A group of protesters set fire to the Swedish embassy in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, at dawn Thursday. The incident, in which no casualties were recorded, happened during the last protests against the Koran burning in the Scandinavian country at the end of June and the approval for another similar act planned for this Thursday in Stockholm, which will eventually become the The Holy Book of Muslims not burned, but trampled and beaten. Sweden’s Foreign Ministry condemned the attack and reported that its staff were safe. For its part, the Iraqi government expelled the Swedish ambassador to the country in retaliation for the new action organized in the Scandinavian country.
The attack on the Swedish embassy was carried out by dozens of demonstrators, allegedly supporters of the influential Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada al Sadr. They entered the embassy facilities in the Iraqi capital’s so-called Green Zone, known for housing government institutions and the headquarters of foreign diplomatic missions.
Sweden has strongly condemned the attack on its diplomatic headquarters in Baghdad. “The attacks on the Swedish embassy in Iraq are totally unacceptable. This is the second time in a short space of time that this has happened. Iraq has a responsibility to protect the Swedish embassy in Baghdad. “Today the government will invite the best Iraqi diplomat to Sweden,” said Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom in a statement. The Iraqi government has also condemned this attack “in the strongest possible terms”, which it regards as another “attack on diplomatic headquarters and threats to their security”. The executive branch has directed “an urgent investigation to be conducted and necessary security measures to be taken to identify the perpetrators of this act and hold them accountable under the law.”
However, early in the afternoon he announced that he was expelling Sweden’s ambassador to Baghdad, Jessica Svardstrom, and ordering the return of his chargé d’affaires in Sweden to Iraqi territory. Iraq’s President, Kurdish Albdelatif Rashid, accused Sweden of “complicating” the issue of its relations with Baghdad by allowing another book burning. “We condemn in the strongest terms the irresponsible behavior of attempting to repeat the attack on the Koran and the flag of the Iraqi state,” the country’s presidency said in a statement. “The President, in these circumstances, supports the right to peaceful expression to protest this behavior [de Suecia]but with Iraq’s respect and responsibility for diplomatic traditions and international norms and laws,” the official statement said.
According to information published on social networks, protesters threw torches at the Swedish legation in response to the burning of the Muslim holy book in Stockholm by radical elements. “We didn’t wait for morning, we entered at dawn, we set fire to the Swedish embassy,” said a young protester in Baghdad, chanting the Shia leader’s name. Around the diplomatic building, some demonstrators showed copies of the Koran and portraits of Sadr. “We mobilized to denounce the burning of a Koran that is nothing but love and faith,” another protester named Hassan Ahmed told the same agency. “We call on the Swedish government and the Iraqi government to stop these types of initiatives,” he added.
Several Iraqi civil defense trucks drove to the embassy to douse the flames, which were causing heavy smoke. A contingent of riot police were also on duty, using water cannons to contain the crowds surrounding the building.
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The Swedish authorities have given a new permit for a protest this Thursday in front of the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm. Their organizer Salwan Momika plans to burn another Koran and an Iraqi flag. Momika is an Iraqi refugee living in the Scandinavian country who was also responsible for the burning of another holy book on June 28, the same day that Eid al Adha, or Feast of Sacrifice, was celebrated, one of the most important Muslim religious festivals. In the new act approved today that sparked protests in Baghdad, participants stepped on the Muslim holy book, although there was no clear sign they were burning it, according to Portal.
The June event sparked a wave of international criticism and anger within the Muslim community. For the states that profess this religion in a majority, responsibility for the incident rests with Sweden, as it authorized the protest under the protection of freedom of expression. According to local newspaper Iraqi News, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein stressed to his Swedish counterpart Tobias Billstrom, “the need to avoid repeated acts that violate Islam and the Holy Qur’an.” This type of burning of holy books occurred in Sweden and other European countries before, sometimes on the initiative of right-wing extremist movements. In the past they have led to demonstrations and diplomatic tensions.
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