Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani condemns Quran Desecration in European countries

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds, and blessings be upon Prophet Muhammad and his pure family

The recent heinous act of disrespect towards the Holy Quran in European countries like Sweden and Denmark, where the Holy Quran was set on fire while the police protected and supported the offender, has various dimensions that should be closely examined and analyzed by scholars of the Islamic world, all Muslims, whether Shia or Sunni, and rather all people of the world.

The first question arising from this immoral act is whether it is an individual's abrupt act or an elaborate scheme [and not the act of just one individual]. Did an irrational and insane individual set fire to the Quran? Or is it an elaborate scheme to instigate the world of Islam and Muslims? In my opinion, no sane person doubts that this is a nefarious scheme. A few years ago, a Christian cleric set fire to the Quran in a church, and their government said that this individual lacked rationality and sanity. This justification is not acceptable. Today, setting the Quran on fire is one of the evil schemes devised by security agencies of Israel and the United States. One proof of that is that the police stands guard to prevent anyone from confronting the person who commits this outrageous act.

The second question is, what is the enemy's goal behind this scheme? One of the things that contribute to continuation of religion and belief in God, besides rational proofs, human nature, traditional evidence, and miracles is the sanctity of certain things. The enemies aim to challenge this sanctity with through mischievous schemes. This desecration, however, has undeniable consequences.

During the time of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his family), the polytheists also used the ploy of desecration. Therefore, the Quran strongly opposes such acts. Today disbelief is much worse than it was at the dawn of Islam. It is crucial for Muslims to pay careful attention to this. Don't think that the opponents of Islam in the early days of Islam were some Jews or Christians who are long gone! It is naive to think that Islam and the Quran have no enemies today. Today's enemies are much more malevolent, wicked, and have more facilities and schemes than those in the early days of Islam.

We clearly see that they create a group of criminals under the name of ISIS to tarnish the concept of Jihad, which is frequently mentioned in the Quran, and to discredit Islam in the minds of people around the world. I have repeatedly stated that when ISIS took control of Mosul in Iraq, the next day, they introduced the books they had compiled to be taught in schools there. Where, when, and with what ideological and financial support were these books written and printed? They must have been working on this at least a decade in advance.

Before ISIS, they created the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, and before that, they created fake sects like Wahhabism, Baha'ism, and Babiism. Throughout history, their goal has been to concoct religions and denominations to counter the true religion of Islam and, in particular, to confront Shi'ism because they know that the strength of Islam lies in Shi'ism and its followers.

The enemy's goal is desecration of holy things. They want to desacralize God, religion, and the divine Scripture. Today, very evil plans are being implemented in European countries, which you must have heard of. For example, there are schools where no one is allowed to say that, "This is a boy" or "That is a girl." Their swimming pools, classrooms, and sleeping quarters are all unisex.

They want to raise these individuals in such a way that they have nothing left of humanity, religion, God, and spirituality in their minds. Who started these schools, in Germany and other European countries, and for what purpose? In order to succeed in their goals, they must set fire to the Quran and say that this book is of no use to us and its instructions about hijab, women, men, rulers and subjects should all be set aside.

Today, anyone who sets fire to the Quran is actually declaring that we want to set fire to religion. They are in fact setting fire to the Torah, the Bible, and the Psalms. That is because the Quran endorses the previous heavenly books. Whatever ruling mentioned in the previous heavenly books is included along with many more additions brought by Islam; so, setting fire to the Quran means setting fire to all heavenly books. The person who sets fire to the Quran may not realize what he is doing, but the planners of this scheme aim to eliminate the sanctity of religion and faith and claim that this book is like any other book [it has no sanctity] and can be burned.

Even to Christians and Jews they say, "You can burn the Torah and the Bible because they are not sacred." Today, this scheme is designed for the world to follow. A Lebanese scholar who had been in Israeli prisons for 15 years came to visit my late father. He said, “The Israelis repeatedly asked me during interrogations, ‘Who is this Mahdi that you speak of? Who is the reformer and the savior of humanity that aims to establish a unified religion and a global government?’" According to reports, similar questions had been asked by the Americans in the prisons of Iraq. The have established colleges for Shia Studies to understand what the Shiites say so that if they cannot prevent the Reappearance, they can at least delay it for a hundred or five hundred years! This is the enemy’s goal. It is very simplistic to say that a madman came to the street and set fire to the Quran in front of an embassy of an Islamic country.

