Protesters set fire to the Swedish embassy in Baghdad… and the Iraqi Foreign Ministry condemns it
The Swedish embassy in Baghdad was set on fire at dawn today (Thursday), during a demonstration organized by supporters of the leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, according to Agence France-Presse, before a gathering in Sweden in front of the Iraqi embassy, during which its organizer intends to burn a copy of the Quran.
And the agency’s correspondent saw from the roof of a building in the neighborhood where the Swedish embassy is located, smoke rising from the diplomatic mission building surrounded by dozens of demonstrators with a heavy deployment of riot police.
Demonstrators climb a wall at the Swedish embassy in Baghdad (AP)
The agency’s photographer at the scene stated that a number of fire engines deployed at the site of the fire.
He said that the Iraqi riot police used water cannons and electric sticks on Thursday morning to disperse the protesters and remove them from the embassy, noting that the demonstrators responded by throwing stones at the security forces.
It was not immediately clear the extent of the damage to the site. Nor was it immediately possible to tell whether the embassy was empty at the time of the attack.
However, the Swedish Foreign Ministry confirmed to the press on Thursday that the staff of the Swedish embassy in Baghdad “are in a safe place.”
In response to an inquiry by the press agency via e-mail, the ministry said: “We are aware of the situation. Our embassy staff (in Iraq) is in a safe place, and the embassy is in constant contact with them.”
The ministry stated that “the Iraqi authorities are responsible for protecting diplomatic missions and their staff,” stressing that the attack on embassies and diplomats “constitutes a serious violation of the Vienna Convention.”
The attack on the Swedish embassy in Baghdad comes after the Swedish police allowed a small gathering to be organized Thursday between 11:00 and 13:00 GMT in front of the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm, where the organizer intends to burn a copy of the Koran and the Iraqi flag.
Protesters storm the Swedish embassy before the expected burning of the Quran in Stockholm (Reuters)
Some of the demonstrators who gathered around the Swedish embassy in Baghdad at dawn on Thursday raised copies of the Qur’an, while others raised pictures of the late Shiite cleric Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, the father of Muqtada al-Sadr.
“We went out today to denounce the burning of the Noble Qur’an, which is a Qur’an of humanity, of love and of faith,” protester Hassan Ahmed Wahib told the agency.
He added that «our demands from the Swedish government and the Iraqi government to stop this work».
Another young protester told “Agence France Presse”, without revealing his name, “We could not (wait) until the morning and entered it at dawn and (…) we burned the Swedish embassy,” repeating the name “Muqtada Muqtada Muqtada.”
The demonstrator added that “the Sadrists took action after allowing the Iraqi refugee in Sweden, Silwan Momica, to burn a copy of the Qur’an in Sweden again.”
“urgent investigation”
In a statement, the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the burning of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Sweden in Baghdad, saying that “this act comes in the context of attacking diplomatic missions and threatening their security.”
The statement stated that “the Iraqi government instructed the competent security authorities to conduct an urgent investigation and take the necessary security measures with the aim of uncovering the circumstances of the incident and identifying the perpetrators of this act and holding them accountable according to the law.”
Demonstrators climb a fence as they gather near the Swedish embassy in Baghdad (Reuters)
Momica, who wants to burn the Qur’an in Sweden, is an Iraqi refugee there, and on June 28, he also burned pages of a copy of the Qur’an in front of the largest mosque in Stockholm on Eid al-Adha.
And the Swedish police confirmed yesterday (Wednesday) that the permission was not granted on the basis of an official request to burn religious books, but rather on the basis of holding a public gathering during which an “opinion” will be expressed in accordance with the constitutional right to freedom of assembly.
A Swedish police spokesman said that did not mean they agreed with what would happen.
Momica’s burning of pages from a copy of the Qur’an last June prompted supporters of the Sadrist movement in Iraq to storm the Swedish embassy in Baghdad on June 29.
At that time, the demonstrators stayed for about fifteen minutes in the embassy before leaving it, while Muqtada al-Sadr and the Iraqi government also strongly condemned what Silwan Momica had done in Sweden.
Similar actions often take place in Sweden and other European countries, at the initiative of the extreme right, and such actions provoke reactions in the Islamic world and international condemnations.
The first copy of the Quran was burned in January by the right-wing Swedish-Danish militant Rasmus Paludan to denounce Sweden’s request to join NATO and negotiate with Turkey for this purpose.
Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shiite cleric and Iraqi political figure, has repeatedly shown his ability to mobilize the streets in Iraq. In the summer of 2022, his supporters stormed the Iraqi parliament and sat in it for weeks, while al-Sadr was in a political dispute with other Shiite parties over choosing the prime minister.
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2023-07-20 13:18:19
