Iraq expels Sweden envoy as Quran stomped in Stockholm
Tensions flared between Iraq and Sweden Thursday over a Stockholm protest in which a man stomped on the Quran, weeks after he had burnt pages of Islam’s holy booksparking widespread Muslim anger.
News that Swedish authorities would permit the protest to proceed on free speech grounds had led hundreds of Iraqis to storm and torch Sweden’s Baghdad embassy in a chaotic pre-dawn attack.
Iraq’s government condemned the attack but retaliated against the protest in Sweden by expelling its ambassador, vowing to sever ties and suspending the operating licence of Swedish telecom giant Ericsson.
Around the time of the protest outside the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani “instructed the Swedish ambassador in Baghdad to leave Iraqi territory”.
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The decision was “prompted by the Swedish government’s repeated permission for the burning of the Holy Quran, insulting Islamic sanctities and the burning of the Iraqi flag”, his office said.
In the end, Sweden-based Iraqi refugee Salwan Momika, 37, stepped on the Quranbut did not burn pages as he did last month outside Stockholm’s main mosque.
Sweden and other European countries have previously seen protests where far right and other activists, citing free speech protections, damage or destroy religious symbols or books, often sparking protests.
