Swedish Embassy in Baghdad Is Set Afire Amid Protests Over Quran

Hundreds of protesters stormed the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad early Thursday and set hearth to it, Reuters reported, citing a witness and different sources, as latest episodes of Quran burning within the European nation have angered many within the Muslim world and drawn condemnation from the Swedish authorities.

Footage shared on social media confirmed a constructing recognized because the embassy in flames and other people with items of the constructing of their arms. The pictures couldn’t be instantly verified.

Reuters cited a supply as saying that no embassy employees had been harmed. The news company mentioned embassy officers had not instantly responded to requests for remark.

In June, after a person tore up and burned the Quran exterior the central mosque in Stockholm on the primary day of the Muslim vacation of Eid al-Adha, a whole lot of individuals in Iraq protested exterior the Baghdad embassy on the urging of Muqtada al-Sadr, a populist cleric.

He had referred to as on the Iraqi authorities to interrupt off diplomatic relations with Sweden, which he mentioned was “hostile” to Islam.

Iran’s overseas minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, mentioned earlier this month that his nation would chorus from sending a brand new ambassador to Sweden in protest, Reuters reported. And Iran’s Foreign Ministry summoned Sweden’s chargé d’affaires to sentence what it mentioned was an insult to essentially the most sacred Islamic values.

“Although administrative procedures to appoint a new ambassador to Sweden have ended, the process of dispatching them has been held off due to the Swedish government’s issuing of a permit to desecrate the Holy Quran,” Mr. Amirabdollahian mentioned on Twitter.

Egypt referred to as the burning of the Quran “a disgraceful act,” and Saudi Arabia mentioned that such “hateful and repeated acts cannot be accepted with any justification.” Malaysia’s overseas minister mentioned the desecration of the holy ebook throughout an necessary vacation was “offensive to Muslims worldwide.”

The Swedish police charged the person who burned the Quran with agitation towards an ethnic or nationwide group. In a newspaper interview, he described himself as an Iraqi refugee searching for to ban it.

The protest on Thursday was additionally referred to as by supporters of Mr. al-Sadr, forward of one other anticipated burning of the Muslim holy ebook in Sweden.

A collection of movies posted by One Baghdad, a preferred Telegram channel that helps Mr. al-Sadr, confirmed folks gathering across the embassy round 1 a.m. native time and storming the embassy complicated about an hour later, Reuters reported.

Later, the news company mentioned, movies confirmed smoke rising from a constructing within the embassy complicated. It was not instantly clear if anybody was contained in the embassy on the time, Reuters mentioned.

In January, somebody set the Quran on hearth close to Turkey’s embassy in Stockholm, and a far-right journalist and anti-Islam provocateur, Rasmus Paludan, a twin Danish-Swedish nationwide with hyperlinks to Kremlin-backed media, later confirmed that he had paid for the allow to carry what he referred to as a protest. But he denied paying anybody to burn the holy ebook.

While the Swedish police have rejected a number of latest functions for anti-Quran demonstrations, courts have overruled these choices, saying they infringed on freedom of speech.

Turkey had cited the desecration of the Quran because it stalled Sweden’s bid to enter NATO, which wants the approval of all members, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the vile attack on our holy book,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry mentioned in an announcement in January.

Sweden’s overseas minister, Tobias Billstrom, has characterised Islamophobic provocations as appalling.

Turkey this month appeared to relent on Sweden’s NATO bid, although President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey later mentioned that the ultimate resolution rested with its Parliament and that Sweden wanted to take extra steps to win the nation’s help.