A group of protesters set fire to the Swedish embassy facilities in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, in the early hours of Thursday, after the demonstrations that have been taking place throughout the week in protest against the burning of copies of the Koran in the European country.
According to posts on social media, protesters entered the Iraqi capital’s Green Zone, the embassy sector, and threw torches inside the Swedish legation, in response to a burning of the Muslim holy book by the Islamophobic far-right in Stockholm in late June.
The Swedish authorities granted a new permit for today, in which it is foreseen that there will be another burning of Korans outside the Iraqi embassy. Local police have had to resort to using water blasts to contain groups of people surrounding the embassy in Baghdad.
According to what was collected by the local Iraqi News, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Fuad Hussein, stressed to his Swedish counterpart, Tobias Billström, “the need to avoid repeating acts offensive to Islam and the Holy Qur’an.” The Iraqi authorities have already expressed their condemnation of the acts against the European diplomatic headquarters.
The press service of the Swedish Foreign Ministry assured the Aftonbladet newspaper that “our embassy staff are safe.” “We are informed of the situation. The staff of our embassy are safe and the Foreign Ministry is in constant contact with them,” added the diplomatic portfolio.
Many Muslim countries such as Turkey, Pakistan or Jordan have already publicly expressed their rejection of the burning of Korans, pointing out that it is not about “freedom of expression”, even more so by doing so in front of a mosque in a demonstration that waved the Swedish flag and had police authorization. This controversy occurs in full discussion of whether Turkey lifts the veto on Sweden for its entry into NATO. Tayyip Erdogan had linked the entry of the Scandinavian country – currently governed by the right with the approval of the extreme right – to the fact that the Turks are part of the European Union.
