Protests in reaction to the Koran stomping by an Iraqi refugee in Stockholm persisted in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities on Friday, July 21. Among the protesters, many are supporters of the Shia nationalist political leader Moqtada Sadr, who urged them to take to the streets in a scarcely hidden show of force.
Protesters took to the streets of the Iraqi capital Friday to denounce Sweden’s permission for protests that desecrate the Koran, as Stockholm withdrew staff from its Baghdad embassy.
Hundreds of people gathered in Baghdad’s Sadr City after Friday prayers, chanting “Yes, yes to Islam, yes, yes to the Koran”, an AFP correspondent said.
The rallies came amid heightened tensions between Sweden and Iraq over a Sweden-based Iraqi refugee who last month burnt pages of the Koran outside Stockholm’s main mosque.
In the latest such incident on Thursday, the refugee, Salwan Momika, stepped on the Koran but did not burn it, triggering renewed condemnation and calls for protest across the Muslim world.
Sweden on Friday cited security concerns in a decision to relocate embassy staff and operations from Baghdad to Stockholm, after protesters stormed the embassy compound in a pre-dawn raid this week.
The Iraqi government condemned the attack on the embassy. It also retaliated against the protest in Sweden by expelling its ambassador, vowing to sever ties and suspending the operating licence of Swedish telecom giant Ericsson.
“The expulsion of the ambassador is too little, we want more,” said protester Sabbah al-Tai, 45, in Sadr City, a working-class district of Baghdad.
“Through this demonstration, we want to send a message to the United Nations,” said Amer Shemal, a Sadr City municipality official, calling on member states to “penalise any desecration of holy books — those of Islam, of Christianity, of Judaism”.
A Sadrist show of force
The crowd gathered there at the order of influential Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, whose followers were behind the embassy raid late Wednesday.
Carrying parasols to shield from the baking summer heat, some protesters set fire to rainbow flags, an action Sadr says highlights the “double standard” of Western governments in defending LGBTQ rights while allowing the desecration of religious texts.
The religious dignitary Moqtada Sadrand political leader is no stranger to stunts, and has repeatedly demonstrated his ability to mobilize thousands of demonstrators in the streets of Iraq.
In Summer 2022, his supporters invaded Parliament in Baghdad and staged a sit-in. At the time, Moqtada Sadr was in the midst of a tug-of-war with the opposing political camp over the appointment of a prime minister. The confrontation degenerated into deadly clashes with the army and the former pro-Iran paramilitary Hachd al-Chaabi, in the heart of Baghdad.
With the Swedish case, Moqtada Sadr is sending “messages to his public” and “warnings” to his “political opponents”: “I’ve kept the same strength, I can come back at any time”, says political scientist Ali al-Baidar.
His current also seeks “to be seen as the shepherd of the religious dossier in Iraq”, he stresses, and has given the affair “an international scale”.
Malo Pinatel, with AFP
