TIMES OF ISRAEL
Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern nations on Thursday condemned the burning of the Quran by an Iraqi living in Sweden, warning such acts “inflame” the feelings of Muslims around the world.
Under a heavy police presence, Salwan Momika, a 37-year-old who fled to Sweden several years ago, on Wednesday stomped on the Quran before setting several pages alight in front of Stockholm’s largest mosque.
Police in the Swedish capital had granted him a permit for the protest in line with free-speech protections, but said later they had opened an investigation into the man over “agitation.”
The incident occurred as Muslims around the world began marking the Eid al-Adha holiday and as the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia was drawing to a close.
Iraq condemned the Swedish authorities’ decision to grant an “extremist” permission to burn the Quran.
“These events inflame the feelings of Muslims around the world and represent a dangerous provocation for them,” the foreign ministry in Baghdad said.
Iraq’s influential Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr called for a demonstration outside the Swedish embassy in Baghdad to demand the removal of the ambassador, charging that his state is “hostile to Islam.”
Iran joined in the condemnation, calling the Quran burning “provocative, ill-considered and unacceptable.”
“The government and people of the Islamic Republic of Iran… do not tolerate such an insult and strongly condemn it,” said foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanani.
“The Swedish government is expected to seriously consider the principle of responsibility and accountability in this regard, while preventing the repetition of insulting the holy sanctities,” he added.
Saudi Arabia, which hosted around 1.8 million Muslim pilgrims for the hajj that ended on Wednesday, also denounced the Quran burning.
“These hateful and repeated acts cannot be accepted with any justification,” the Saudi foreign ministry said.
Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous country, called the Quran burning a “disgraceful act provoking the feelings of Muslims” as they mark Eid.
The Cairo-based Arab League branded it an “assault on the core of our Islamic faith.”
