A group of protesters in downtown Baghdad attacked the Swedish embassy in response to the country’s burning of copies of the Quran. It was reports that early Thursday morning, protesters hoisted flags and posters depicting the powerful Iraqi Shia religious and political leader Muqtada al-Sadr. The Swedish Foreign Ministry’s press office issued a statement denouncing the incident and calling on Iraqi authorities to ensure the safety of diplomatic missions, reassuring the public that all embassy personnel were unharmed.
The Iraqi foreign ministry issued a similar statement condemning the incident. “The Iraqi government has instructed the competent security authorities to conduct an urgent investigation and take the necessary security measures,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. By Thursday morning, security officers were stationed inside the embassy, and smoke could be seen coming from the structure as firefighters worked to put out the remaining flames. Fewer than a hundred demonstrators were still lingering around outside the embassy, but most had left. According toreporter, “if any more burnings of the Quran happen,” the protesters have threatened to keep on protesting. If the “Iraqi government does not dismiss the Swedish diplomatic mission immediately,” he said, the protestors will “take matters into their own hands.” Supporters of Sadr called for a demonstration on Thursday to protest the upcoming second Quran burning in front of the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm. “We are mobilized today to denounce the burning of the Quran, which is all about love and faith,” protester Hassan Ahmed told the French news agency AFP outside the embassy. He emphasized that the Swedish and Iraqi governments should immediately cease “this type of initiative.” Salwan Momika, an Iraqi immigrant in Sweden, was reportedly behind Thursday’s planned fire, according to local media.
On June 28, on the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, Salwan burnt pages from a Quran in front of Stockholm’s largest mosque. The next day, Moqtada’s followers stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad in response to the prior event. Several Muslim nations have spoken out against the event, with Iraq requesting that the guy be extradited to stand justice there. These nations include Iraq, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, and Morocco. Police in Sweden had first given Momika a permission in accordance with the country’s free speech safeguards, but subsequently stated they had initiated an inquiry for “agitation against an ethnic group” since Momika had burnt pages from the Islamic holy book so near to a mosque.
