Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning (File photo: Agencies)
Respect for freedom of religious belief is a general consensus of the international community and the beliefs and religious feelings of Muslims should be respected, China said on Thursday.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning made the remarks at a regular press briefing in Beijing in response to reports that the leader of a Danish far-right party burned a copy of the Quran near the Turkish embassy in Sweden a week ago.
"The occurrence of this kind of thing fully demonstrates how hypocritical the so-called 'respect for freedom of religious belief' advertised by some Western politicians is," Mao said.
China would "as always jointly advocate civilized dialogue with Islamic countries and jointly safeguard the freedom of religious belief of all groups including Muslims," she said. "Respect for freedom of religious belief is a general consensus of the international community and the beliefs and religious feelings of Muslims should be respected."
(Compiled by Lin Rui)
