BAGHDAD – The Iraqi government has ordered the Swedish ambassador in Baghdad to leave as a diplomatic dispute over the recent burning of a Quran in Stockholm intensifies.
Baghdad has also recalled its charge d’affaires in Sweden and suspended business with Swedish companies.
Protesters in the Iraqi capital stormed the Swedish embassy for a second time on Thursday and torched its compound.
Sweden’s foreign minister described the protests as “completely unacceptable”.
Hundreds of people breached the embassy after they heard that an Iraqi Christian refugee had been given permission by Swedish police to burn a Quran in Stockholm for a second time.
In the event Salwan Momika stamped on the book outside the Iraqi embassy but did not set fire to it. Last month he set a copy alight outside Stockholm’s main mosque.
Muslims consider the Quran to be the word of God and view any intentional damage or show of disrespect towards it as deeply offensive.
But the Stockholm protests were allowed to go ahead after the courts overturned a police ban, because of the legal right to freedom of assembly.
Protesters in Baghdad, mainly followers of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, scaled the Swedish embassy’s walls, set fires within its compound and clashed with riot police.
Sweden has said that all of its employees in Baghdad were safe following the unrest. (BBC)
