OIC suspends Sweden's special envoy status

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) said on Sunday that it has informed the government in Stockholm that it has suspended Sweden’s special envoy status to the organisation after the desecration of copies of the Holy Qur’an by protesters in the North European country.

The OIC has 57 Muslim-majority countries in its membership. The general secretariat of the organisation said that this step comes in line with the recommendations of the final communique issued by the OIC Executive Committee’s extraordinary meeting held on 2 July.

“The meeting asked Secretary-General H.E. Hissein Brahim Taha to consider possible steps to review the official framework linking the general secretariat to any country in which copies of the Holy Qur’an or other Islamic values and symbols are desecrated with the consent of the authorities concerned,” said the OIC, “including suspending the status of the special envoy.”

The Saudi-based organisation added that Taha informed the Swedish government of this decision in a letter addressed to the minister of foreign affairs in Stockholm. He welcomed the measures taken by some of the organisation’s member states to protest against the recurrence of attacks on Islamic sanctities.

“The secretary-general called on all member states to take the sovereign decisions they deem appropriate to express their position condemning the granting by the Swedish authorities of licences that enabled the repeated abuse of the sanctity of the Holy Qur’an and Islamic symbols,” concluded the organisation, “and to express the OIC states’ rejection of such disgraceful acts [carried out] under the pretext of freedom of expression.”

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