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05-07-2023
GENEVA/ UNITED NATIONS: Amid world-wide protests and outrage over the recent incident of desecration of Holy Quran in Sweden, the United Nations Human Rights Council will hold an urgent session to address Islamophobia and religious hatred.
Addressing a press briefing, a spokesperson for the Geneva-based UN council said that the session will discuss the rising religious hatred in the world.
The development came after the latest incident of Holy Quran’s desecration in Sweden when a man set a copy of the sacred book ablaze outside a mosque in the country’s capital city on the eve of Eid ul Adha.
Salwan Momika, 37, who fled from Iraq to Sweden several years ago, stomped on the holy book and set several pages alight as Muslims around the world began marking the Eid ul Adha holiday and as the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Makkah in Saudi Arabia was drawing to a close.
The Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council, which is meeting in session until July 14, will change its agenda to stage an urgent debate, following a request from Pakistan.
“The UN Human Rights Council will hold an urgent debate to ´discuss the alarming rise in premeditated and public 
acts of religious hatred, as manifested by the current desecration of the Holy Quran in some European and other countries´,” council spokesman Pascal Sim told reporters, citing the wording of the request.
“This urgent debate will be convened following a request of Pakistan, sent on behalf of several members of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation, including those that are members of the Human Rights Council.
“The urgent debate will most likely be convened this week at a date and time to be determined by the bureau of the Human Rights Council that is meeting today.”
There are 47 members of the Human Rights Council. The UN´s top rights body is currently in the second of its three regular sessions per year. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
