A protester with a photo of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr during the protests in front of the Swedish embassy in Baghdad. Photo: Ahmad Al-Rubaye/ AFP.
In the Iraqi capital Baghdad, demonstrators stormed the Swedish embassy on Thursday after a Koran was burned in Stockholm.
Muqtada al-Sadr, an Iraqi Shia cleric, ordered the protests and demanded the expulsion of the Swedish ambassador.
The released videos show some demonstrators climbing over an entrenched wall in front of the Swedish embassy in Baghdad.
On Wednesday, the Swedish government approved a Koran burning protest outside a mosque in the center of the capital to coincide with the Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Adha.
The police of this European nation believed that allowing the protest goes hand in hand with the right to freedom of expression.
The cleric Al Sadr demanded that Salwan Momika, an organizer of the anti-Koran protests in Stockholm, who immigrated to Sweden five years ago and has Swedish citizenship, be stripped of his Iraqi citizenship.
Salwan Momika protesting against the Koran in front of a Stockholm mosque, June 28, 2023. Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand/ AFP.
“If freedom of expression is guaranteed in Iraq and in the world, the faithful must express their opinion on the burning of the holy books… through massive and angry protests against the Swedish embassy in Iraq,” the cleric said.
A similar incident happened in January. Iraqis confronted security forces outside the Swedish embassy with the burning of several copies of the holy book of Islam.
Türkiye on Wednesday condemned the approval of the demonstration in Stockholm.
“It is unacceptable to allow these anti-Islamic actions under the pretext of freedom of expression. “Turning a blind eye to such heinous acts is complicit in them,” Turkey’s foreign minister Hakan Fidan said in a statement.
The decision to allow this protest could jeopardize Sweden’s chances of joining NATO, despite Turkey’s objections.
“Just before the NATO summit, the authorities in Sweden, which wants to be allied with Turkey, should put an end to the illegality and provocations taking place in their country under the guise of freedom and take the necessary measures,” Turkish said Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc.
For his part, Salwan Momika, the organizer of the protest against the Koran in the Swedish capital, told CNN that “this book should be banned worldwide because of the danger it poses to democracy, ethics, human values, human rights and women’s rights.” just doesn’t work anymore these days.
(With information from CNN in Spanish)