Al-Azhar calls for boycott of Dutch, Swedish products after Quran desecration

Egypt's Al-Azhar, the highest seat of Sunni Islamic learning, on Wednesday called for a boycott of Dutch and Swedish products amid anger over the desecration of the Quran, Islam's holy book.

On Sunday, Edwin Wagensveld, a far-right Dutch politician, and leader of the Islamophobic group Pegida, tore out pages from the Quran in The Hague, the administrative capital of the Netherlands. Wagensveld's video on Twitter showed that he burned the torn-out pages of the holy book in a pan.

The new provocation followed a similar Islamophobic protest on Saturday in Sweden, where a Danish extremist burned a copy of the Quran, in a police-approved protest.

In a statement, Al-Azhar called on the Arab and Muslim peoples "to boycott all Dutch and Swedish products and to take a strong and unified stance in support of our Noble Quran, the sacred scripture of the Muslims, and as a proper reaction to the governments of these two countries, who have offended 1.5 billion Muslims."

"They have gone to excess in guarding the mean and barbaric crimes perpetrated under the specious inhumane and immoral banner or their so-called 'freedom of expression'," it added.

The Sunni religious institution called on all Arabs and Muslims "to adhere to the boycott, and to educate children, youth and women about it."

"These deviants will never appreciate the value of the religion-about which they know nothing-or be deterred unless they face the challenging material, monetary and economic necessities. That is the only language they know," the statement said.

The desecration of the Quran has triggered a storm of condemnations from across the Islamic world, including Türkiye.