Fener Greek Patriarch condemns Quran burnings in Sweden, Netherlands

By Mehmet Kara

ISTANBUL (AA) - Fener Greek Patriarch Bartholomew strongly condemned on Tuesday the recent burning of copies of the Quran on two separate occasions in Sweden and the Netherlands.

Bartholomew sent a solidarity message to Ali Erbas, the head of Türkiye's top religious body, Diyanet.

Noting that it should be foreseen that those types of actions would cause discord in societies, Bartholomew said it was a necessity that such actions against religions “should be punished in the harshest way by the states and the law” without resorting to defenses such for the perpetrators as being “crazy” or “ignorant.”

Calling for unison acting against such acts, Bartholomew said: “The duty of us religious leaders is to preach respect for the saints of the members of different religions.”

His comments came after Diyanet announced last week that it plans to take legal action abroad against the recent burning of the Muslim holy book.

Last week, Danish-Swedish extremist Rasmus Paludan and Edwin Wagensveld, a far-right Dutch politician and leader of the Islamophobic group Pegida, separately burned Quran, Islam's holy book, in Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark.