UN rights council to confront Sweden Quran burning

The UN Human Rights Council will hold an urgent session to address the burning of the Quran following an incident in Stockholm that sparked global outrage, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

A Quran was burnt outside the Swedish capital's main mosque on June 28, triggering a diplomatic backlash across the Muslim world.

Pakistan and other nations called for a discussion of "the alarming rise in premeditated and public acts of religious hatred as manifested by recurrent desecration of the Holy Quran in some European and other countries."

Salwan Momika, 37, who fled from Iraq to Sweden several years ago, stomped on the Muslim holy book and set several pages alight in Stockholm.

His actions came as Muslims around the world began marking the Eid al-Adha holiday and as the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia was drawing to a close.

The Geneva-based Human Rights Council meets for three regular sessions per year. The UN's top rights body is currently in the second session, which runs until July 14.

The 47-member council will change its agenda to stage an urgent debate, following a request from Pakistan.

"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," council spokesman Pascal Sim told reporters.

Khalil Hashmi, Pakistan's ambassador in Geneva, wrote to the council president on Monday on behalf of the 19 members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation who are also on the council, plus other OIC countries, to request an urgent debate.

'Immediate action'

Hashmi said the "provocative acts" on June 28 had been widely condemned and strongly rejected worldwide.

"These unabated incidents demand immediate action by the Human Rights Council," he said.

While recognising the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the OIC group wants action to prevent recurrences and the development of legal deterrence measures.

The group also intends to present a draft resolution for adoption by the council members as an outcome of the debate, and promised to circulate the draft text shortly.

Algeria, Malaysia, Qatar, Sudan, Somalia and the United Arab Emirates are among the 19 OIC countries on the 47-member Human Rights Council.

At an extraordinary meeting on Sunday at its Jeddah headquarters in Saudi Arabia, the OIC called for collective measures to avoid future Quran burnings.

The Swedish government on Sunday condemned last week's Quran burning as "Islamophobic".

But it added in a foreign ministry statement that Sweden had a "constitutionally-protected right to freedom of assembly, expression and demonstration".

Countries including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco have summoned Swedish ambassadors in protest.