OIC underscored the importance of encouraging dialogue, understanding and cooperation among religions, cultures and civilisations…reports Asian Lite News
The Secretariat General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has condemned in the strongest terms the tearing of a part of the Holy Quran by an extremist in The Hague, Netherlands.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Secretariat General of OIC reiterated that “such behaviour fuels feelings of Islamophobia in the world and works against calls for co-existence and freedom of belief.”
OIC underscored the importance of encouraging dialogue, understanding and cooperation among religions, cultures and civilisations and rejection of hatred and extremism to achieve peace worldwide.
The UAE also strongly condemned the incident. In a statement, the foreign ministry affirmed the UAE’s permanent rejection of all practices aimed at destabilising security in contravention of human and moral values and principles.
Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Ministry has summoned the Dutch ambassador to Ankara to protest against “the vile act” of a far-right Dutch politician to tear pages out of the Quran.
The ministry summoned Joep Wijnands to protest the “heinous and despicable act and demanded that the Netherlands allow no such provocative acts”, Xinhua news agency reported, citing a statement by the ministry.
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the vile attack by an anti-Islamic person in The Hague, Netherlands, on January 22, to target our holy book, the Holy Quran,” the ministry said.
“This despicable act … is a clear declaration that Islamophobia, discrimination and xenophobia know no bounds in Europe,” it added.
Turkey expected the Dutch authorities to take necessary actions against the perpetrator of the incident and to implement concrete measures to prevent the recurrence of such incidents, according to the ministry.
A video posted on social media showed Edwin Wagensveld, leader of the far-right group, Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West, ripped pages from a Quran in The Hague.
The incident comes after Swedish-Danish right-wing extremist, Rasmus Paludan, burned the Quran in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm on Saturday, which drew strong reaction from Turkey.
