11 July 2023; MEMO: The Kuwaiti government has announced plans to publish 100,000 copies of the Quran in the Swedish language for distribution in the Scandinavian country, in response to the provocative Quran burning incident in Stockholm on the day coinciding with Eid Al-Adha last month.
Yesterday the Council of Ministers made the decision during its weekly meeting with the initiative put forth by Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, who tasked the Public Authority for Public Care with printing and publishing the copies of the Quran.
According to the Kuwaiti News Agency (KUNA), the move comes within the framework of "affirming the tolerance of the Islamic religion and spreading Islamic values and coexistence among all human beings."
The publication of the translated Qurans is expected to be completed soon, which, in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will be distributed to mosques, libraries, schools and other institutions throughout Sweden. The translation work was carried out by the late Knut Bernstrom, a renowned Swedish translator and convert to Islam.
Kuwait was among the many Muslim-majority and Arab states to condemn the Quran burning incident which was permitted by Swedish authorities, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stating that: "This serious provocative move offends Muslims around the world."
"The State of Kuwait reminds the international community and all countries concerned of their responsibility for acting against hate and religious extremism, and stopping the hostile acts that target the Muslim's sanctity," the ministry added.
"Perpetrators of such hostile acts should be brought to book and prevented from using the principle of freedoms as a ploy to justify hostility against Islam or any holy faith."
It was also reported yesterday that Kuwait participated in preparing a draft resolution, alongside the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), to be presented before the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to confront religious hatred and desecrating religious sanctities.
