Calay News
Hundreds of people took part in a protest in Baghdad after a Friday prayer called by influential Iraqi religious leader Moqtada Sadr. Meanwhile, the Swedish Foreign Ministry announced the temporary repatriation of its embassy in Baghdad to Stockholm due to security reasons. This decision was made after two desecrations of the Qur’an took place in Stockholm, carried out by an Iraqi refugee named Salwan Momika.
At the demonstration in Baghdad, participants gathered in the Madinet Sadr neighborhood, waving flags and chanting slogans in support of Islam, the Koran, and their country. They also burned rainbow flags, which Moqtada Sadr interpreted as a way of expressing his discontent with the Western “double standards” that allow the defense of the LGBT+ community while allowing the desecration of the Qur’an.
Protests were also held in Tehran, Iran, with demonstrators expressing outrage against the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, and Sweden over desecrations of the Quran in Stockholm. The protests spread to Lebanon, where hundreds of people gathered outside mosques in a southern suburb of Beirut, a stronghold of the armed Shiite political group Hezbollah.
The diplomatic crisis between Sweden and Iraq was exacerbated by desecrations of the Koran in Stockholm, prompting supporters of Moqtada Sadr to twice storm the Swedish embassy in Baghdad, even burning it down. In response, the Iraqi government ordered the expulsion of the Swedish ambassador.
The protest in Baghdad once again showed the mobilization capacity of Moqtada Sadr, whose supporters invaded the Iraqi Parliament in 2022 amid political tensions over the appointment of a new prime minister. The situation remains tense, and the international community is watching how events will unfold.
