2023-07-21 14:10:43
Demonstrators took to the streets in Iraq, Iran and Lebanon on Friday to denounce Sweden’s authorization of rallies to desecrate the Koran, as Stockholm repatriated its embassy staff to Baghdad.
• Read also: Sweden temporarily repatriates its embassy from Iraq to Stockholm
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• Read also: Swedish embassy in Baghdad set on fire during protest
The Swedish Foreign Ministry has announced that it has temporarily relocated the operations and staff of its embassy to Baghdad, which was burned down the day before by supporters of Moqtada Sadr.
In Tehran, hundreds of protesters waving Iranian flags and copies of the Koran chanted “Down with the US, UK, Israel and Sweden”, while some set fire to the blue and yellow Swedish flag.
Hundreds of people also gathered in Lebanon in front of mosques in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, and in other cities.
The demonstrators set fire to rainbow flags, Moqtada Sadr seeing it as a way of irritating Westerners and denouncing “the double standard” which, according to him, consists of defending LGBT + minorities but authorizing the desecration of the Koran.
“Through this demonstration, we want to send our voice to the UN, to obtain the penalization of any desecration of holy books, those of Islam, Christianity, Judaism: these are all holy books”, insists Amer Shemal, an official at the municipality of Madinet Sadr.
Diplomatic crisis
Stockholm was the scene of two desecrations of the Koran, at the end of June and then on July 20, organized by an Iraqi refugee. On Thursday, he trampled and tore a copy of the book to pieces, but failed to set it on fire as planned.
The Swedish police had authorized these gatherings in the name of freedom of assembly, assuring that this did not amount to condoning what would happen there.
But these initiatives have caused a serious diplomatic crisis between Sweden and Iraq, which on Thursday decreed the expulsion of the Swedish ambassador.
Also twice, supporters of Moqtada Sadr invaded the Swedish embassy in Baghdad, which was set on fire on Thursday.
“Embassy operations and expatriate staff have been temporarily relocated to Stockholm for security reasons,” Swedish diplomacy said.
Saudi Arabia and Iran, two regional heavyweights, have summoned representatives of Swedish diplomatic missions to their countries.
“Warning”
A fan of outbursts, the Iraqi Moqtada Sadr has several times demonstrated his ability to mobilize thousands of demonstrators in the streets of Iraq.
In the summer of 2022, his supporters invaded the parliament in Baghdad and instituted a sit-in. Moqtada Sadr was then in the midst of a showdown with the opposing political camp over the appointment of a Prime Minister. A face-to-face that had degenerated into deadly clashes with the army and the former pro-Iranian paramilitaries of Hachd al-Chaabi, in the heart of Baghdad.
With the Swedish file, Moqtada Sadr sends “messages to his public” and “warnings” to his “political adversaries”: “I have retained the same strength, I can come back at any time,” said political scientist Ali al-Baidar.
His current also seeks to “be seen as the shepherd of the religious file in Iraq” he underlines and has given the affair “an international scale”.
“How this is going to be exploited politically, or be instrumentalized for electoral purposes, it will depend on the will of Sadr,” he adds, referring to the crucial election of the provincial councils scheduled for December.
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