Bangladesh condemns desecration of holy book of Koran in Netherlands

Bangladesh on Thursday strongly condemned the desecration of the holy book of Koran by a Far-Right Activist in The Hague, Netherlands. The Foreign Ministry of the Asian country expressed its grave concern over this heinous incident and rejected any act of insult to the sacred values and religious symbols of Muslims.

Edwin Wagensveld, the leader of the far-right Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West (PEGIDA) group, destroyed and set fire to a copy of the Koran on Monday. This had sparked a wave of outrage in the Muslim world, already outraged by the burning of the holy book by another ultra-rightist in Sweden just three days earlier.

Rasmus Paludan, the Danish lawyer lawyer who also holds Swedish nationality, had publicly burned a copy of the Muslim holy book in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm. He defended his act as his right for freedom of expression and sparked riots in the holy week.

Bangladesh is a Muslim-majority country and is home to nearly 90 percent of its 170 million people who profess the teachings of Muhammed. Last year, the country had seen thousands of protestors demanding the arrest and punishment of the ruling members of India’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for their remarks on the Prophet.

The Asian country further added that any act of desecration of the holy book of Muslims, no matter of what religion, at any circumstances cannot be tolerated.