NEW DELHI: The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Sunday called for further global steps to combat Islamophobia after an extraordinary meeting of its Executive Committee.
In a communique issued after the meeting, held in Jeddah to discuss the recent desecration of the Holy Quran in Sweden, the group of 57 countries expressed concern over rising intolerance, discrimination and violence against Muslims and noted that Islamophobia is on the rise in many parts of the world.
The OIC said it was deeply concerned over “the resurgence of racist movements and far-right extremism in multiple regions of the world through repeated acts of provocation by supporters of the far-right insulting Islamic religious symbols and sanctities”.
Sweden has faced widespread condemnation in the Islamic world after a man tore up and burned pages of the Quran with police permission outside Stockholm’s Central Mosque on June 28, the first day of Eid Al Adha.
The member states urged OIC Secretary-General Hissein Brahim Taha “to consider conducting an official visit to Stockholm and the European Union Commission to express the condemnation of the incident” and ask them to prevent such acts under the pretext of freedom of expression.
The OIC called for placing the desecration of the holy book and Islamic symbols on the agenda of the coordination meeting of the OIC foreign ministers on the sidelines of the upcoming United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York and the Islamic summit in Gambia for taking further measures against Islamophobia.
It welcomed the convening of an international conference on Islamophobia and anti-Muslim discrimination from August 22 to 23 in Kuala Lumpur in coordination with the OIC General Secretariat. – BERNAMA
