Newsnomics AJAY ANGELINA reporter |
Pakistan parliament passed a resolution urging Swedish government to take “appropriate steps” against perpetrators involved in the recent incident of the desecration of the holy Qur'an happened in Stockholm.
“This house strongly condemns the act of desecration of the Holy Qur'an in Sweden,” reads a resolution approved unanimously by the parliament during its joint sitting.
“This house believes in respecting all religions, beliefs, and their holy books.” said the resolution, presented by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Murtaza Javed Abbasi.
Moreover, the parliament urged Swedish authorities to take “appropriate steps” against the perpetrator including, but not limited to, legal action and avoid the recurrence of such incidents.
“This house urges that incidents of Islamophobia be dealt with the same seriousness as hate against other religions.”
“The parliamentary resolution called on international organizations and states to criminalize the desecration of holy symbols of religions including holy books, personalities, places of worship, and their followers.
“The house also acknowledges and appreciates the convening of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation(OIC) session for providing a platform “to compile recommendations and devise a collective future strategy to counter Islamophobia”.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in his address to the parliament, said, “while the Swedish government condemned the incident, it should "clear its position" as to why the protest was allowed to take place.”
“We are not against freedom of speech, but no one has the right to do propaganda against Muslims,” he said.
PM Shehbaz Sharif reminded the parliament, “Muslims respect all religions and did not insult the sentiments of the followers of other faiths. “Never has anyone heard or seen the Bible being desecrated or burnt here,” he said. “We respect all religions so that no one points a finger at our religion or the holy book.”
Moreover, Pakistani premier said Muslims around the world would not tolerate such incidents taking place again, which he said were a "conspiracy to create rifts between Christians and Muslims that is not tolerable."
Pakistani government gave a countrywide call for the peaceful protests on Friday against the incident of desecration of the holy Qur'an in Sweden.
Raja Riaz, the leader of opposition in the National Assembly condemned the Sweden incident and said, “Every Pakistani will take part in peaceful protests against the desecration of the holy Qur'an on Friday.”
Earlier, Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, spokesperson of foreign office said, “Pakistan had raised the issue of the desecration of the Holy Quran with the Swedish charge d’affaires in Islamabad” reported by the Radio Pakistan.
She said in a press briefing that Pakistan and Sweden enjoyed good diplomatic relations and the Swedish government had itself expressed concern over the “despicable act”.
“We believe that such willful incitement to discrimination, hatred and violence cannot be justified under the guise of freedom of expression. The recurrence of such Islamophobic incidents calls into serious question the legal framework which permits such hate-driven actions,” she mentioned.
Moreover, she specified that as a leading member of the OIC, Pakistan had called for an urgent debate on the matter at the United Nations Human Rights council.
Pakistan also calls for credible and concrete measures to prevent the rising incidents of xenophobia, Islam-ophobia and anti-Muslim hatred,”
All the Muslim countries on the globe including Pakistan, Turkiye, Jordan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Iraq, Iran, Egypt and the European Union (EU) etc., have strongly condemned the incident occurred at the first day of Eidul Azha, when an Iranian man tore up and burned a copy of the Holy Quran outside Stockholm’s central mosque.
