Indonesia condemns the acts of desecration of the Quran in Sweden and the Netherlands and does not consider that such actions can be justified by freedom of expression. Indonesian Vice President Ma'ruf Amin said this on Friday.
"I don't think it's right to call it freedom of expression if people can do whatever they want without paying attention to other people's rights," he was quoted by the Antara news agency as saying. He said Jakarta condemns such actions because they can provoke social conflicts, so efforts should be made to prevent them.
Amin said Indonesia has sent notes to the governments of Sweden and the Netherlands and summoned the two countries' ambassadors to the foreign ministry.
Last Sunday, the leader of the anti-Islam Pegida movement, Edwin Wagensveld, held a rally outside the Dutch parliament in which he tore up the Muslim holy book. He called his actions freedom of expression, which should be allowed in the country. A day earlier, Rasmus Paludan, the leader of the right-wing extremist party Hard Line, held a rally in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm, publicly burning a copy of the Quran.
These actions were sharply condemned by the foreign ministries of Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, UAE, Saudi Arabia and other Arab and Islamic states, as well as by the Arab League, the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
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Based on materials from TASS