On Thursday, protesters invaded the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad, setting fire to the diplomatic compound and capturing the diplomatic compound in response to an Iraqi citizen’s threat to torch a copy of the Quran.
Hours later, the Swedish prime minister severed diplomatic relations with Iraq in protest of the desecration of the Islamic sacrosanct book.
Demonstrators carried flags and signs that depicted the prominent Iraqi Shiite cleric and political leader Muqtada al-Sadr, while setting a small fire and assaulting the diplomatic post early Thursday morning. An Iraqi asylum seeker incinerated a copy of the Islamic sacred book during a previous demonstration in Stockholm last month. One day prior to the demonstration, the embassy was attacked. The Quran was scheduled to be incinerated in Stockholm.
The Swedish Embassy declared itself closed to visitors in the wake of the incident, without a specific timeline for its reopening.
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani of Iraq issued a statement after meeting with security officials, announcing that those responsible for the conflagration would be prosecuted and that “negligent security officials” would be referred for investigation.
However, the statement also stated that the Iraqi government had informed its Swedish counterpart on Wednesday that diplomatic relations would be severed if the Quran burning continued.
Sudani proclaimed several hours later that he had issued the order for the expulsion of the Swedish ambassador from Iraq and the withdrawal of the Iraqi charge d’affaires from Sweden. Subsequently, the Iraqi government did not implement any further measures.
A Quranic copy is held by an individual who supports the Sadrist movement in Iraq in front of the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, on June 30, 2023.
An anti-Islamic demonstration was conducted by two males on a lawn located approximately 300 feet from the Iraqi Embassy in Stockholm at the time of the announcement. Salwan Momika, a resident of Sweden of Christian descent and a self-identified atheist from Iraq, trampled and booted the Quran without lighting it on fire.
Additionally, Momika displayed photographs of Sadr and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, and trampled and booted an Iraqi flag.
Approximately fifty individuals, including journalists and a scattering of counter-demonstrators uttering religious slogans, observed the demonstration from behind police barricades as plainclothes and uniformed officers stood by.
The chairman of the Media and Communications Commission of Iraq proclaimed the suspension of Ericsson’s license to operate in Iraq in response to the demonstration and Sudan’s declaration. Subsequently, the Ministry of Communications declared that it would terminate all commercial relationships with Swedish companies.
Prior to the protest in Stockholm, a number of males scaled the fence in the vicinity of the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad. In the background, an alarm could be heard as men were captured on video footage attempting to penetrate a door, setting fire to a structure, and standing in what appeared to be a chamber at the embassy. Some individuals were shirtless.
Subsequently, individuals conducted predawn prayers in the vicinity of the embassy.
As dawn dawned, police and other security personnel gathered at the embassy, while firefighters endeavored to extinguish the flames using a fire truck ladder. Some demonstrators, who were likely left behind by the police, persisted in their presence at the site, while carrying placards that featured Sadr’s visage.
The Foreign Ministry of Sweden has released the following statement: “Our personnel are secure.”
“We condemn all attacks on diplomats and personnel from international organizations,” the ministry stated. “The Vienna Convention is gravely violated by attacks on diplomatic missions and embassies.” “The protection of diplomatic missions and personnel is the responsibility of the Iranian authorities.”
Corrections Second Sentence: On Thursday, July 20, 2023, protesters scaled a wall at the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad. On Thursday morning, protesters who were incensed by the intended burning of a copy of the Quran entered the embassy compound, ignited a small fire, and then broke into the building.
Tobias Billström, the Swedish Foreign Minister, condemned the assaults as “wholly unacceptable” and announced that the ministry would summon Iraq’s charge d’affaires to Stockholm. Billström condemned the Iraqi authorities for “gravely failing” to safeguard the embassy and its personnel in a statement.
In a blast-walled territory in Baghdad, the Swedish Embassy and the Finnish Embassy are situated adjacent to one another. According to Matti Lassila, Finland’s ambassador to Iraq, the staffs of both embassies were proactively evacuated on Wednesday and were unharmed, as reported by the Finnish public broadcaster YLE.
Iraq’s Foreign Ministry also released a statement condemning the attack and pledging to hold the perpetrators accountable. However, the ministry did not provide an explanation for the breach or identify the individual responsible for the assault.
On Thursday, Stockholm police spokesman Mats Eriksson verified that the police had granted permission for a demonstration outside the Iraqi Embassy in Stockholm, which involved two individuals. He was unable to determine whether the demonstrators intended to burn the Quran, despite Momika’s announcement in social media videos that they intended to do so.
Sweden’s constitution safeguards the freedom to conduct public demonstrations. In the 1970s, blasphemy prohibitions were repealed. The police typically grant permission for a public gathering if they are confident that it can be conducted without posing significant risks to public safety or causing significant disruptions.
Nevertheless, the burning of the Quran is considered a blasphemous desecration of the sacred text of Islam by Muslims. In the past, Quran burnings have incited protests throughout the Muslim world, with some of these protests becoming violent. In response to the recent Quran burning, the Taliban in Afghanistan have suspended all activities of Swedish organizations in the country.
A Quran was incinerated outside a mosque in Stockholm last month by a man who goes by the name Momika in local media and on social media, causing widespread condemnation in the Islamic world during the significant Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
A far-right activist conducted a comparable demonstration outside the Turkish Embassy earlier this year, which impeded Sweden’s efforts to persuade Turkey to join NATO.
Protesters who advocate for al-Sadr entered the Baghdad embassy during daylight hours in June in response to the Quran burning. Thousands of demonstrators were observed on the streets of the nation on yet another day of protests. Protesters urged Iraqi officials to expel Sweden’s ambassador to Iraq on both that day and early Thursday.
After the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, al-Sadr, the son of a prominent Shiite cleric who was assassinated in a 1999 attack believed to be organized by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, promptly organized Shiite dispossessed under Saddam against the American occupation.
Saddam loyalists and Shiite extremists would soon engage in an insurgency against American forces. Al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia engaged in combat with American forces in Baghdad and other locations for a significant portion of 2004. After the bombing of one of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam, it is believed that Al-Sadr’s forces participated in the sectarian murders between Shiites and Sunnis that afflicted Iraq for several years.
Numerous modifications have transpired since that period.
Iraqi military offensives against the Islamic State group in Tikrit and other cities have been participated in by Al-Sadr’s adherents. He has organized demonstrations against government corruption, which have included the breaching of the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, a highly secure area that is home to numerous foreign embassies and government offices.
Following a nearly yearlong impasse in the formation of a new cabinet, he declared his retirement from politics in August of last year. In the October 2021 parliamentary elections, his party secured the highest number of seats; however, this was insufficient to establish a majority government. In order to secure the requisite number of ballots, his party established a coalition government with numerous smaller parties.
