Calls on all Muslims to boycott Sweden

 

Egypt 

Sunni leader: Boycott Sweden 

 

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Amanda Hällsten 

 

Published: Less than 2 hours ago  

 

Updated: Very recently  

 

NEWS  

 

al-Azhar University in Cairo calls for a global boycott against Sweden and the Netherlands. 

 

The call comes after this weekend's Koran burning in Stockholm.  

 

Al-Azhar University in Cairo - the Sunni Muslim world's foremost religious institution - is calling on Muslims worldwide to boycott Sweden and the Netherlands, AP reports.  

 

The call comes after last week's Koran burning. On Saturday, far-right politician Rasmus Paludan burned a Koran in Stockholm. 

 

al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo. Archive image. Photo: Khalil Hamra/AP  

 

On Sunday, Edwin Wagensveld, Dutch leader of the far-right Pegida movement, tore pages from the Koran near the Dutch parliament in The Hague. He is also said to have stepped on them. 

 

al-Azhar calls the actions a crime against Muslims. The university also believes that a boycott of both countries would be an appropriate response to the governments that protect "barbaric crimes under the inhumane and immoral banner they call freedom of speech." 

 

- This is a powerful marking that can have effects, al-Azhar University is the most famous of the Sunni universities and has a very strong position in the Islamic world, says Jan Hjärpe, professor of Islamology at Lund University, to TT.  

 

He believes that threats of boycotts can affect Sweden in the form of a stop to the import of Swedish goods and a stop to the sale of oil to Sweden.  

 

Rasmus Paludan burns a copy of the Muslims' holy book the Koran on January 21. Photo: Fredrik Sandberg/TT