OIC Secretary-General receives call from Swedish Foreign Minister

His Excellency the Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Mr. Hissein Brahim Taha, received a phone call, on 27 July 2023, from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden, Tobias Bilström.

During the call, the Secretary-General informed the Swedish Foreign Minister of the content of the Final Communique issued by the OIC Executive Committee at its Extraordinary Meeting held on July 2, 2023 on the incident of burning copies of al-Mushaf al-Sharif in Sweden.

He expressed to him the Member States’ dissatisfaction with the recurring incidents of insulting the al-Mushaf al-Sharif and Islamic symbols under the pretext of freedom of expression.

He again called on the Swedish authorities to take the necessary measures to prevent recurrence of such incidents.

The Secretary-General informed the Minister that the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) of Member States would study this issue during an extraordinary session to be held next Monday.

For his part, the Minister stated that his country’s government rejected insulting Islamic sanctities, including al-Mushaf al-Sharif, and was keen to maintain good relations with the OIC Member States.