The United Nations warned against the spread of hate speech “of all kinds” during an emergency session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, against the background of the burning of a copy of the Noble Qur’an in Sweden.
Pakistan requested holding the session on behalf of several OIC member states hoping for a decision on this issue.
At the outset of Tuesday’s session, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said the burning of the Qur’an in Stockholm and other similar incidents “seem to be aimed at expressing contempt, provoking anger, creating dissension and provocation.”
He added that the destruction of religious sites and the burning of sacred texts “have been used for centuries to insult and provoke people.”
The High Commissioner for Human Rights noted that “hate speech of all kinds is on the rise everywhere” in the world, “driven by the tidal forces of social media, in a context of growing controversy and polarization internationally and locally.”
While “restriction of any kind of speech or expression should remain an exception,” Volker Türk noted that international law requires states to “prohibit any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred.”
But he stressed that “any domestic restriction on the prevailing right to freedom of opinion and expression must be placed in such a way that its sole aim and result is the protection of individuals.”
On June 28, an Iraqi refugee in Sweden, Silwan Momica, burned pages from a copy of the Quran in front of Stockholm’s largest mosque during Eid al-Adha.
The Swedish police had allowed the gathering during which the Qur’an was burned, but later opened an investigation on charges of “inciting against an ethnic group” because the burning took place in front of a mosque.
This incident sparked condemning reactions in the Islamic world, and countries, including Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco, summoned the ambassadors of Sweden in protest.
Source: National Iraqi News Agency