An unfortunate, condemnable and sacrilegious attempt of burning Quran Pak (naozubillah) was being supervised by police in Norway when a Muslim man, identified as Ilyas on social media, lunged towards the culprit and kicked him to stop him from doing this.
The sacrilegious act was staged by an extremist party of the European country. Muslims all over the world have condemned the incident and demanded from the Norwegian government to stop such things from happening again in the future as you could not term hurting others’ religious sentiments as freedom of expression.
People on social media have also demanded from their respective countries and the Muslim ummah to boycott Norway and its products in protest. Ilyas has become the most beloved person for Muslims on social media right now for his resistance against hurting the sentiments of the Muslim community.
Twitter in Pakistan has burst with top trends in his support which included, #ilyas_Hero_of_Muslim_Ummah, #Norway, #Defender_of_Quran, #TheGloriousQuran and #Islamophobia.
A Twitterite, tagging prime minister of Norway, wrote, “Hey PM Erna Solberg your people must be ashamed of themselves. Instead of arresting/stopping criminal and extremist who was instigating billions of Muslims, your low life police attacked the Muslim Hero who tried to stop this evil.”
“I pay a huge tribute to this young Muslim Ilyas for trying to stop this cursed guy from Norway over disrespecting our Holy Quran by burning it publicly. I Boycott all Norwegian products and would request Pak government to raise this issue with Norwegian Embassy. #BoycottNorway,” wrote another netizen.
The Pakistani and Turkish government have also condemned the occurrence.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey said, “We strongly condemn the disrespect for our holy book, the Holy Quran, in a demonstration organized by an anti-Islamic organization on 16 November 2019 in Kristiansand, Norway. We expect that such actions to be prevented and those who are responsible to be brought to justice as soon as possible.
“We are deeply concerned about the recent rise of discrimination against Muslims, hatred against Islam and attacks on mosques in Western European countries.
“Islamophobia and xenophobia becoming ever more alarming recently is an issue that needs to be tackled immediately.”
Foreign Office Spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal on Nov 11 said Pakistan had strongly denounced the reported desecration of the Holy Quran in a Norwegian city. He said the Muslims respected other religions and they expected the followers of other religions to also respect their religious sentiments.
Here’s how Twitterites reacted:
Hey PM @erna_solberg you ppl must be ashamed of yourselves.
Instead of Arresting/Stopping criminal and extremist who was instigating Billions of Muslims, your low life police attacked the Muslim Hero who tried to stop this evil.#BoycottNorway#ilyas_Hero_of_Muslim_Ummah https://t.co/OobFRhqZPM— Erum Zaeem (@ErummKhan) November 22, 2019
We strongly condemn this incident but one thing is very clear disbelievers do such types of things to hurt muslims and then
they always do and always blame muslims are terrorist and what is this world?#ilyas_Hero_of_Muslim_Ummah pic.twitter.com/4q5VqVEZdO— Awal Sher Afridi (@awalsherafridii) November 22, 2019
Attacking on someone Faith
Police was silent
When someone reacts police came within seconds to arrest him
What is this @World
Why you're so biased towards Muslim and their Religion?#BoycottNorway #RealHeroOfMuslimUmmah#Muslim #Defender_of_Quran#ilyas_Hero_of_Muslim_Ummah pic.twitter.com/pwgALWr5B2— Muzammil Ferozi (@maferozi) November 22, 2019
https://twitter.com/Hiraaasyed/status/1197873228749914114
اسکی تعلیمات سے زندگیوں کو روشن کرنا اور اس کے بتائے ہوئے طریقہ کے مطابق زندگی گذارنا ہر اعتبار سے انسانوں کیلئے اس میں خیر و برکات، انقلاب اور کامیابی اور کامرانی و کامرانی ہے.#TheGloriousQuran
— Sharwan Sheikh Sahir (@SharwanShkSahir) November 22, 2019
I expect #Norway not to give way to such acts of disrespect against #Islam and the holy #Quran within the country which is renowned for its respect to human rights and cultural/religious diversity. Humiliating one's faith and holy book cannot be regarded as #freedomofexpression. https://t.co/TjMbddR9qJ
— AytacOzkutuk (@AytacOzkutuk) November 18, 2019