The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Contact Group on Muslims in Europe held an open-ended meeting on 20 September 2023 in New York, on the sidelines of the seventy-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly, chaired by H.E. the OIC Secretary-General, Mr. Hissein Brahim Taha, according to OIC website.

In his speech, the Secretary-General expressed the OIC’s deep concern over the escalation in the intensity of anti-Muslim rhetoric and feelings of hatred towards them, and voiced the OIC strong condemnation of incidents of desecration and burning of copies of the Holy Qur’an in some European countries. In this regard, the Secretary-General reviewed the steps he took to follow up on the results of the eighteenth extraordinary session of the Council of Foreign Ministers and the previous meetings of the OIC Executive Committee. He called for more efforts to support constructive dialogue in order to promote the values of harmony, understanding, tolerance and mutual respect among cultures.

Furthermore, the meeting affirmed its condemnation, in the strongest terms, of the recent heinous acts of aggression that violated the sanctity of the Holy Qur’an in Sweden and Denmark. In this context, the Secretary-General renewed his commitment to implementing the recent resolution of the Council of Foreign Ministers regarding the repeated crimes of desecrating and burning copies of the Holy Qur’an.

The meeting further called for respecting the religious freedom of all Muslims and not restricting the human rights and fundamental freedoms of Muslims, including not depriving them of the right to exercise their religious rights and cultural identity. He expressed his deep concern about the disturbing trend of anti-Muslim sentiments, Islamophobia, hate speech, right-wing extremism, and the trend of violent incidents targeting Muslims in some European countries.