By Muhammet Nazım Tasci

ISLAMABAD / BAGHDAD (AA) – Pakistan on Thursday condemned the burning of a copy of the Muslim holy book, the Quran, outside a mosque in Sweden while local police were present, calling it a “despicable act.”

“Pakistan strongly condemns the despicable act of public burning of the Holy Quran outside a mosque in Sweden,” on the first day of the Eid al-Adha, a major Muslim festival, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The statement came after an Iraqi national on Wednesday burned a copy of the Muslim holy book outside a mosque in the Swedish capital of Stockholm.

“Such willful incitement to discrimination, hatred, and violence cannot be justified under the pretext of freedom of expression and protest,” the statement said, adding that “under international law, states are duty bound to prohibit any advocacy of religious hatred, leading to incitement of violence.”

Pakistan reiterated that “the right to freedom of expression and opinion does not provide a license to stoke hatred and sabotage inter-faith harmony.”

The ministry said Pakistan urges both the international community and national governments to take “credible and concrete measures to prevent the rising incidents of xenophobia, Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hatred.”

- Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government slams Sweden

Meanwhile, Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Masrour Barzani condemned the burning of a copy of the Quran in Sweden.

Barzani said in a tweet, "I condemn the burning of the Quran. All heavenly holy books must be respected everywhere. Attempts to disrupt the culture of living together must be prevented."

Later, a crowd gathered in front of the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad to protest the burning of a copy of the Quran.

Some protesters continued their march in the garden of the embassy building.

Earlier, Shiite religious and political leader Muqtada al-Sadr in Iraq called for the expulsion of Sweden's Ambassador to Baghdad and a protest in front of the embassy over what most Muslim leaders described as an Islamophobic act.

On June 12, a Swedish appeals court upheld a lower court's decision to overturn a ban on Quran burning, ruling that police had no legal grounds to prevent two Quran burning protests earlier this year.

In February, police refused permission for two Quran burning attempts, citing security concerns, after far-right Danish politician Rasmus Paludan burned a copy of the Quran outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm in January.

Later, two individuals who attempted to stage provocative actions outside the Iraqi and Turkish embassies in Stockholm appealed the decision.

In April, the Stockholm Administrative Court reversed the decision, ruling that security risks were insufficient to restrict the ability to demonstrate.