The burning of a Quran exterior a mosque in Sweden on one of many holiest days in Islam sparked outrage Wednesday in lots of Muslim nations and widespread condemnations of the Swedish authorities.

In Iraq, a number of hundred individuals protested exterior the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad on the urging of Muqtada al-Sadr, a populist cleric who known as on the Iraqi authorities to interrupt off diplomatic relations with Sweden, which he known as “hostile” to Islam.

The crowd turned more and more indignant, scaling the wall surrounding the compound and pushing by means of an exterior gate. There was no signal that Iraqi diplomatic police forces tried to cease them. The protesters didn’t enter the embassy itself, which was closed for the Islamic vacation, and finally left. Mr. Sadr known as for bigger protests after prayers on Friday.

Iraq’s international ministry additionally condemned Sweden “for allowing an extremist to burn a copy of the holy Quran.”

In the incident in Stockholm on Wednesday, two males, watched by a crowd of individuals, tore pages out of a Quran and burned them exterior a mosque.

In an utility for the allow, one of many males, Salwan Momika, recognized by Swedish media as an Iraqi immigrant dwelling in Sweden, mentioned he wished to specific his opinion concerning the Quran by tearing it up and burning it. The police had granted a allow for the demonstration after a Swedish courtroom dominated that banning it could impinge on the fitting to freedom of speech.

However, the allow says that demonstrators usually are not allowed to burn objects in Stockholm.

The timing of the burning of Islam’s holy e-book, through the essential Muslim vacation of Eid al-Adha, additional angered and pained Muslims in lots of nations, who have been celebrating the vacation, which honors the tip of the hajj pilgrimage.

Morocco summoned Sweden’s consultant in Rabat to ask him to sentence the act and recalled its personal ambassador in Sweden according to the Moroccan state news agency. Jordan additionally mentioned it had expressed its displeasure to Sweden’s ambassador, based on the state news agency, calling it “a racist act of serious hate.”

Egypt known as the burning of the Quran “a disgraceful act” and Saudi Arabia mentioned that such “hateful and repeated acts cannot be accepted with any justification.” Malaysia’s foreign minister mentioned the desecration of a holy e-book whereas Muslims celebrated such an essential vacation was “offensive to Muslims worldwide.”

And President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey mentioned in an handle Thursday that the nation would by no means bow to “the politics of provocation,” in a reference to the incident in Sweden, based on the Anadolu state news company. Insulting issues that have been sacred to Muslims, he mentioned, was “not freedom of thought.”

His condemnation got here as diplomatic ties are already strained between Turkey and Sweden, with the Turkish government holding up a Swedish bid to hitch NATO. Turkey needs Sweden to take a harder line on pro-Kurdish activists and members of an outlawed spiritual group whom it considers terrorists dwelling in Sweden.

The burning of the Quran in Stockholm on Wednesday adopted an identical incident in January during which a far-right Danish-Swedish determine burned a replica of the holy e-book exterior the Turkish Embassy within the Swedish capital, which additionally exacerbated tensions with Turkey.

Since then, the police in Stockholm mentioned they’d rejected two different requests to protest by burning Qurans and that Sweden’s safety equipment had expressed worries that such acts would increase safety issues and pose a menace to embassies overseas.

A Swedish courtroom in April overturned the police’s determination, saying that the police didn’t have ample proof to ban the protests. Sweden has lengthy grappled over whether or not to permit such demonstrations, with the implications they’ve without spending a dime speech and non secular inclusivity.

The Stockholm police mentioned they have been investigating Mr. Momika for violating the burning ban and for incitement in opposition to a gaggle of individuals.

The Quran burning in Stockholm was significantly troubling to many Iraqis as a result of it was broadly reported that it was carried out by an Iraqi immigrant, Mr. Momika. Calls to Mr. Momika on Thursday weren’t answered.

Mr. Sadr, the Iraqi cleric, known as on the federal government in Iraq to strip Mr. Momika of his citizenship and for Sweden to repatriate him for prosecution. If Sweden didn’t do, he mentioned, he needs to be tried in absentia in Iraq.

There are greater than 140,000 Iraqi-born immigrants in Sweden, the second largest immigrant group within the nation after Swedish Finns.