Turkey’s Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan, held a telephone conversation with his Saudi counterpart, Faisal bin Farhan, on Saturday to discuss preparations for the upcoming extraordinary meeting of the Executive Committee of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The meeting is scheduled for Sunday in the Saudi city of Jeddah.
According to the Turkish Anadolu Agency, the meeting will address the incident of burning the Quran in Stockholm, Sweden, on the first day of Eid al-Adha. The ministers discussed issues related to combating Islamophobia and cooperation on regional matters.
It’s noteworthy that the Swedish authorities had granted permission for a Quran copy to be burnt in front of a mosque in Stockholm on the first day of Eid al-Adha. This came two weeks after a Swedish appellate court refused to ban protests organized for burning the Quran.
The Quran-burning incident, carried out by a 37-year-old Swedish man of Iraqi origin, sparked widespread condemnation in the Arab and Muslim world.
Last Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed Russia’s deep respect for the Quran and the religious sentiments of Muslims, considering disrespect for this holy book in Russia a crime.
Earlier, Vyacheslav Volodin, the Speaker of the Russian State Duma, proposed issuing a resolution condemning the actions of the Swedish authorities that allowed protests aimed at burning the Quran.
