The public council under the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience issued a statement in connection with the demonstrative and provocative burning of the Holy Book for all Muslims – the Koran in Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands.
"The public council draws attention to the obvious connection between the actions of these provocateurs and the destructive activities of the Russian special services in Europe and the Middle East, and demands that the authorized bodies of the countries where these provocations took place conduct the most thorough analysis of the real causes of these illegal acts, establish an exhaustive circle of persons involved in this," the public council said in a statement., reports Crimean Tatar Resource Center.
"The public council notes with concern attempts to politicize these provocations by figures from different countries, and above all, their use in Russian state propaganda for a purpose that is obviously far from protecting the true interests of Muslims, the right to freedom of conscience and interreligious peace.
The public council calls on all authorized bodies of the UN, OSCE, the European Union and the Council of Europe, as well as governments, religious structures and civil society of European countries to take the most responsible approach to already carried out and possible future provocations aimed at inciting inter-religious hatred, to take all measures to preserve interfaith peace and harmony, in particular between Muslims and Christians, to monitor and counteract all forms of hate speech and discrimination on religious grounds.
The public council states that the experience of terrible harassment of the right to freedom of conscience and the persecution of "wrong" and "inconvenient" religions and beliefs by the punishers of the aggressor in the occupied territories of Ukraine should unite the civilized nations of the world in countering modern Nazism, barbarism and xenophobia," the appeal says.