Hundreds try to storm Danish Embassy in Baghdad over Quran burning reports
BAGHDAD, July 22
Iraqi security forces fired tear gas to repel hundreds of protesters as they tried to get to the Danish Embassy in Baghdad early on Saturday after reports a Quran was burned in Denmark, according to a government source and videos on social media.
The incident at Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone happened two days after demonstrators stormed and set alight the Swedish Embassy in protest at a planned burning of the Quran in Stockholm.
Iraq condemned the attack on the Swedish Embassy but also expelled the Swedish ambassador in protest at the planned burning of the Quran, the central text of Islam which Muslims believe to be a revelation from God.
On Friday in Denmark, a man set fire to a book purported to be the Quran on a square across from the Iraqi Embassy in Copenhagen.
The event was livestreamed on the Facebook platform of a group that calls itself “Danish Patriots”. The video shows the book burning in a tin foil tray next to the Iraqi flag on the ground, with two onlookers standing and talking next to it.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen condemned it as an act of “stupidity” by a few individuals, telling national broadcaster DR: “It is a disgraceful act to insult the religion of others”.
“This applies to the burning of Qurans and other religious symbols. It has no other purpose than to provoke and create division,” he said. He noted however that burning religious books was not a crime in Denmark.
During Thursday’s anti-Islam demonstration in Stockholm, protesters kicked and partially destroyed a book they said was the Quran but left the area after an hour without setting it alight.
The incident prompted Saudi Arabia and Iran to summon Swedish diplomats in protest.
Iran on Saturday urged Denmark and Sweden to take measures to end repeated attacks on the Quran in the Nordic countries, saying Muslims around the world expected the desecration to be stopped. — Reuters
