Hawzah News Agency - Turkey denounced the burning of the Koran in an illegal demonstration held in the Swedish capital of Stockholm.

“We condemn the disrespect by a group of racist barbarians by burning our holy book, the Koran, in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

Members of the Danish far-right group, Stram Kurs, or Hard Line, burned the Muslim holy book in an illegal demonstration in the Rinkeby neighbourhood, a heavily Muslim area of Stockholm, Turkey’s state-run.

It was a positive step that Sweden did not allow those applying for a protest permit to attain one, but Turkey regrets seeing that the provocative actions could not be prevented, the ministry said. The members of a Danish racist party and their aims were well-known and these “sick people” continue to benefit from that, it said.

“Unfortunately, it is seen that disrespect for Islam has become widespread and cannot be prevented in Scandinavian countries in recent years under the guise of freedom of the press, art, and expression,” the ministry said.

The ministry cited previous cases in which two attackers killed more than 100 people. As long as racists such as Anders Breivik and Brenton Tarrant are not detected and stopped in the early stages, such events would inevitably reoccur, it said.

Breivik killed 77 people in Norway in 2011, while Tarrant killed 51 Muslims in New Zealand as they prepared for Friday prayers in 2019.

“We expect all countries with cases of racism and Islamophobia to take all measures to combat this disease both within the framework of European institutions and at the national level,” the ministry said.