Iraq on Thursday expelled Sweden’s ambassador after a man stomped on a copy of the Qur’an at a Stockholm demonstration just hours after the Swedish embassy in Baghdad was torched over the planned protest.
Sweden-based Iraqi refugee Salwan Momika, 37, stomped on and kicked the Qur’an but left the protest without burning it, just weeks after he set fire to pages of the book outside Stockholm’s main mosque.
Sweden and other European countries have previously seen protests where far-right and other activists, citing free speech protections, damage or destroy religious symbols or books, commonly sparking protests and heightening diplomatic tensions.
Around the time of Thursday’s protest in Stockholm, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia Al-Sudani “instructed the Swedish ambassador in Baghdad to leave Iraqi territory,” according to a statement by his office.
It said the decision was “prompted by the Swedish government’s repeated permission for the burning of Quran.
