News - World: Iran has vehemently condemned the repeated desecration of the Holy Qur'an in the Netherlands, urging the European country to respect the sensibilities of billions of Muslims around the world.

"The Dutch government is expected to understand its responsibilities towards preventing insult against the values and religious sanctities of the world's more than two-billion-strong Muslim population," Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan'ani said on Wednesday.

He advised the Netherlands to come in the way of "repetition of such reprehensible acts that take place in the name of 'freedom of speech.'"

The remarks came days after Edwin Wagensveld, the ringleader of the Dutch chapter of the anti-Islam group PEGIDA, tore up a copy of the Muslim holy book in front of the Turkish, Pakistani, and Indonesian Embassies in The Hague and insulted Islam and Muslims.

He then thanked the Dutch police for providing him with protection during his perpetration of the heinous gesture.

On Monday, the Organization of the Islamic Council (OIC) similarly condemned the act of desecration, urging the Dutch authorities to stop the provocative, Islamophobic acts.

Source: Press TV