Muslims will not answer provocations and attacks through illegal ways, said the final declaration of a meeting of 70 countries after the Quran burning incident in Sweden which sparked worldwide protests and condemnations.
Upon the invitation of the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) head Ali Erbaş, 130 participants from 70 countries attended an online meeting of the World Muslim Leaders and announced a seven-article final declaration.
Maintaining that the attack on the Quran in the Netherlands and Sweden breached laws, beliefs and universal values, Erbaş underlined: “We strongly reject and condemn this abominable attitude. It is shameful and irresponsible to allow the inhuman act in question, even if it is carried out under police protection."
Erbaş’s words came after Sweden allowed weekend protests that included the burning of the Quran outside Ankara's Stockholm Embassy under police protection. The Quran burning was carried out by Rasmus Paludan, leader of the Danish far-right political party Hard Line.
Swedish leaders have roundly condemned the Quran burning but defended their country's broad definition of "free speech."
Meanwhile, the incident in Sweden was protested across the world with Muslim countries announcing condemnations and criticism from the United Nations, United States and Germany.
A planned visit by the Swedish foreign minister and parliament speaker to Türkiye was canceled following the tensions.
This was followed by a similar incident when Dutch politician Edwin Wagensveld, head of the far-right PEGIDA, tore pages out of the holy book before setting them on fire.
Wagensveld claimed in the video that he received permission from local authorities for “the destruction of the Quran” in front of the parliamentary building in The Hague.
“It is clear that the discourse of freedom and the claim of democracy in a place where attacks on beliefs and sanctities have become common are nothing but hypocrisy and double standards,” Erbaş said, adding that Muslims are concerned about an increase in attacks on Islam in Europe.
“It is a complete mental eclipse that authorities prefer to remain insensitive, use it as a political material and support hostile attitudes instead of solving this problem,” he further said and indicated that these incidents would negatively affect coexistence.
The incident also cast a shadow on Sweden and Finland’s NATO bids.
Finland's foreign minister said on Wednesday that he hoped Finland's and Sweden's NATO ratification process would be completed ahead of the alliance's Vilnius summit in July, despite the row with Türkiye.
Ankara on Tuesday postponed NATO accession talks with Sweden and Finland, after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan condemned Stockholm for allowing the burning of the Quran outside Türkiye’s Swedish embassy.
But Finland's Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said at a press conference in Latvia with his counterpart Edgars Rinkevics, "We expect that toward the Vilnius NATO summit, the ratification of both Finland and Sweden could continue."
Haavisto acknowledged the protests had caused "hiccups" in Türkiye’s ratification timetable but said the Nordic country was "working closely with Sweden on this issue."
"With Türkiye, we don't currently have a timetable," he said, adding that Türkiye’s elections in mid-May "might be part of the delay. But we see a short time slot after the elections and before the Vilnius summit where we hope the process of ratification could continue," Haavisto added.
