AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Iran says it "wholeheartedly" supports an initiative by Pakistan’s government to designate July 7 as the “Day of Honoring the Holy Qur'an” against the backdrop of recent Western-backed provocative attempts to desecrate the sacred Muslim book.
“The decision of the esteemed government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to introduce and celebrate July 7, 2023 as the Day of Honoring the Holy Qur'an is a worthy, befitting and pertinent initiative,” the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Islamabad said in a statement on Friday.
The statement underlined that desecrating the Qur'an, the holy book of the largest religious community in the world, or insulting any sacred symbol of divine religions, is a deplorable, ignorant, and biased act aimed at inciting public opinion and promoting misuse of freedom of expression.
“It is crucial to acknowledge that desecrating the Holy Quran represents an affront to the holy books of all divine religions,” the embassy said.
“We firmly believe such biased actions seek to incite public opinion, generate instability, create violence and spread hatred. Undoubtedly, this biased way of inciting public opinion through insulting the holy symbols, which are meant to destabilize the Muslim world and create human legal cases, should be countered and neutralized.”
The Iranian Embassy also called on all of the faithful people and free thinkers worldwide to join in a unified effort to denounce the desecration.
“Islamophobia, the insulting of sacred elements and symbols of the divine religions, and the desecration of holy books should be halted through political synergy, legal procedures and appropriate didactic instructions as these actions provide fertile ground for the spreading of hatred and violence, ideological clashes, destabilization and the anguish of countless religious individuals worldwide,” the statement said.
“To rectify this situation, it is imperative to employ coordinated and unifying measures such as clarification, explanation, education, legal procedures and dialogue. These constructive approaches will pave the way for correcting the current state of affairs,” it added.
The statement came more than a week after a man burned a copy of the Qur'an outside the Stockholm Central Mosque as Muslims were celebrating Eid al-Adha, one of the major feasts that is marked at the end of the Hajj pilgrimage.
The sacrilegious act, which was greenlighted by the Swedish authorities, was strongly condemned by Muslim and non-Muslim states who have urged Stockholm to prevent similar incidents.
Tens of thousands of people held rallies across Pakistan on Friday to condemn the desecration of the holy book in Sweden.
The country's northwestern city of Peshawar and other major cities were the scene of mass protests. The demonstrations were held after Friday prayers with citizens expressing anger at the incident.
Earlier this week, a joint session of Pakistan's Parliament passed a resolution urging Sweden to take “appropriate steps” against the perpetrators of the incident in Stockholm.
On Friday, Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif underscored the significance of the protests as they have been taking place nationwide over the past week, including by political parties, lawyers and the Christian community.
Sharif announced in a tweet that he had conveyed Pakistan’s strong condemnation of such Islamophobic acts to Hissein Ibrahim Taha, the secretary-general of the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC).
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