Iraqi security forces took action on Saturday July 22, to disperse approximately 1,000 supporters of Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr. The supporters had attempted to march towards Baghdad’s Green Zone, which houses foreign embassies, as they believed a Koran had been disrespected in Denmark.
Iraqi security forces on Saturday dispersed about 1,000 supporters of Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr who tried to march to Baghdad’s Green Zone housing foreign embassies, believing a Koran had been desecrated in Denmark.
The protesters were reacting to reports of an apparent desecration of the Muslim holy book for the third time within a month, with the first two in Sweden already raising diplomatic tensions.
On its Facebook page, the extreme right group Danske Patrioter posted on Friday a video of a man burning what seemed to be a Koran and trampling an Iraqi flag.
Hours later, the Danish Refugee Council office in Iraq’s main southern city of Basra came under armed attack.
Sadr, who has a following of millions among the country’s majority Shiite population and wields great influence over national politics, has urged action after Koran desecrations in Sweden.
Security forces blocked two bridges leading to the high-security Green Zone where governmental institutions and foreign embassies are located.
Another security source said officers used batons and tear gas to repel a small group of demonstrators who managed to break into the Green Zone in an attempt to reach the Danish embassy.
Early Saturday, Iraq’s foreign ministry had condemned “the desecration of the holy Koran and the Iraqi flag” in front of the embassy in Denmark.
Iraq also condemned the attack on Sweden’s embassy but expelled Stockholm’s ambassador.
The actions of Sweden-based Iraqi refugee Salwan Momika, whose book-burning protest had been permitted by Stockholm on free speech grounds, triggered condemnation across the Muslim world.
Sadr said in a vague tweet on Saturday that “words are no longer enough” in defending religion.
Khalil Wakim, with AFP
