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Rena Murshud

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Sweden is the next destination for incessant provocations. And the crime, motivated by Islamophobia, racism and discrimination, took place a few days ago in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden.

Recall that a few months ago news came about a Swedish man who burned the holy book Quran in his hand outside the main mosque in Stockholm. It is no coincidence that the crime was committed on Eid al-Fitr, a special holiday in Islam. Needless to get surprised, if next provocation is said to have been committed on another Muslim holiday - Eid-al-Adha...deliberate or just by chance..?

The desecration of the Muslim holy book - Quran took place outside the Swedish capital Stockholm’s main mosque last week and was carried out by a man during a protest authorised by the police. Believe or not believe, I would say there is something strange as things are repeated under the accompaniment of the state police.

Following the events, many countries expressed their protests against the both provocations, among which Turkiye was the one that strongly condemned the crime and called on the Swedish authorities to take the necessary measures against the perpetrators of such a hate crime.

Note that the both provocations, including the Quran burning and the recent one in Sweden became the main topic of discussion at the ministerial meeting of the Coordinating Bureau of the Non-Aligned Movement, held at the Baku Congress Center. The Ministers of many states strongly condemned this provocation and stressed that such actions are unacceptable and must be strongly condemned. The importance of a more active fight against such manifestations of Islamophobia was also emphasized.

It should be noted that an expert's opinion on the issue was also studied. In his comment for Azernews on the issue, an expert in theology, journalist Rasul Mirhashim noted that the Islamic world already is alerted of the game behind this approach of the West.

“All provocations have a purposeful reason. I think this incident is an attempt to provoke the Muslims. But first of all, it should be noted that although Muslims were sensitive to such provocations before and became enraged, now they ignore such provocations of the West and many countries," he said.

Later, the expert linked this event with both provocation and ignorance. “This provocation is not only a matter of disrespect for the Holy Quran, but in general for all religious books, as well as disrespect for the faith of an individual and society, as well as an issue generated by the ignorance of people,” he added.

Speaking about the Holy Qur'an, which contains all the heavenly religions, the expert said that burning the Qur'an means disrespecting not only Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.H), but also Prophet Jesus and mother Mary.

“Those who engage in sabotage have sunk to such a low level that they are busy creating sabotage against other people's religious books. Allah mentions in the Holy Quran:

“Indeed, We have created man in the most beautiful form. Then We made him the lowest of the lowest (sent him to hell) *** لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الْإِنْسَانَ فِي أَحْسَنِ تَقْوِيمٍ. رَدَدْنَاهُ أَسْفَلَ ***

In other words, the fact that a person behaves worse than an animal comes from the essence of the person himself.

Speaking about the Western approach to this issue, the expert said that European countries should take heed of this issue.

“Provocations that occur in front of the police must be prevented in advance, they must prosecute people who attack the belief of a society. It is the duty of all countries,” the expert emphasized.

Rasul Mirhashim also emphasized that although the propaganda of atheism is prohibited in the constitutions of some US states, at the present time everyone has the right to freely choose their faith.

“No one can condemn another person because of his religion or force him to something contrary to his thoughts. Everyone must respect the beliefs of others, because everyone has freedom of choice,” he noted.

In conclusion, the expert said that if any country wants to become a member of NATO, and at the same time is involved in such provocations in Muslim countries, then first of all it should realize that it causes damage firstly to its own country. In a nutshell, Western countries are directly responsible for this provocation.

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Rena Murshud is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @RenaTagiyeva

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