Tehran Says Summoned Norwegian Envoy to Protest Quran Desecration Incident

TEHRAN (Sputnik) - Tehran has summoned Norway's charge d'affaires to express strong protest over the incident with desecration of the Quran by members of movement "Stop the Islamisation of Norway", the Iranian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

"In the meeting with the Norwegian envoy, Tehran strongly protested against this hideous act in the European country, and warned about the dangerous consequences of such acts of spreading extremism and violence", the Iranian ministry said.

Tehran also called on Norway to prevent the recurrence of such incidents.

The Norwegian diplomat, in turn, noted that while defending freedom of expression, Oslo categorically condemned the attempt to desecrate the Muslim holy book and spread hate speech.

Last week, the anti-Islamist movement held a rally in Kristiansand, during which its leader Lars Thorsen tried to burn a copy of the holy book despite warnings from the police. A scuffle broke out after an unknown man tried to stop Thorsen from burning a copy of the Quran, and both of them were detained.

📹 | A #Palestinian man intervened as a group called "Stop Islamisation of #Norway" (SION) attempted to burn a Quran during a demonstration
▪️The police didn't prevent the man from burning the Quran, but tried to stop the Palestinian manpic.twitter.com/9onnHn3zsG

— EHA News (@eha_news) November 22, 2019