Koran burning in Sweden sparks protest in Baghdad

Sadr had called on his followers to hold the protest and demand the expulsion of the Swedish ambassador, the cutting ties with Sweden and to keep burning the LGBT flag until the eighth day of the lunar month of Muharram because "it is what irritates them the most", he said in a statement. "The ambassador should go and ...

Dozens of Iraqis protested on Thursday in front of the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad after a man burned a Koran outside a mosque in Stockholm. Some of the protesters set fire to a rainbow-coloured flag representing the LGBT community and many held the Koran and portraits of populist Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and chanted "yes, yes to the Koran".

The government of several Muslim countries, including Iraq, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Morocco have issued protests about the incident. In its permit for Wednesday's demonstration, Swedish police said that while it "may have foreign policy consequences", the security risks and consequences linked to a Koran burning were not of such a nature that the application should be rejected.

After the burning, Swedish police charged the man who carried it out with agitation against an ethnic or national group. Sadr had called on his followers to hold the protest and demand the expulsion of the Swedish ambassador, the cutting ties with Sweden and to keep burning the LGBT flag until the eighth day of the lunar month of Muharram because "it is what irritates them the most", he said in a statement.

"The ambassador should go and ... the embassy should not stay in Iraq at all ...,” protester Moamal Abbas said.