Desecration of the Holy Quran at the hands of an American priest is an act deserving of condemnation in the strongest possible words. This act has injured the feelings of over 1.5 billion Muslims and the civilized world. The United Nations needs to take up this issue and form an international covenant to avoid the repeat of such reprehensible event. Minhaj-ul-Quran International joins the peace-loving nations and individuals in condemning this act and calls for urgent steps to defeat the designs of nefarious elements.

These views were expressed by Dr Raheeq Abbasi in a statement issued from MQI’s Directorate of Media.

Dr Abbasi said that desecration of holy Books and personages belonging to any religion is unacceptable and violation of the norms of freedom of expression, decency, and civilized behaviour. He said that these acts also damage the efforts aimed at building bridges and harmony between civilizations and communities and strengthen the hands of extremists. He maintained that the world needs peace and interfaith harmony to come out of the turbulent times at this point in history and all nations and societies must strive to attain this shared goal. “The individual acts of a few people in any part of the world must not be allowed to succeed and the spoil the spirit of goodwill and harmony,” he held.

Dr Abbasi expressed his satisfaction at the fact that this heinous act drew widespread condemnation from across the globe. He underlined the need of exercising caution in our protests and reactions and refrain from taking recourse to violence as it would be tantamount to acting according to script of the perverted people who want to spread mayhem and bloodshed through their actions.