The Iranian Foreign Ministry has strongly condemned the burning of a copy of the Quran, which occurred in Sweden this week amid an event of the right-wing Stram Kurs (Hard Line) party in the Swedish city of Linkoping.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran strongly condemns the burning of the sacred word of God (the Quran) in the Swedish city of Linkoping by a Danish racist and extremist element that has occurred under the pretext of freedom of speech with the support of that country’s police”, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Sunday, as quoted by Tasnim News Agency.
He added that such insulting moves in the holy month of Ramadan hurt the feelings of Muslims in Sweden and across the globe.
Khatibzadeh expects that the Swedish government will take “immediate, strong and explicit” action against the perpetrators of the action.
Iran is not the only country to denounce the Rasmus Paludan's party, with the Malaysian Foreign Ministry issuing a statement on Sunday saying that the action had gone beyond moral limits and norms of the right to freedom of speech and expression.
"Such action is provocative and incites hatred that must be rejected by all who seek peace and promote peaceful coexistence", the ministry said.
Protests in Sweden broke out on Thursday after the right-wing Hard Line party announced plans to burn the Quran during a rally. Following the announcement, Paludan, said to be accompanied by the police, went to an open public space in an area with a large Muslim population and burned the Quran.
On Friday, during the riots in connection with the action of Paludan in the city of Orebro, 12 policemen were injured, several patrol cars were set on fire. Eight people were detained in the Rinkeby suburb of Stockholm during similar protests.
On Saturday, around 100 demonstrators threw stones, set cars, tires, and dustbins on fire, and put up a barrier fence that obstructed road traffic, amid the anti-Islamic action of Danish-Swedish politician Paludan. To disperse the demonstrators, law enforcement officers used pepper spray.