Turkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan discussed over phone with Saudi counterpart Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud a range of issues, including the burning of a copy of the Quran in Sweden this week, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Saturday, Anadolu reports.
The ministry in a statement said the two talked about preparations for the extraordinary session of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s executive committee to discuss the consequences of the desecration. The meeting will be held in Jeddah on Sunday.
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The ministers also touched upon the need to combat Islamophobia, and issues of regional cooperation.
There has been widespread outrage and condemnation in the Islamic world since a person identified as Salwan Momika burned a copy of the Muslim holy book under police protection in front of a Stockholm mosque on Wednesday.
The act was timed to coincide with Eid al-Adha, one of the major Islamic religious festivals celebrated by Muslims worldwide.
- Morocco recalls ambassador
The strongest protest came from Morocco, which recalled its ambassador to Sweden for an indefinite period after a man tore up and burned a Quran outside Stockholm’s central mosque on Wednesday, the state news agency said.
Morocco’s foreign ministry also summoned Sweden’s chargé d’affaires in Rabat on Wednesday and expressed the kingdom’s “strong condemnation of this attack and its rejection of this unacceptable act”, the state news agency said.
The United Arab Emirates summoned the Swedish ambassador on Thursday to protest, the UAE foreign ministry said in a statement.
For its part, Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry issued a statement condemning the burning of the Quran.
Jordan summoned on Thursday the Swedish ambassador in Amman and informed her of Jordan’s strong protest, the Jordanian ministry of foreign affairs and expatriates said in a statement.
