Egypt’s Al-Azhar, the most prestigious Islamic learning center for Sunni Muslims, on Wednesday called on Islamic World to boycott Swedish and Dutch products for desecration of the holy Quran.
Edwin Wagensveld, a far-right Dutch politician, and leader of the Islamophobic group Pegida tore out pages from the Quran in The Hague, the administrative capital of the Netherlands. The footage on social media showed that Edwin burned the torn-out pages of the holy book in a crowd on Sunday.
Prior to this, a large number of protestors gathered in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm Sweden on Friday, while chanting anti-Turkish slogans, Rasmus Paludan, leader of the Danish far-right political party Hard Line, burned the holy Quran, under the protection of local police officials.
The desecration of the Quran in Sweden and Denmark over the past couple of days prompted widespread reactions and condemnations from the Muslim world and the international community. Muslim-majority countries have strongly condemned the move, describing it as an attack on the entire Muslim world.
In a statement, Al-Azhar called on the Arab and Muslim peoples “to boycott all Dutch and Swedish products and to take a strong and unified stance in support of our Noble Quran, the sacred scripture of the Muslims, and as a proper reaction to the governments of these two countries, who have offended 1.5 billion Muslims.”
Meanwhile, the high representative of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations has condemned the burning of the Muslim holy book by a Swedish-Danish far-right politician as a “vile act”.
“Burning the Quran, Muslim’s holiest scripture under the guise of freedom of expression is a devilish act. “Permitting this anti-Islam act, which targets Muslims and insults our sacred values, under the guise of ‘freedom of expression’ is completely unacceptable,” the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement said.
