Archbishop Hanna: ‘Insulting religious figures cannot be considered freedom of expression’

Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Sebastia in Jerusalem Archbishop Atallah Hanna stressed: “It is painful and shameful nowadays for someone to burn the Qur’an in Sweden and to believe that this is heroism and freedom of expression. It is also unfortunate that the Swedish authorities have allowed this, and this is something that cannot be justified and accepted in any way.”

In a press statement, Hanna asserted: “We consider what happened not to be an attack on the Qur’an and Muslims alone, but rather an attack on the human, moral and civilised values that everyone must possess. Religious symbols are sacred, and insulting religions cannot be considered freedom of expression.”

He added: “We express our condemnation and denunciation of this unjustified and unacceptable act, which should not affect the fraternal relations that bind members of all religions in our world. Individual acts of this kind should not affect the culture of love and brotherhood, especially since an act of this kind represents only those who committed it and a limited group of people who believe in these ideas, which are a combination of backwardness, extremism, hatred and other manifestations of negativity.”

Bishop Hanna urged: “This act falls within the framework of inhumane and uncivilised practices aimed at stirring up strife in our world and spreading a culture of hatred among people. Therefore, we must reject actions of this kind, and we must not allow any party to exploit this heinous act to spread a culture of hate and racism in our societies.”

Hanna condemned the actions by criticising: “It is a completely unacceptable act, and we assert our rejection of any insult to religions and religious symbols.”

“Our world has different religions and multiple sects, and we demand that there be coexistence and cooperation among all those who belong to these in the service of humanity and in service of just issues, foremost of which is the Palestinian cause,” he expressed.

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