UN Human Rights Council Calls For Emergency Meeting Over Sweden Koran Burning

An emergency meeting has been called by the UN Human Rights Council to address the recent burning of a Koran in Sweden.

It is being called after a copy of the Muslim holy book was burnt outside a mosque on the island of Södermalm in Stockholm last week. The meeting is expected to take place this week.

Pascal Sim, a spokesman for the UN Human Rights Council, said that the meeting was requested by Pakistan this Tuesday, July 4, on behalf of a number of members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), according to Reuters.

The Koran burning was condemned yesterday, Monday, July 3, by Shehbaz Sharif, the Pakistani Prime Minister. ‘The council will discuss the alarming increase in premeditated and public acts of religious hatred, as manifested by the desecration of the Holy Koran in some European and other countries’, TT reported Sim as commenting.

According to Aftonbladet, the Swedish Foreign Ministry told them in an email: ‘The special debate referred to has been requested within the framework of the current meeting of the UN Human Rights Council’.

‘Sweden will, in customary consultation with the rest of the EU, take a position on the proposals presented. Otherwise, we do not comment on an ongoing process’, it added.

Salwan Momika, a 37-year-old Iraqi national who allegedly fled to Sweden was the person responsible for the carrying out the burning. In what would have been an added insult, he apparently placed rashers of bacon between the pages of the book before setting it on fire.

His action was widely condemned in many Muslim countries across the world and caused violent scenes in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad last Thursday when angry protesters stormed the Swedish embassy.

At the time, Momika said he believed the Koran should be banned worldwide. He was granted permission by the authorities in Stockholm to burn the book

“We are not at war against Muslims, but against their thoughts. We are not against the Muslims, we are with them”, he explained.