We must take lessons from these events, and it should alert us to how the enemy strives to distance humanity from spirituality. Our duty in the face of this conspiracy is to spread spirituality and convey the truths of religion to humanity as much as we can. Every student can utilize the online space to convey religious teachings to humanity.

Today, they themselves claim that Islam will have completely penetrated Europe by the next 20 years, i.e. by 2050, and the Muslim population percentage will be significantly higher, possibly even surpassing Christianity. They are worried about the growth of Islam, so they are fueling Islamophobia.

On a higher level, they say why just put Islam aside and not the Gospel or the Torah. They also confine our hands and feet. So we must say that religion altogether must be set aside. They want to raise their children in a way that religion means nothing to them. They want to picture religion as something obsolete and devoid of intellect and thought, and they have already begun this process by burning the Quran.

Now, we must see what duties Muslims have in this regard. No Muslim has the right to remain silent, let alone a religious scholar. Expressing disgust over insult to the Holy Quran is the duty of all Shia and Sunni Muslims. It is obligatory for every Muslim, in any way, to express opposition and declare their repulsion to European authorities.

Every day, in a Muslim country, people take to the streets with zeal and condemn this heinous act strongly. We should also do the same. It would be great if one day in our country, we would declare an hour, not just organize a gathering after Friday prayers when people want to go home, but announce one hour during the day when all activities and shops would close to show their disgust with what has happened because we need to express our duty toward the Holy Quran.

I have heard that Al-Azhar in Egypt has officially asked Muslims to refrain from buying and selling Swedish and Dutch products. This is something to be thankful for, and we should urge all Islamic countries to do the same.

Today, the power of Muslims is significant. Imam Khomeini (may Allah's blessings be upon him) would always lament why Muslims did not realize their power. He once said that if every Muslim were to pour a bucket of water, Israel would be washed away. This expression reflects the fact that Muslims possess great power. If Islamic nations do not sell these countries oil and sever their diplomatic relations with them, they will be forced to apologize.

Some Islamic countries have summoned or expelled their ambassadors. From here, we call on the officials of the Islamic Republic to take a stronger stance on this matter. Diplomatic niceties should not be used to address this issue. There is no place for diplomatic courtesies; because what has happened relates to the reality of our Revolution, the reality of Islam, and the reality of humanity. It must be dealt with harshly so that they don't have the audacity to repeat such actions.

Another point is the international organizations such as the United Nations and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation losing their credibility. It becomes evident that these organizations lack a sense of duty. The United Nations allocates significant budgets for animal rights and environmental preservation and collects its budget from around the world. Shouldn't it take action to preserve human sanctities? Where is the United Nations in this matter? Where is the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and what are they doing?

This has been an old pain and it leads one to the conclusion that international organizations have been established to serve such countries’ interests.

We criticize all international organizations that remain silent in the face of these actions. From the day these international organizations were established, they have never held accountable the officials of a country where such actions are taken place. I believe that the result of all these conspiracies will ultimately be in favor of Islam though such matters wound a person's heart and one cannot be at peace when the Quran is set on fire.

The Quran says, "They want to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah refuses except to perfect His light." (61:8) These people want to extinguish the light of Allah, but God preserves His own light, and, God willing, His light will dominate the whole world. Setting fire to the Quran will ultimately result in the expansion of Islam.

In some previous cases of setting fire to the Quran, some family members of the U.S. president had become curious and wanted to see what the Quran was. In Isfahan, the Quran was being translated into English. The late Ayatollah Haj Agha Kamal Faghih Emani (may God's mercy be upon him), one of the personalities who served greatly the people, the Revolution, and the city of Isfahan, was in charge of this work. He said that they had sent a copy to a family member of the U.S. president.

Setting fire to the Quran has consequences. It attracts more attention to it, and more people will become guided by the Quran. However, this does not prevent us from expressing our disgust with this act, condemning it, and trying to prevent it, because this is the minimum duty of every Muslim.

It is expected that the Christian clergy and the Pope support the fundamentals of divine religions. In Iran, the religious leaders attended while holding the Quran in their hands and expressed their disgust with desecration of the Quran, and we appreciate their efforts.

Peace and God's mercy and blessings be upon you.