Iraq Participates in United Nations General Assembly Meeting to Adopt a Resolution on Measures to Combat Islamophobia

On March 15, 2024, Iraq participated in the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, to discuss and adopt the resolution “Measures to Combat Islamophobia” submitted by the countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

The Chargé d’Affaires ad interim of Iraq’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York, Dr. Abbas Kadhom Obaid, delivered a speech in which he indicated Iraq’s position and the reasons for voting in favor of the resolution and rejecting the amendments, stressing Iraq’s condemnation and denunciation of the phenomenon of anti-Islam, hate speech, and actions that are incompatible with the values of tolerance, acceptance of others, peaceful coexistence, and democratic values, such as burning and desecrating the Holy Qur’an and other sacred books, under the pretext of freedom of opinion and expression, adding that allowing the desecration of the Holy Qur’an encouraged some people to repeat such bad acts, and represented incitement on hatred and racism, and hindered international efforts aimed at spreading the values of tolerance and moderation and rejecting extremism and terrorism, and undermined mutual respect between peoples and countries, leading to a threat to peace and security of the society, in his speech Mr. Obaid called on member states to assume their moral and legal responsibilities by establishing effective frameworks to criminalize hate speech and violence against Muslims, targeting religious sites, and punish those responsible, pointing out that the text of the resolution reflects all the concepts and goals called for by the countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, including Iraq.