If anyone thinks that by burning the Quran, they would destroy Islam and diminish divine power, they are wrong. They want to provoke Muslims and show hatred for a faith they do not understand or know. They are perverted sadists who are unaware of the beauty of their religion and who, through hatred and bigotry, try to prove their supremacy. They are the enemies of human civilization.
Anti-Islam activists in Sweden desecrated the Quran first on the day of Eid ul Adha and then a week later outside the Iraqi Embassy in Stockholm a few weeks later. A Danish activist did the same stint early this year outside the Turkish Embassy. The Swedish police authorized the Quran burning. The reaction of Muslims worldwide was swift. Afghanistan closed all Swedish-run offices. Others recalled their diplomatic staff, and the people of Iraq attacked the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad. Muslims in Sweden came out in the streets holding a copy of the Quran in their hands and recited its verses in Arabic to express their love and commitment to the Quran.
Groups that have planned and sponsored the Quran burning or desecration include right-wing Christians, Zionist extremists, Hindu nationalists, liberal activists, communist zealots, Buddhist fanatics, and mentally disturbed Muslims.
While Communists organize the desecration of religious books as part of their state policies, the extremist Zionists, Hindus, and Buddhists often commit acts during their attacks on Muslim homes and mosques, expressing their hatred against Islam.
Right-wing Christians engineer the Quran burning as part of their faith to destroy everything they view as Satanic or anti-Christ. Many Christians describe the faith of Muslims as anti-Christ.
Liberal activists indulge in this act to uphold their so-called commitment to freedom of expression.
Regardless, the act provokes Muslims and often produces violent retaliation, promoting anti-Islam sentiments worldwide. It is a cycle that repeats itself regularly to cause restlessness among Muslims and promote anti-Islamic activism.
These incidents have become common in Europe and North America. Countries in these regions do not have blasphemy laws. They once had blasphemy laws punishable by death but abolished them. Authorities argue that burning religious books is not a crime but part of freedom of expression, a liberal position adopted even by far-right and conservative groups when it involves the Quran.
They refuse to consider the burning of religious text as hate speech. Hate is behind burning holy books throughout human history, Individuals, groups, and countries did not destroy religious books to show their love for their textbooks. Instead, they show their profound hatred against people they disapprove of by torching their holy texts. The burning of books often follows the burning of humans. In 213 B.C., Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang ordered a bonfire of books to wipe out other schools of thought. He targeted books of poetry, philosophy, and history. Rulers of Rome ordered books to prevent disorder and the spread of foreign customs. The Catholic Church killed philosophers like Giordano Bruno and Jan Hus for writing books challenging the official doctrine. During the Spanish Inquisition, the authorities organized campaigns to burn and desecrate Jewish and Muslim scriptures.
The most infamous book burnings in recent memory were by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, who regularly employed language framing themselves as the victims of Jews, an argument promoted by all Quran-burning groups and individuals.
John Milton, author of Paradise Lost, in his 1644 book Areopagitica wrote: "Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature… but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself—" But Milton was unable to visualize the modern technology that can preserve every idea and every book. He also was unaware that millions of Muslims memorize the Quran and keep the text in their heats.
Religious texts carry civilization in their pages. Books are the voices of history, the beauty of arts and literature, and the stories of human society.
Technology has immortalized books. When some groups burn books, they know that books are there to exist. But they show their hatred and bigotry against those whose books they burn. Muslims must realize that they will always face people with deeply rooted hatred against them, their faith, and their books. Their response should emerge from divine guidance in the Quran.
Al-Hijr (The Rocky Tract) 15:97-99
And well do We know that you feel hurt by the [sinful] things that they say: but you should extol your Lord's limitless glory and praise Him, and be of those who prostrate themselves [before Him] in adoration.
Topics discussed in this verse: and worship thy Sustainer till your last breath.
An-Nahl (The Bee) 16:127
Endure, then, with patience (all that they who deny the truth may say] -always remembering that it is none but God who gives you the strength to endure adversity -and do not grieve over them, and neither be distressed by the false arguments they devise.