The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Monday strongly condemned desecration of the Holy Quran and urged the government to raise this matter at international fora. “It is a vile act of racism, the business community strongly condemns this tragic incident and urges the international community to take a strong stand against this ugly act as this is not the freedom of expression but the terrorism”, the LCCI President Kashif Anwar, Senior Vice President Zafar Mahmood Chaudhry and Vice President Adnan Khalid Butt said in a statement. They said that it is a good omen that the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) immediately convened a meeting but a unanimous strategy by the world is direly needed to stop such vile acts. The LCCI office-bearers said that desecration of the Holy Quran or any other holy book is a crime. They said that racism and xenophobia should not have any place in any part of the world. “The Muslims respect everyone and everyone should respect Muslims”, they added. They said that such an act contradicted international efforts to spread the tolerance and peace. They said that all the countries around the globe should take effective measures to avoid such ugly acts. The office-bearers of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that such willful despicable act cannot be justified under the pretext of freedom of expression. They said that the government should conveyed the concern about the ugly act to the international community and should also demand concrete measures to prevent the rising incidents of Islamophobia as the act has hurt the sentiments of billions of Muslims.