Anti-Islam protests by some far-right individuals in Sweden and the Netherlands have shocked and offended Muslims around the world. The Muslim world has strongly denounced these acts and condemned inaction on the part of authorities in those countries for allowing these provocative acts to take place under the pretext of freedom of speech.
Like many other Arab and Muslim countries, Qatar has also strongly reacted to these offensive acts and sought an end to it. A Cabinet meeting yesterday reiterated Qatar’s strong condemnation and denunciation of the Swedish and Dutch authorities’ permission to extremists to publicly desecrate copies of the Holy Quran.
The Cabinet stressed that such disgraceful acts and heinous crimes committed under the pretext of freedom of expression, are inconsistent with values, morals, civilized behavior, and the duty to respect others’ beliefs and sanctities; provoke the feelings of millions of Muslims around the world; and fuel hatred, extremism and strife at a time the world is in a dire need of spreading the spirits of tolerance, brotherhood and peaceful coexistence among countries and nations.
Allowing such provocative acts to take place also undermines the global efforts to promote tolerance and coexistence among the peoples. It also jeopardizes dialogue between different faiths, cultures and mutual respect between them. The Cabinet has called on the international community to take steps including legislation to ensure respect for faiths and check Islamophobia in some countries.
In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned that hate campaigns against Islam and Islamophobic speeches have witnessed a dangerous escalation with the continued systematic calls for targeting Muslims around the world.
Qatar has opposed and rejected all forms of hate speech based on belief, race, or religion and dragging sanctities into political disputes. Qatar has also actively promoted values of tolerance and coexistence based on its keenness to establish the principles of international peace and security through dialogue and understanding. To that end, it has instituted Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue, an institution working in fields including interfaith and intercultural dialogue. The center aims to promote peaceful coexistence and tolerance and activate religious values to address issues and problems that concern humanity.
Desecration of religious texts, symbols and sanctities threatens peace, coexistence, and only serves to strengthen extremist elements. It is time that the Muslim world as well as the global community took action to prevent such provocative acts.
