Iraq Protesters Storm Sweden’s Embassy In Baghdad Over Quran Burning Outside Stockholm Mosque

A crowd of supporters of Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr breached Sweden’s embassy in Baghdad to protest the burning of the Quran during a protest at a mosque outside Stockholm.

Protesters breached Sweden’s embassy in Iraq’s Baghdad, angered by an incident of a Quran burnt during an agitation at a mosque outside Stockholm. The incident garnered criticism from across the Muslim world. Earlier, Türkiye condemned the act as “vile” with its Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan saying, "I condemn the vile protest in Sweden against our holy book on the first day of the blessed Eid al-Adha," adding that it was “unacceptable to allow anti-Islam protests in the name of freedom of expression”.

A crowd of supporters of Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr breached Sweden’s embassy in Baghdad and stayed inside the compound for about 15 minutes, then left as security forces deployed, news agency AFP reported its photographer as informing.

“Our constitution is the Qur’an,” a message on leaflets carried by the protesters read. A message was sprayed on the compound’s gate reading, “Yes, yes to the Qur’an”.

A protester named Hussein Ali Zeidan, 32, told AFP he came out to “support the noble Qur’an” and demanded that Momika’s citizenship be revoked as “he does not represent Iraq”.

Earlier, Iraq’s foreign ministry condemned Sweden’s decision to grant an “extremist” permission to burn the Quran and said such acts “inflame the feelings of Muslims around the world and represent a dangerous provocation.”

Quran Burning Protest In Sweden

The protest was triggered after a 37-year-old Iraqi citizen named Salwan Momika living in Sweden stomped on the Islamic holy book and set several pages alight in front of the capital’s largest mosque.

According to AFP, Swedish police had granted him a permit in line with free-speech protections, but authorities late said they had started a probe over “agitation”.

The incident sparked anger across and beyond the Middle East when Muslims observed the Eid al-Adha holiday and the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia was drawing to a close.

Quran Burning: Türkiye, US, Saudi Condemn Sweden For Permission To Protest

Türkiye’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also criticised Sweden for allowing the protest, while the protest could further delay the country’s bid to join North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on which the Turkish greenlight is long-awaited.

“We will eventually teach the arrogant westerners that insulting Muslims is not freedom of thought,” Erdoğan said, as quoted by AFP.

“We will show our reaction in the strongest possible terms until a determined victory against terrorist organisations and Islamophobia is achieved,” he remarked.

Meanwhile, the US also condemned the Quran burning with a state department spokesperson saying that Washington believed the demonstration created “an environment of fear” that would affect the ability of Muslims and members of other religious minorities to exercise their freedom of religion.

Saudi Arabia, which hosted about 1.8 million Muslim pilgrims for the hajj, said: “These hateful and repeated acts cannot be accepted with any justification.”

The United Arab Emirates presidential adviser Anwar Gargash tweeted that the West “must realise that its value system … cannot be imposed on the world”.

Notably, the foreign ministry in Abu Dhabi summoned the Swedish ambassador to protest the free-speech protections given to “such heinous acts”, as per a statement on Thursday.