Koran desecration, embassy storm
Iraq expels Swedish ambassador
07/20/2023, 2:40 p.m
After a man in Sweden wants to burn a Koran and the authorities cannot forbid it, demonstrators storm the Swedish embassy in Baghdad. The Scandinavians are angry. Now the dispute is escalating at the diplomatic level.
In response to plans to burn the Koran in Sweden, Iraq has expelled the Swedish ambassador. Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani called on the diplomat to “leave Iraqi territory”. At the same time, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry announced that it would recall the charge d’affaires from the Iraqi embassy in the Swedish capital of Stockholm.
Demonstrators scale a wall at the Swedish embassy.
(Photo: picture alliance/dpa/AP)
The night before, amid tensions over an announced burning of the Koran in Sweden – which would not have been the first – the country’s embassy in Baghdad was stormed. Hundreds of demonstrators had gathered around 3 a.m. in front of the embassy in Baghdad. Protesters scaled the walls to the embassy grounds and set fire to parts of the building. Sweden condemned the storming of the embassy as “completely unacceptable”.
“The Iraqi authorities have a clear obligation under the Vienna Convention to protect diplomatic missions and personnel,” said Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom. The Iraqi chargé d’affaires will be summoned to the foreign ministry.
Not the first Koran campaign
Swedish police had cleared a rally planned for Thursday in front of the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm, at which two participants were expected to burn a Koran and an Iraqi flag. One of the two men, an immigrant from Iraq, set fire to a Koran in front of a Stockholm mosque back in June. He justified his application by saying that he wanted to “express his opinion on the Koran” with the action.
The police wanted to ban similar demonstrations due to security concerns, but have so far failed because of courts that see restrictions on freedom of expression. According to several news agencies, a book that demonstrators called the Koran was kicked and partially destroyed at the rally in front of the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm. But it wasn’t burned.