BAGHDAD: The situation turned tricky early Saturday as hundreds of protesters made an attempt to storm the heavily fortified Green Zone of Baghdad, which comprises different foreign embassies and the seat of the Iraqi government, following reports that the burning of a Quran was carried out by an ultranationalist group in front of the Iraqi Embassy in Denmark’s Copenhagen.
The protestors were blocked by security forces from reaching the Green Zone by blocking the Jumhuriya bridge leading to the area, which preventing them from reaching the Embassy of Denmark.
The latest protest march came just two days after people, incensed by the burning of the Islamic holy book in Sweden, laid siege to the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad. Protesters laid hold of the premises for hours, waving flags and signs featuring the influential Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. They also set off a small fire. Fearing mayhem, the embassy staff had been evacuated a day earlier.
After a few hours of this, prime minister of Iraq cut off diplomatic relations with Sweden in protest over the desecration of the Quran in that country.
The Iraqi asylum-seeker who left a copy of the Quran in flames during a protest in Stockholm last month had threatened to repeat the act again on Thursday but later stopped short of the actual deed. He, however, did stamp on the holy book of Islam with his feet. He did the same with an Iraqi flag, a photo of Sadr and of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
On Friday afternoon, thousands gathered to protest peacefully in Iraq and other countries with a Muslim majority. Also on the same day, Danish media reports said that a copy of the Quran and an Iraqi flag were burned by members of the ultra-nationalist group Danske Patrioter in front of the Iraqi Embassy in Copenhagen and even went to the extent of live-streaming the desecration on Facebook.
This incident led to the protests in Baghdad the same night as hundreds of protesters chanted slogans in support of Sadr and carried images of the prominent leader and the flag of his movement, along with the Iraqi flag, as they attempted to enter the Green Zone and clashed with security forces before they were dispersed.
Issuing a statement on Saturday, the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned “in strong and repeated terms,” the incident of desecration of the Holy Quran along with the flag of the Republic of Iraq in front of the Iraqi Embassy in Denmark.
It called on the international community to stand “urgently and responsibly” towards these “atrocities that violate social peace and coexistence around the world,” the statement read.
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