Protesters collect in Baghdad’s Tahrir Sq., carrying Iraqi flags and pictures of influential Iraqi Shiite cleric and political chief Muqtada al-Sadr, on Saturday following experiences of the burning of a Quran carried out by a ultranationalist group in entrance of the Iraqi Embassy in Copenhagen.
Ali Jabar/AP
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Ali Jabar/AP
Protesters collect in Baghdad’s Tahrir Sq., carrying Iraqi flags and pictures of influential Iraqi Shiite cleric and political chief Muqtada al-Sadr, on Saturday following experiences of the burning of a Quran carried out by a ultranationalist group in entrance of the Iraqi Embassy in Copenhagen.
Ali Jabar/AP
BAGHDAD — Tensions flared once more in Iraq Saturday over a sequence of current protests in Europe involving desecration of the Quran, Islam’s holy guide, which have sparked a debate over the stability between freedom of speech and spiritual sensitivities.
A whole lot of protesters tried to storm Baghdad’s closely fortified Inexperienced Zone, which homes overseas embassies and the seat of Iraq’s authorities, early Saturday following experiences that an ultranationalist group burned a replica of the Quran in entrance of the Iraqi Embassy within the Danish capital, Copenhagen.
The protest got here two days after individuals angered by the deliberate burning of the Islamic holy guide in Sweden stormed the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad.
Safety forces on Saturday pushed again protesters, who blocked the Jumhuriya bridge resulting in the Inexperienced Zone, stopping them from reaching the Danish Embassy.
Elsewhere in Iraq, protesters burned three caravans belonging to a demining undertaking run by the the Danish Refugee Council, or DRC, within the metropolis of Basra within the south, native police mentioned in an announcement. The hearth was extinguished by civil protection responders, and there have been “no human casualties, solely materials losses,” the assertion mentioned.
The DRC confirmed in an emailed assertion to The Related Press that its premises in Basra “got here beneath armed assault” early Saturday.
“We deplore this assault – assist staff ought to by no means be a goal of violence,” Lilu Thapa, DRC’s govt director for the Center East mentioned.
Iraq’s prime minister has minimize diplomatic ties with Sweden in protest over the desecration of the Quran in that nation.
An Iraqi asylum-seeker who burned a replica of the Quran throughout an illustration final month in Stockholm had threatened to do the identical factor once more Thursday however in the end stopped wanting setting fireplace to the guide. He did, nonetheless, kick and step on it, and did the identical with an Iraqi flag and a photograph of influential Iraqi Shiite cleric and political chief Muqtada al-Sadr and of Iran’s supreme chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The best to carry public demonstrations is protected by the structure in Sweden, and blasphemy legal guidelines had been deserted within the Nineteen Seventies. Police usually give permission primarily based on whether or not they consider a public gathering could be held with out main disruptions or security dangers.
On Friday afternoon, hundreds protested peacefully in Iraq and different Muslim-majority international locations.
Within the incident in Copenhagen, in response to Danish media experiences, members of the ultranationalist group Danske Patrioter burned a replica of the Quran and an Iraqi flag in entrance of the Iraqi Embassy, livestreaming the motion on Fb.
Copenhagen police spokeswoman Trine Fisker advised The Related Press that “a really small demonstration” with fewer than 10 individuals occurred Friday afternoon throughout the road from the Iraqi Embassy and {that a} guide was burned.
“We have no idea what guide it was,” she mentioned. “Apparently they tried to burn the Iraqi flag and after that, anyone stepped on it.”
Fisker mentioned the “political angle shouldn’t be for the police to remark” on, however the “occasion was peaceable … from a police perspective.”
The Danish authorities on Saturday condemned the demonstration. Overseas Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen referred to as the motion “stupidity {that a} small handful of people did.”
“It’s a shameful act to violate the faith of others,” he advised Danish public broadcaster DR. “This is applicable each to the burning of Qurans and different non secular symbols. It has no different goal than to impress and create division.”
The incident prompted the protests in Baghdad in a single day. Chanting in assist of Sadr and carrying photographs of the distinguished chief and the flag related along with his motion, together with the Iraqi flag, lots of of protesters tried to enter the Inexperienced Zone and clashed with safety forces earlier than dispersing.
In an announcement on Saturday, the Iraqi Ministry of Overseas Affairs condemned “in sturdy and repeated phrases, the incident of abuse towards the Holy Quran and the flag of the Republic of Iraq in entrance of the Iraqi Embassy in Denmark.”
It referred to as the worldwide neighborhood “to face urgently and responsibly in the direction of these atrocities that violate social peace and coexistence all over the world.” the assertion learn.
One other protest is scheduled to happen in Baghdad at 6 p.m.
