According to state media early on Friday, Saudi Arabia summoned a Danish diplomat to denounce the burning of the Koran in Copenhagen by an extreme-right organization.
During the meeting on Thursday with the Danish charge d’affaires, foreign ministry officials delivered a protest note urging an end to “these disgraceful acts, which violate all religious teachings (and) international laws and norms” and can “fuel hatred between religions”, the official Saudi Press Agency said.
On Monday, the far-right organization Danske Patrioter published a video showing a man burning and profaning what appears to be the Muslim holy book.
It was the most recent occurrence of its kind to incite rage among Muslims. The holy cities of Mecca and Medina’s neighbor Saudi Arabia has also condemned the protests of an Iraqi immigrant living in Sweden who burned pages of the Koran outside Stockholm’s largest mosque last month.
Salwan Momika, a refugee, walked on the Koran during a separate demonstration last week but did not burn it, which prompted Riyadh to deliver a protest note to the Swedish charge d’affaires.
A special conference of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), based in Jeddah, has been convened by Saudi Arabia and Iraq to discuss Koran desecration in both Sweden and Denmark. This meeting is anticipated to take place on Monday.
The OIC said in a statement that Sweden’s foreign minister, Tobias Billstrom, called the 57-member organization’s secretary general on Thursday and expressed Stockholm’s rejection of activities that defame the Koran and want to keep friendly ties with OIC countries.
