ISLAMABAD: On Saturday, Pakistan welcomed the remarkable decision by the Danish government to propose a bill to ban the burning of the Holy Quran and other religious books and called it a “step in the right direction.”
Following several cases in which Islam’s holy book was desecrated, which outraged Muslim nations, Denmark said a day earlier that it would outlaw the burning of religious texts, including the Holy Quran.
The Foreign Office (FO) stated in a statement that Pakistan has consistently held that the destruction and burning of holy books is a “serious act of religious hatred, which must not be allowed under the guise of freedom of opinion, expression, and protest.”
The statement said, “Such provocative acts must be stopped and outlawed through legal measures, as required by international human rights legislation and requested by the UN Human Rights Council.”
The FO claimed that recent incidences of the Holy Quran’s desecration have harmed the feelings of more than 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide. Such heinous deeds are done to cause conflict amongst groups of people and undermine interfaith peace and respect. National governments must take every necessary action to stop these acts of xenophobia, Islamophobia, and religious intolerance.
“We hope that the action taken by Denmark today will result in strong laws to stop the desecration of the Holy Quran and other holy books. We also hope that other nations would follow and take similar actions to make such disgusting acts illegal,” it continued.
Lars Lokke Rasmussen, the foreign minister of Denmark, spoke with Jalil Abbas Jilani, his counterpart in Pakistan, today, as stated in the statement.
The latter applauded the proposed legislation from the Danish government and hoped that, when passed, it would promote interfaith harmony and end the culture of hatred among people of different religious beliefs.
Jilani tweeted to X (formerly Twitter) earlier today: “Pakistan appreciates the Danish govt’s proposed legislation to criminalize improper treatment of religious texts and objects of significant importance, including the Holy Quran.”
He added that Rasmussen had reiterated the Danish government’s commitment to respecting religious sensitivities.
