Pope Francis condemned the burning of the Holy Quran in Sweden, saying the heinous act “angered and disgusted” him and refusing to recognize it as a form of free speech.
The remarks were made in response to the most recent incident of Quran desecration in Sweden, in which a man set fire to a copy of the sacred book outside a mosque in the country’s capital city last week.
“Any book considered holy should be respected to respect those who believe in it,” the pope said in an interview in the United Arab Emirates newspaper Al Ittihad, published on Monday.
“I feel angry and disgusted at these actions.
“Freedom of speech should never be used as a means to despise others and allowing that is rejected and condemned.”
The heinous burning of the Holy Quran drew harsh condemnation from a number of countries, including Turkey, whose support Sweden requires to join the Nato military alliance.
While Swedish police have recently rejected several applications for anti-Quran demonstrations, courts have overturned those decisions, claiming they violated free speech.
On Sunday, an Islamic grouping of 57 countries stated that collective measures are required to prevent acts of desecration of the Quran and that international law should be used to combat religious hatred.
Saudi summons Swedish ambassador
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia summoned Sweden’s ambassador early Monday to denounce the Quran-burning incident outside a Stockholm mosque, which sparked a diplomatic backlash across the Muslim world.
The kingdom, which is home to Islam’s holiest sites in Makkah and Madina, had already condemned the incident on Wednesday in which an Iraqi citizen living in Sweden, Salwan Momika, 37, stomped on the Muslim holy book and set several pages on fire.
According to the official Saudi Press Agency, the foreign ministry summoned the ambassador on Sunday to urge Sweden to “stop all actions that directly contradict international efforts seeking to spread the values of tolerance, moderation, and rejection of extremism, and undermine the necessary mutual respect for relations between peoples and states.”
Momika’s Quran burning coincided with the start of the Eid ul Adha holiday and the end of Saudi Arabia’s annual Hajj pilgrimage, causing widespread outrage.
In response, Sweden’s ambassadors have been summoned to Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Morocco.
Because of the incident, Iran said on Sunday that it would delay sending its new ambassador to Sweden.
The Saudi-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation called for collective measures to prevent future Koran burnings at an extraordinary meeting on Sunday at its Jeddah headquarters.
Swedish police had granted Momika a permit in line with free speech protections, but authorities later said they had opened an investigation over “agitation against an ethnic group”, noting that Momika had burnt pages from the Islamic holy book very close to the mosque.
Sweden’s government condemned Momika’s actions on Sunday, calling them “Islamophobic”.