ALBAWABA - In response to police in Stockholm approving a demonstration where organizers are reportedly planning another burning of the Muslim holy book, the Quran, hundreds of Iraqi protestors stormed the main gates of the Swedish Embassy in the Green Zone of Baghdad earlier on Thursday.
"All Baghdad embassy staff were safe," the Swedish foreign ministry press office said in a statement. "The Iraqi government has instructed the competent security authorities to conduct an urgent investigation and take the necessary security measures in order to uncover the circumstances of the incident and identify the perpetrators of this act and hold them accountable according to the law," the statement reads.
Witnesses said that protestors set parts of the embassy ablaze before withdrawing from the perimeter of the embassy after “delivering their message of protest against the act of burning the Holy Book of God”.
On their end, the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement condemning the incident saying is part of a concerning pattern of assaults on diplomatic missions, posing a significant security threat.
The demonstrations were called upon by supporters of Sadr in protests against the second permission given to burn the Quran again in Sweden, according to posts in a popular Telegram group linked to the influential leader and other pro-Sadr media.
Quran Burning in Stockholm
The spark for the current protests surfaced when an Iraqi man burned a copy of the holy book last month in Stockholm.
Following the burning incident in Stockholm, a number of Muslim countries including the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Morocco, Turkey, and Jordan all expressed outrage over the incident, whereas Iraq requested the man's extradition so that he could stand trial there.
