In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
His Excellency Mr. António Guterres,
The Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Greetings with respect and appreciation.
It was reported by the media that someone in the Kingdom of Sweden desecrated the Holy Qur’an and burned some of its pages, intending to insult the pristine religion of Islam. This disgraceful behaviour has occurred more than once in different countries in recent years, but it is noticeable that this time, it took place with an official license from the Swedish police, claiming that it was a requirement to respect freedom of expression.
However, it is certain that freedom of expression does not justify licensing such a shameful act, which represents a flagrant attack on the sanctities of more than two billion Muslims in the world and leads to the creation of an environment conducive to the spread of extremist ideas and wrong practices.
The Supreme Religious Authority expresses its strong condemnation and denunciation of what happened, and also calls upon the United Nations to take effective steps to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents and direct countries to reconsider any legislation that allows the occurrence of such shameful acts, and therefore calls for establishing the values of peaceful coexistence and intellectual approaches based on care for the rights and mutual respect between all the adherents of different religions.
The Holy Najaf: 29th June, 2023 (10th Dhul al-Hijjah, 1444 AH)
