The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) praised the Moroccan-submitted United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on “the promotion of interreligious and intercultural dialogue and tolerance against hate speech,” adopted on July 25, which stresses the importance of respecting its content.
This emergency meeting on the desecration of the Holy Quran in Sweden and Denmark was an opportunity for the Organization’s Secretary-General and ministers from several Member States to commend this resolution, which reinforces the organization’s approach to fighting against Islamophobia, hate speech, rejection of others, and contempt for religions.
The meeting, held by videoconference, focused on the examination of two issues relating to the desecration of the Holy Quran in Sweden and Denmark, and the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli government officials.
In a statement issued following its meeting at the Foreign Ministers level, the Organization expressed its thanks and gratitude to non-member states for condemning the acts of auto-da-fé and desecration of the Holy Quran and rejecting such racist attacks displaying Islamophobia and xenophobia.
The statement also emphasized the importance of promoting interreligious dialogue, understanding, and cooperation interculturally and among civilizations to achieve peace and stability in the world, stressing that promoting the values of tolerance and peace is the best way to fight against hate speech, extremism, violence, and incitement.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) expressed its deep concern at the upsurge in cases of discrimination and acts of violence around the world, as well as the resurgence of racist movements and right-wing extremism in several parts of the world following repeated acts of provocation by extreme right-wing supporters and attacks on the religious symbols of Islam, including the repetitive desecration of the Holy Quran.
The statement strongly condemned the repeated blatant attacks on the sanctity of the Holy Quran, most recently in Stockholm and Copenhagen in Sweden and Denmark.
The OIC Member States’ foreign ministers considered the failure of the Swedish and Danish authorities to take measures to prevent the recurrence of such acts contradictory to the United Nations (UN) Security Council (SC) resolution on tolerance, international peace, and security.
The foreign ministers called on Islamic civil society institutions in Member States to cooperate with their counterparts in countries where anti-Islamic attacks have taken place against the Holy Quran and other sacred values, exhaust local legal procedures, and refer cases to international judicial bodies.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation, and Moroccan Expatriates, Nasser Bourita, affirmed that Morocco strongly rejected provocations that offend the sanctity of Islam and called for the promotion of the values of coexistence and dialogue.
Bourita added that “as much as it condemns all obscurantist and barbaric violence committed in the name of Islam, Morocco denounces provocative attacks on the sacredness of Islam, while calling for the promotion of the values of coexistence and dialogue between societies, as well as the culture of peace.”
In a speech, delivered by the Director of the Mashreq, Gulf, Arab, and Islamic Organizations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Minister Bourita emphasized that freedom of expression could not, under any pretext, justify provocation and abusive attacks on a religion that is sacred to over two billion people around the world, underlining that “the examination of acts that offend Islam questions us all, more than ever, on the necessity to find ways to fight against and limit such abuses.”
