Sébastien Le Belzic with AFP / Photo credit: CAISA RASMUSSEN / TT NEWS AGENCY / AFP
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12:50 p.m., July 20, 2023
The Swedish embassy in Baghdad was set on fire before dawn on Thursday during a demonstration organized by supporters of religious leader Moqtada Sadr. An act, condemned by the Swedish authorities, which comes before a new event planned in Stockholm where a copy of the Koran must be burned.
“What happened is totally unacceptable”
After several hours of tension between the demonstrators and the anti-riot forces in front of the embassy, calm has been restored, noted in the morning an AFP correspondent on the spot.
The embassy staff are “safe”, the Swedish Foreign Ministry told AFP, which later in the day summoned the Iraqi charge d’affaires to Stockholm. “What happened is totally unacceptable,” said Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström.
Iraq threatens to ‘sever diplomatic relations with Sweden’
The Iraqi government responded by threatening to “sever diplomatic relations with Sweden” if a new book burning took place in Stockholm, according to a statement from Prime Minister Mohamed Chia al-Soudani’s office.
The fire is under control but the extent of the damage is not yet known, told AFP a source within the Iraqi Civil Defense and an official at the Ministry of the Interior. The narrow street leading to the embassy remains closed but traffic has resumed in the area.
Brandishing copies of the Quran and portraits of the influential Shia cleric and father of Moqtada Sadr, Mohamed Sadeq al-Sadr, protesters set fire to the building around 3 a.m. local time (0000 GMT) before being dispersed by police with water cannons. Some were chased with electric batons to keep them away from the embassy, according to an AFP photographer. Demonstrators responded by throwing stones.
Swedish police allow mini-rally on Thursday in Stockholm outside Iraq embassy
The assault on the embassy in Baghdad comes as Swedish police cleared a mini-rally on Thursday in Stockholm outside the Iraqi embassy. One of the organizers, Salwan Momika, an Iraqi refugee in Sweden, announced on Facebook that he wanted to burn a copy of the Koran and an Iraqi flag. If it takes place, the burning scheduled for 1:00 p.m. local time (11:00 GMT) will be the third since January.
“We are mobilized today to denounce the burning of the Koran, which is only love and faith,” Hassan Ahmed, a protester, told AFP in Baghdad. “We demand that the Swedish government and the Iraqi government stop this type of initiative.” “We didn’t wait for the morning, we entered at dawn, we burned down the Swedish embassy,” another young protester told AFP, before chanting “Moqtada Moqtada Moqtada” after the influential religious leader.
About 20 demonstrators were arrested after the fire, according to a security source interviewed by AFP. The authorities have decided to “bring to justice the perpetrators of the fire who have been arrested”, according to the Prime Minister’s office.
“Provocative gestures” denounced by the Iranian government
On Thursday, participants in a security meeting chaired by the Prime Minister “condemned the burning of the embassy”, seeing it as “a security breach”. Referring to the burnings, the Iraqi government also denounced “provocative gestures” which constitute “an incitement to the culture of violence and hatred”.
Salwan Momika had already burned a few pages of a copy of the Koran on June 28 in front of the largest mosque in Stockholm during the day of Eid al-Adha, a holiday celebrated by Muslims around the world.
This first incident prompted supporters of Moqtada Sadr to storm the Swedish embassy in Baghdad on 29 June. They went in and stayed there for about a quarter of an hour before coming out. The gesture of Mr. Momika in Stockholm had then provoked a volley of international condemnations.
This type of action has already taken place in Sweden or in other European countries, sometimes at the initiative of far-right movements. They have led to demonstrations and diplomatic tensions in the past.
A fan of outbursts, Moqtada Sadr has repeatedly demonstrated his ability to mobilize thousands of demonstrators in the streets of Iraq. In the summer of 2022, his supporters thus invaded the Parliament in Baghdad and established a sit-in lasting several weeks. Moqtada Sadr was then in the midst of a showdown with the opposing political camp over the appointment of a prime minister.