response to the Quran being burned
India did not provide a reason for its vote in favor of the resolution today, but during a discussion on the subject on July 11, it had previously said that there was a rise in “phobias” against all faiths without specifically mentioning Islam.

We have seen several instances of religious intolerance across the globe, including the killing of Sikh pilgrims and the vandalism of temples and idols as well as the glorifying of idol sacrilege. According to a report by The Wire, the Indian statement read, “There is a need for the world community to acknowledge instances of intolerance, prejudice, phobia, and violence against adherents of all faiths and work together to remove them.

Khalil Hasmi, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, accused the West of paying “lip service” to its pledge to combat religious intolerance. “The opposition of a few in the room has emanated from their unwillingness to condemn the public desecration of the Holy Koran or any other religious book,” he stated, as reported by Reuters.

What was the resolution’s content?
The resolution asks governments to evaluate their legal frameworks and close any legal loopholes that might “impede the prevention and prosecution of acts and advocacy of religious hatred” as well as for the UN rights head to issue a report on religious hatred.

The European Union and the United States vehemently rejected the resolution, arguing that it goes against their views on free speech and human rights.