DUBAI, July 3 (Reuters) - Pope Francis said the burning of the Muslim holy book, the Koran, has made him angry and disgusted and that he condemned and rejected permitting the act as a form of freedom of speech. "Any book considered holy should be respected to respect those who believe in it," the pope said in an interview in the United Arab Emirates newspaper Al Ittihad, published on Monday. "Freedom of speech should never be used as a means to despise others and allowing that is rejected and condemned." While Swedish police have rejected several recent applications for anti-Koran demonstrations, courts have over-ruled those decisions, saying they infringed freedom of speech. Reporting by Maha Eldahan; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Raju GopalakrishnanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Persons: Pope Francis, Al Ittihad, Maha Eldahan, Edmund Klamann, Raju Gopalakrishnan Organizations: United Arab Emirates, Al, NATO, Swedish, Thomson Locations: DUBAI, Sweden's, Stockholm, Turkey, Sweden