The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) criticized Sweden and Denmark's response to the repeated Quran desecrations on Monday, as the Swedish leader said the two countries are in discussions about a possible ban on such acts.
The OIC on Monday met to address Quran desecrations and voiced "disappointment" with Sweden and Denmark's response.
Secretary-General Hissein Brahim Taha called on both countries to prevent Quran desecration and "expressed his disappointment that no measures were taken in this regard so far", the 57-member, Jeddah-based body said.
"It is unfortunate that the concerned authorities claiming freedom of expression continue to provide licenses to repeat these acts contrary to international law, and this leads to a lack of respect for religions," Taha said.
Ahead of Monday's OIC meeting, both Sweden and Denmark reached out to try to calm tensions.
On Thursday, Taha received a phone call from Sweden's foreign minister, Tobias Billstrom, who said Stockholm rejects acts that insult the Quran and wants to maintain good relations with OIC members, the organization said in a statement.
On Sunday, Taha received a call from Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, who also "condemned" insults to the Quran and said his government was "studying this issue with great interest", the OIC said.
Last week, Sweden ordered 15 government bodies including the armed forces, several law enforcement agencies and the tax office to strengthen anti-terrorism efforts.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said he was in close contact with his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen about a possible ban.
"We are in the most serious security situation since World War II, and we know here that both states, state-like actors and individuals can take advantage of the situation," Kristersson wrote on Instagram on Sunday evening.
Earlier, the Danish government announced that it would consider legal remedies to ban Koran burnings in front of foreign embassies.
Religions are allowed to be criticized, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said. "But if you stand in front of a foreign embassy and burn a Quran or in front of the Israeli embassy you burn the Torah scroll, it serves no purpose other than to ridicule." This, however, endangers the collective security of the country, he said.
Iraqi refugee Salwan Momika, who previously came under fire for desecrating the Quran in Sweden, set the Muslim holy book on fire again, this time in front of the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm on Monday.
Momika and Salwan Najem stomped on the Muslim holy book, set its pages ablaze before slamming it shut, as they did at a protest outside Stockholm's main mosque in June – sparking outrage across the Middle East.
The duo also staged a similar protest outside Iraq's embassy in Stockholm on July 20, where they stomped on the religious text but did not burn it.
Swedish police granted a permit for the protest by campaigners hoping to see the Quran banned in the country.
"I want to protest in front in front of Sweden's parliament and demand that the Quran be banned," organizer Najem wrote in the application, which has been viewed by AFP, adding that he would "burn the Quran there."
As at earlier protests, Momika and Najem were the only participants, with a small group of counter-protesters gathering outside the police cordon, according to an AFP reporter at the scene.
Around a dozen counter-protesters held up copies of the Quran, with some waving Iraqi flags, and shouted at Momika, who just as at earlier events wore sunglasses and grinned defiantly while taunting them.
During the protest, Momika also stomped on a picture of Shiite Muslim cleric and political leader Moqtada Sadr – whose followers had stormed Sweden's embassy in Baghdad in response to previous desecrations. They had started fires within the compound the night before the July protest.
The Iraqi prime minister and the president "vehemently condemned the repeated acts of desecration" of the Quran.
They called on the countries where the attacks took place to take a "firmer position and put an end to these criminal practices."
"We saw him standing there again and yelling stuff about the Quran and about Islam, playing with the Quran, and honestly it's all for attention and it's pretty obvious," Tamazight El Yaakoubi, an 18-year-old law student from the Netherlands, told AFP.
"Before we came here we were pretty scared, we were like, 'Quran burned down, why?'" added the Muslim visitor.
"But when we came here almost everyone is full of love and everyone is very respectful."
Sweden has already seen its diplomatic relations with several Middle Eastern nations strained over previous protests involving Quran desecrations.
Swedish police have previously stressed they only grant permits for people to hold public gatherings and not for the activities conducted during the events.
Both previous protests have led to widespread outrage and condemnations.
Recently, small groups burned copies of the Quran during Islamophobic actions in Sweden and Denmark. This led to angry protests and threats in several Muslim countries.
Reactions were particularly strong in Iraq, whose government expelled the Swedish ambassador. Earlier, demonstrators in Baghdad broke into the Swedish embassy and set fire to it.
In Denmark, far-right group Danske Patrioter last week posted a video in which a man is seen desecrating and burning what appears to be the Quran and trampling an Iraqi flag.
The incidents have stoked unrest in Iraq, where hundreds of demonstrators stormed the Swedish embassy earlier this month and set fires within the compound.
The Danish Refugee Council has said its office in the southern Iraqi city of Basra came under "armed attack" in response to the Danske Patrioter video.
Governments across the region have also expressed their outrage.
Iraq expelled Sweden's ambassador and Iran said it would not allow a new Swedish ambassador into the country.
Saudi Arabia, home to the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina, has in recent weeks summoned Swedish and Danish diplomats to deliver protest notes denouncing "disgraceful" acts against the Quran.
Meanwhile, Sweden's migration authority announced last week that it would re-examine Iraqi refugee Momika's residency status following his provocative acts.
