The news regarding the attacks targeting the Holy Quran in front of the Iraqi Embassy in Stockholm in Sweden, took place in both print and visual media.

Showing discriminatory attitudes to Muslims using their values and holy book Quran is a typical type of discrimination on the basis of religion. European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) has stated that governments have the duty to promote freedom of religion and ensuring that all believers, without exception, can live and thrive in their communities without fear of intolerance and discrimination in its General Policy Recommendation No. 5 on Combating Intolerance and Discrimination Against Muslims.

Within the context of hate crimes, Islamophobia has existed for a long time and frequently comes up. This situation was expressed clearly in the report dated April 13, 2021, published by the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, by stating that hate speeches and crimes towards Islam had reached “epidemic proportions."  As a result of our state playing an effective role in combating Islamophobia and intolerance against Islam in the international media and continuing its efforts in this field, United Nations General Assembly declared March 15 to be observed as "International Day to Combat Islamophobia" in 2022. Another development, which was welcomed by our state, is that UN Human Rights Council describing attacks against Holy Quran as religious hatred on July 12, 2023. Despite these developments, attacks against Muslims and Islam which threaten social peace continues to appear in the news recently. The cessation of these attacks can only be possible through a collective stance embraced by all actors of the international community.

Within this framework, our Institution stated that such fascist actions would constitute a hate crime and condemned the heinous attacks in the press release on the permission of the burning of the Holy Quran in Sweden, which was published on January 21, 2023 in the written and visual media, and emphasized that the act of burning the Quran was not within the scope of freedom of expression.[1] Again, upon the news of permission for burning Quran in Stockholm Embassy in Sweden on January 27, 2023 being seen on the news our Institution highlighted necessity of authorities making the necessary effort to establish social and global peace.[2] Upon the Israeli security forces' raid on Masjid al-Aqsa on April 5, 2023, our Institution shared with the public a press release condemning the attacks on worshipers and places of worship.[3] Our Institution condemned the acts, which violate the freedom of religion and conscience and constitute religious discrimination with the press release regarding attacks against the mosque and Quran in Palestine on June 23, 2023.[4] On March 26, 2023, a similar fascist attack to those that occurred in Sweden at the beginning of 2023 took place in front of the Turkish Embassy in Denmark. In response to this attack, our institution issued a press release emphasizing that the fight against Islamophobia is not at a sufficient level and invited the international community to demonstrate a unified stance.[5]

In addition to the aforementioned statements, due to the increasing Islamophobic incidents, our Institution called for institutional sensitivity regarding human rights violations that may arise from increasing Islamophobia and xenophobia by sending letters to 41 peer National Human Rights Institution officials[6] In the letter our Institution sent to the officials of the peer National Human Rights Institutions as a result of the Quran burning act that took place in Sweden on July 20, 2023, we stated that defending hatred on the basis of religion, ethnicity or race in such a way as to incite discrimination and hostility is incompatible with fundamental human rights principles; underlining that such archaic fascist discourses and acts targeting human dignity and sacred values fuel violence, xenophobia, and marginalization in democratic societies based on pluralism and invited peer institutions to support the UN Human Rights Council's decision of July 12, 2023.

Our Institution, main mission of which is to protection and promotion of human rights, prevention of discrimination and raising awareness in this regard, severely condemns these actions reflected in the media.

Respectfully announced to the public.