When police in Stockholm approved a second planned burning of the Muslim holy book, the Quran, protesters in Baghdad attacked the main gates of the Swedish embassy. Iraqi security forces separated the crowd.
Social media videos depicted a sizable crowd of demonstrators inside the Swedish embassy’s perimeter as well as black smoke and fire emanating from the structure.
According to a security source who spoke to CNN, security personnel using electric batons went after protesters and used water cannons to disperse them and put out the fire.
The demonstrators left the Swedish Embassy’s perimeter after setting a portion of it on fire, according to eyewitnesses who spoke to CNN, “after delivering their message of protest against the act of burning the Holy Book of God.”
According to numerous groups, security personnel detained several journalists covering the protests and at least one of them was physically assaulted.
Reuters Iraq Bureau Chief Timour Azhari tweeted on Thursday that “journalists should be free to report the news without fear of harassment or harm, wherever they are.” After many hours, the two imprisoned Reuters journalists were freed, the news organization reported.
Head of the Iraq-based Journalistic Freedoms Observatory (JFO), Ziyad Al-Ajili, told CNN that three photojournalists employed by foreign news organizations were detained, while a fourth was assaulted by security personnel and had his camera damaged.
Later on Thursday, the scheduled demonstration took place in front of the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm. Salwan Momika, an Iraqi national living in Sweden, planned it. Last month, during the Muslim festival of Eid-al-Adha, Momika performed a performance that generated uproar in Iraq and across the globe by burning a copy of the Quran outside a mosque in Stockholm.
A Quran was kicked and partially destroyed by two protestors during Thursday’s demonstration, and Momika stepped on a Quran while dusting his shoes with an image of the Iraqi flag, according to videos seen by CNN. Ultimately, no Qurans were burned during the demonstration.
Authorities from Sweden and Iraq traded sharp words over the protests, with Baghdad threatening to terminate diplomatic ties with Stockholm for state-sanctioned Quran-burning demonstrations.
The office of the Iraqi prime minister stated that “granting permission under the guise of freedom of expression is viewed as provocative and against international covenants and norms, which emphasize respect for religions and beliefs.”
The mutilation of the sacred book in Sweden was also openly denounced by Turkey, Iran, and Saudi Arabia; officials in Tehran and Riyadh summoned Swedish diplomats to express their outrage.
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