UNITED NATIONS, July 26. /TASS/. The UN General Assembly has adopted a resolution on promoting interreligious dialogue, which, among other things, strongly deplores any acts aimed against holy books and recognizes such incidents to be a violation of the international law, a spokesperson for the assembly’s president has said.
The document, headlined ‘Promoting interreligious and intercultural dialogue and tolerance in countering hate speech,’ has a paragraph, which is "strongly deploring all acts of violence against persons on the basis of their religion or belief, as well as any such acts directed against their religious symbols, holy books, homes, businesses, properties, schools, cultural centres or places of worship, as well as all attacks on and in religious places, sites and shrines in violation of international law."
Paulina Kubiak, the spokesperson for the President of the 76th Session of the General Assembly, said the delegate from Spain requested for the last words of that paragraph - "in violation of international law" - to be removed from the text, but other nations rejected this initiative.
In her words, "the resolution was adopted by consensus."
Although similar documents were adopted during the General Assembly’s previous sessions, the provision related to religious symbols and holy books is a new one.
A small group of protesters burned a Quran in front of the Iraqi embassy in Copenhagen on Monday. The action was carried out by the right-wing group Danish Patriots, Reuters reported. They also burned the Muslim holy book at the same location on July 21.
The burning of the Quran took place during a police-authorized demonstration in Stockholm’s Medborgarplatsen Square on June 28. Salwan Momika, a 37-year-old Iraqi immigrant, tore pages from the Quran and set it on fire. On that day, Muslims around the world were celebrating Eid al-Adha, one of Islam’s major religious holidays. This act triggered a strong negative reaction from the population and authorities of Islamic countries, especially Arab countries. In this regard, Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized that Russia deeply respects the Quran and religious beliefs of Muslims, and noted that disrespect for this holy book is a crime in the Russian Federation.
On July 19, Swedish authorities gave permission for a similar action to be held in Stockholm on July 20. This time Momika intended to burn a copy of the Quran and the Iraqi national flag. As a TASS correspondent reported, the immigrant kicked the holy book, but did not burn it. On Thursday night, the Swedish embassy in Baghdad was attacked by protesters unhappy with Stockholm's decision to allow the new action. The Iraqi government later decided to expel the country’s ambassador.