Several thousand Iraqis protest over desecration of Quran in Sweden, Denmark
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Several thousand Iraqis demonstrated in central Baghdad amid heavy security measures.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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BAGHDAD – Several thousand Iraqis demonstrated in Baghdad on Saturday over the burning or damaging of the Quran during anti-Islam protests in Sweden and Denmark, in a gathering called by ruling Iraqi parties and armed groups, many close to Iran.
Iran’s Supreme Leader said those desecrating the Quran should face the “most severe punishment” and that by defending perpetrators Sweden was gearing up for “war” against Muslims.
Protesters gathered in central Baghdad amid heavy security measures, with bridges leading to the Green Zone that houses many foreign embassies shut after an attempt by protesters to get to the Danish embassy in the early hours of Saturday.
That attempt, repelled by Iraqi security forces who fired tear gas according to a government source, came 48 hours after the Swedish embassy was overrun and set alight in protest at a planned burning of the Quran in Stockholm.
Iraq condemned the attack on the Swedish embassy but also expelled the Swedish ambassador
On Friday in Denmark, a man set fire to a book purported to be the Quran on a square across from the Iraqi embassy in Copenhagen.
The event was live-streamed on the Facebook platform of a group that calls itself Danish Patriots. The video shows the book burning in a tin foil tray next to the Iraqi flag on the ground, with two onlookers standing and talking next to it.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen condemned it as an act of “stupidity” by a few individuals, telling national broadcaster DR: “It is a disgraceful act to insult the religion of others.
“This applies to the burning of Qurans and other religious symbols. It has no other purpose than to provoke and create division.”
He noted, however, that burning religious books was not a crime in Denmark.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Danish ambassador on Friday to protest against “the desecration of the Quran in Copenhagen”, the ministry tweeted on Saturday.
Teheran had earlier on Saturday urged Denmark and Sweden to take measures to end repeated attacks on the Quran in the Nordic countries, saying Muslims around the world expected the desecration to be stopped.
During Thursday’s anti-Islam demonstration in Stockholm, protesters kicked and partially destroyed a book they said was the Quran but left the area after an hour without setting it alight.
The incident prompted Middle Eastern states including Saudi Arabia and Iran to summon Swedish diplomats in protest.
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, demanded Sweden hand over perpetrators to Islamic nations’ judiciaries.
“The Swedish government should know that by supporting the criminal who burnt the Holy Quran, it has gone into battle array for war on the Muslim world,” he later tweeted.
Quran burnings are permitted in Sweden, Denmark and Norway, which all have legal protections for freedom of speech.
‘Practical action’
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said: “Iran believes that the Danish government is responsible for preventing insults to the Holy Quran and Islamic sanctities, as well as prosecuting and punishing those committing the insults.”
Public opinion in the Islamic world was waiting for “practical action” by the Danish government, Mr Kanaani said, in a statement carried by state media.
The Danish Foreign Ministry could not immediately be reached for comment.
Iran, which has delayed the posting of a new ambassador to Sweden, also said it was reciprocally not accepting a new Swedish envoy over the attacks on the Quran.
A Swedish government spokesman said there was a phone conversation on Friday between the Swedish and Iranian foreign ministers, but declined to give details of what they discussed.
Followers of Iraqi Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr protesting near Baghdad’s Green Zone.
PHOTO: AFP
The Iraqi presidency, meanwhile, called in a statement for international organisations and Western governments “to stop incitement and hate practices, whatever their pretexts”.
It also warned Iraqis against being drawn into what it described as a “plot of sedition”, which it said aimed to show Iraq was unsafe for foreign missions.
Up until Saturday evening, protests in Baghdad over the Quran burnings have been led by supporters of influential Shi’ite cleric Moqtada Sadr, a powerful figure opposed to the Iran-backed groups in government, and who analysts say is using the protests as a show of force.
The protest on Saturday evening was the first major action called by Iran-backed parties and armed groups that back the government.
Attendees were seen carrying the flags of Asaib Ahl al-Haq, a military-political group designated a terrorist organisation by the United States, as well as pictures of the former commander of Iran’s Quds Force, Major-General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by the US in 2020. REUTERS
