Muslim Leaders at UN Criticize West Over Quran Burnings

(Patria) - Muslim leaders addressing the United Nations have condemned the West over Quran burnings, denouncing acts protected as free speech as discriminatory.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Western countries are experiencing a “plague” of racism, including Islamophobia, AFP reported.

“It has reached unbearable levels,” he told the UN General Assembly.

“Unfortunately, populist politicians in many countries continue to play with fire by encouraging such dangerous trends,” Erdogan said.

“The mentality that encourages heinous attacks on the holy Quran in Europe, by allowing them under the guise of freedom of expression, is in fact darkening (Europe’s) own future with its own hands,” he added.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, an imam representing the Shiite theocratic state, held up a Quran at the UN podium.

“The fires of disrespect will not overcome the divine truth,” Raisi said, accusing the West of trying to “distract attention with the tool of freedom of speech.”

“Islamophobia and the cultural apartheid witnessed in Western countries, visible in actions ranging from desecration of the holy Quran to the ban on wearing the hijab in schools, and numerous other regrettable discriminations are not worthy of human dignity,” Raisi said.

He was alluding to France, which banned Muslim women from wearing the hijab in schools.
The emir of Qatar, a wealthy kingdom with close ties to both the West and the rest of the Islamic world, said in his speech that “intentionally violating the sanctity of others” should not be considered freedom of expression.

“I would tell my Muslim brothers that it is impossible for us to be bothered by an idiot or a bigoted person whenever he feels like provoking us by burning the holy Quran or other forms of triviality,” said the emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

“The Quran is too sacred to be desecrated by an unreasonable person,” he added.