Iraqis continue protests against Quran desecration

BAGHDAD — Thousands of Iraqis demonstrated in Baghdad on Saturday over the burning or damaging of the Quran during anti-Islam protests in Sweden and Denmark.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said those desecrating the Quran should face the "most severe punishment" and that by defending perpetrators Sweden was gearing up for "war "against Muslims.

Many Muslim states protested against insults to the Quran last week in protests in Sweden and Denmark, which both allow the book's burning under legal protections for freedom of speech.

Protesters gathered in Baghdad amid heavy security measures, with bridges leading to the Green Zone that houses many foreign embassies shut after an attempt by demonstrators to get to the Danish embassy early on Saturday.

That attempt, repelled by Iraqi security forces who fired tear gas according to a government source, came 48 hours after the Swedish embassy was set alight in protest at a planned burning of the Quran in Stockholm.

Iraq condemned the attack on the Swedish embassy but also expelled the Swedish ambassador in protest at the planned burning of the Quran, the central text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be a revelation from God.

On Friday in Denmark, a man set fire to a book purported to be the Quran on a square across from the Iraqi embassy in Copenhagen.

The event was livestreamed on the Facebook platform of a group that calls itself "Danish Patriots".The video shows the book burning in a tin foil tray next to the Iraqi flag on the ground, with two onlookers standing and talking next to it.

Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen condemned it as an act of "stupidity "by a few individuals, telling national broadcaster DR: "It is a disgraceful act to insult the religion of others".

Envoy summoned

Iran's Foreign Ministry said it had summoned the Danish ambassador on Friday to voice its protest.

During Thursday's anti-Islam demonstration in Stockholm, protesters kicked and partially destroyed a book they said was the Quran but left the area without setting it alight.

Khamenei demanded that Sweden hand over perpetrators to Islamic nations' judiciaries.

Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and his Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Saturday condemned the desecration of the Quran.

Such "sacrilegious" acts contradict human dignity and rights, Iran's Foreign Ministry said.

Zardari, for his part, pointed to his participation in a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council earlier this month, during which the council adopted a resolution that condemned and strongly rejected any advocacy of religious hatred, including desecration of the Quran.

Agencies - Xinhua