The Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Curses the Burning of the Koran: Very Offensive to Muslims, Doesn't Reflect the View of the Government

The extraordinary meeting of the OIC discussing the burning of the Qur'an in Sweden. (Twitter/@OIC_OCI)

JAKARTA - The Swedish government on Sunday condemned last week's burning of the Koran outside Stockholm's main mosque, calling it an act of "Islamophobia".

Sweden's foreign minister spoke after the international Islamic state cooperation agency called for measures to avoid future arsons.

"The Swedish government fully understands that Islamophobic acts committed by individuals at demonstrations in Sweden can offend Muslims," ​​the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, citing The National News, July 3.

"We strongly condemn this action, which in no way reflects the views of the Swedish government," the ministry continued.

The condemnation came in response to calls for collective action to avoid future burning of the Koran by the Saudi-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

The 57-member body met at its headquarters in Jeddah, in response to an incident Wednesday in which an Iraqi living in Sweden, Salwan Momika, 37, stepped on Islamic holy books and burned several pages.

The organization urged member states to "take integrated and collective measures to prevent the recurrence of incidents of desecration of copies" of the Koran, it said after an extraordinary meeting.

"The burning of the Koran, or other sacred texts, is an offensive and disrespectful act and a clear provocation," the Swedish Foreign Ministry said.

"Expressions of racism, xenophobia and related intolerance have no place in Sweden or in Europe," the ministry said.

The ministry added that Sweden guarantees "the constitutionally protected rights to freedom of assembly, expression and demonstration".

It was learned that Swedish police had granted permission to Momika in line with free speech protections, but authorities later said they had opened an investigation into "incitement against an ethnic group".

It was recorded that Momika had burned pages of the Islamic holy book in a location very close to the mosque.

In the aftermath of the burning of the Koran, countries such as Iraq, Kuwait, UAE and Morocco have summoned the Swedish Ambassador to protest the incident of burning the Koran.

On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said Tehran was delaying sending its new ambassador to Sweden, Hojjatollah Faghani, following the arson.