BAGHDAD: Iraq’s prime minister ordered expulsion of the Swedish ambassador from Iraq and the withdrawal of the Iraqi charge d’affaires from Sweden on Thursday as a man desecrated a copy of the Quran in Stockholm with permission from Swedish authorities.
The diplomatic blowup came hours after Iraqi protesters, angered by the planned burning of a copy of the Islamic holy book, stormed the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad early on Thursday, breaking into the compound and lighting a small fire.
Online videos showed demonstrators at the diplomatic post waving flags and signs showing the influential Iraqi Shiite cleric and political leader Muqtada al-Sadr before a planned burning of the Islamic holy book on Thursday in Stockholm by an Iraqi asylum-seeker who burned a copy of the Quran in a previous demonstration last month.
Following the incident, the Swedish Embassy announced that it had closed to visitors without specifying when it would reopen. Iraq PM Mohammed Shia al-Sudani stated that authorities would prosecute those responsible for the arson as well as referring “negligent security officials” for investigation.
He also mentioned that Iraq had informed its Swedish counterpart on Wednesday that Iraq would cut off diplomatic relations should the Quran burning go forward.
In Stockholm, two men held an anti-Islam protest on a lawn about 100 meters (300 feet) from the Iraq Embassy. One of them, identified by Swedish media as Salwan Momika, an Iraqi Christian living in Sweden, stepped on and kicked the Quran, but didn’t set it on fire. Momika also stepped on and kicked an Iraqi flag and photographs of Sadr and of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. About 50 people including journalists and a handful of counter-demonstrators watched the demonstration from behind police barricades. The head of Iraq’s Media and Communications Commission announced it had suspended the licence of Swedish company Ericsson to operate in Iraq.
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström called the attacks on embassy “completely unacceptable” and said the ministry would summon Iraq’s charge d’affaires in Stockholm.