The Quran burning incident in Europe is not an issue that can be waved off as the provocation of some fanatics, Presidential Spokesperson Ibrahim Kalın said, warning that the incident has greater implications of anti-Islam sentiment.
“The burning of the Holy Quran in Europe is not an event that can be glossed over by saying it is a 'provocation of a few fanatics.' Let's not exaggerate and advertise it,” Kalın wrote on Twitter.
“Allowing this is the mitigating of evil. It is alleviating hate crimes. It is the protection and rewarding of fanaticism,” he added further.
His words came after Rasmus Paludan, an extreme-right Swedish-Danish politician, burned a copy of the Islamic holy book outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm on Jan. 21, under police protection and with permission from the authorities, drawing a wave of condemnations from across the Arab and Islamic worlds.
The incident in Sweden was protested across the world, with Muslim countries announcing condemnations and criticism from the United Nations, United States and Germany.
On the following day, Edwin Wagensveld, a far-right Dutch politician and the leader of the Islamophobic group PEGIDA, tore apart pages from a copy of the Quran in The Hague.
Wagensveld's video on Twitter revealed that he burned the torn-out pages of the holy book in a pan.
