China hopes Sweden to respect religious beliefs of Muslims
Large-scale unrest broke out in many places across Sweden, resulting in vandalism of public facilities and injuries of many people
April 21, 2022
- Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin hopes Sweden would respect religious beliefs of Muslims and other minority groups.
- He says they oppose discriminatory rhetoric against certain religion and civilization.
- Large-scale unrest breaks out across Sweden, resulting in vandalism of public facilities and injuries of many people.
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin on Wednesday hoped that Sweden would earnestly respect the religious beliefs of Muslims and other minority groups, protect their lawful rights and interests, and square their words of respecting and protecting freedom of religious belief with actions.
China always opposes extreme behaviour like attacking people with different religious beliefs and instigating conflicts between civilisations, he said while commenting on the recent anti-Islam rallies organized by far-right political party Stram Kurs in multiple places across Sweden and the burning of the Holy Quran, which had triggered an outrage among the Muslim community.
Large-scale unrest broke out in many places across Sweden, resulting in the vandalism of public facilities and the injuries of many people.
While noting the relevant reports, Wang Wenbin said that freedom of speech should not be used as an excuse to incite racial or cultural discrimination or create division in society. No civilisation is superior to others. They are different only in features and geographical distribution.
He said that the Chinese side advocates replacing clashes of civilisations with the exchange of civilisations and added, "We oppose discriminatory rhetoric against certain religions and civilisations."
