DOHA: The State of Qatar has renewed its condemnation, in the strongest terms, of the incidents of burning copies of the Quran that have occurred deliberately in a number of European countries recently.
What is behind them are the agendas that deliberately sow hatred and create strife between Muslims and other members of their societies, not to mention the provocation of two billion people around the world at the core of their faith.
This came in a recorded speech delivered by Minister of State for International Cooperation HE Lulwa bint Rashid Al Khater, on Tuesday, during the emergency discussion session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, at its 53rd session, on ‘Confronting religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence’.
Regarding the position of some European governments towards facilitating and even enabling the recurrence of these incidents with legal claims related to the discourse on freedoms and individual rights, Her Excellency said, "We stand bewildered and amazed, as evidence has accumulated from near and far that this criterion is nothing but selective. Most of these countries strictly prohibit discourse by legislation or custom, and anti-Semitic acts to name a few.”
She explained that many of these countries operate as a magnifying glass on religious minorities in Muslim-majority countries through which they exaggerate every matter that befalls any of these honorable individuals, and hold the governments of these countries responsible and demand change even if the matter is not a systematic act approved by the governments.
She added: "In the context of justifying and facilitating some governments' hate speech and behavior towards Muslims in their countries, I affirm that we, Muslim countries and societies, cannot do the same, not out of fear of the attack that would have targeted us from those same governments, but in compliance with our convictions and laws and our acceptance of our Islamic values that prevent us from provoking and wounding others in their beliefs.”
The Minister of State for International Cooperation affirmed that the State of Qatar, as it considers the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, the rejection of hate speech, and discrimination between people on the basis of religion, a responsibility of states and international institutions concerned with human rights, led by this esteemed council, it stresses the importance of taking a clear position by the council and its mechanisms, by condemning all forms of racism and hate speech against religions and their followers, and preventing their recurrence.
In this context, Her Excellency reaffirmed the call of the State of Qatar to the governments of the concerned countries to fulfill their obligations under the United Nations Charter, which calls for the development of friendly relations among nations on the basis of respect for the principle that requires equal rights among peoples, and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all people. Likewise, the countries in which these practices were committed must take effective national measures to address them, hold the perpetrators accountable, and prevent their recurrence in the future.
She added: "This important session is an opportunity to shed light on a larger problem facing religious minorities around the world that is not specific to a particular region. Rather, as a matter of fairness and objectivity, I say that in the aforementioned European countries there are many praiseworthy practices and legislations towards the ethnic and religious diversity that exists in them, including Muslims alike, if they were citizens or immigrants in those countries.”
"However, there is a deeper, more violent and fierce problem facing the Muslim minority in some countries in the Far East region and its environs, which is discrimination in religious and civil practices and rights in which ethnic racism mixes with religious and reaches its maximum manifestations in imprisonment, torture, displacement and death of innocent souls," she added.
The Minister of State for International Cooperation affirmed that the State of Qatar welcomes the approval of the Human Rights Council, unanimously by the Member States, to hold this emergency debate, which deals with an important issue that falls within its competence, which is confronting religious hatred, which began to spread in a crude and clear manner to create a fertile ground that justifies what we see of hostility and discrimination.