The Government of Pakistan on Tuesday announced it will observe July 7 (Friday) as Yaum-e-Taqaddus-e-Quran (Day for Protection of the holy Quran’s Sanctity) to register the country’s protest over the desecration of a copy of the holy book in Sweden last week.
Additionally, it said, a joint session of Parliament would be convened on July 6 (Thursday) to convey the nation’s shock and grief through its highest representative forum. The joint session, it said, would adopt a resolution to condemn the desecration incident, which occurred in Stockholm during Eidul Azha.
According to a statement issued after a meeting of the federal cabinet, the government said demonstrations would be organized across Pakistan on Friday to condemn the incident. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in an address to the cabinet, urged the nation, including all political parties, to take part in the protest to convey a “message of unity to mischievous minds.” He further instructed the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), of which he is president, to hold rallies across the country on Friday to mark their protest. “The sanctity of the holy Quran is an integral part of our faith and all Muslims are united in grief” over the sacrilege in Sweden, he said, regretting that “misguided” individuals were being used to execute a “nefarious” agenda of Islamophobia.
“Nations and leaders believing in peace and coexistence should try to contain the violent forces out to sow hatred against Muslims,” he said. “The violent mindset targeting religions, sacred personalities, beliefs and ideologies are enemies of peace,” he said, and urged all those committed to peace and inter-faith harmony to play their role for ridding humanity of such troublemakers.
Earlier, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan had also announced his party would stage “peaceful” protests against the desecration of the Quran in Sweden.
Pakistan has already strongly condemned the “despicable act” of the public burning of a copy of the holy Quran, with the Foreign Office stressing that the “incitement to discrimination, hatred and violence” could not be justified under any pretext. “The recurrence of such Islamophobic incidents during the last few months in the West calls into serious question the legal framework which permits such hate-driven actions,” it said, emphasizing that the right to freedom of expression and opinion does not grant a license to stoke hatred and sabotage inter-faith harmony.
U.N. response
Also on Tuesday, the U.N. Human Rights Council announced it would hold an urgent session at Pakistan’s request to address the desecration of the holy Quran. In a press conference, a spokesman said Pakistan and other nations had called for a discussion of “the alarming rise in premeditated and public acts of religious hatred” as manifested by repeated incidents of desecration of the Quran in some Western states.
“The urgent debate will most likely be convened this week at a date and time to be determined by the bureau of the Human Rights Council that is meeting today,” the spokesman added.