Iraq slams Sweden for allowing its diaspora member to burn Quran

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Iraqi government has strongly condemned the act of burning a number of pages from Islam’s holy book, the Quran, outside a mosque in the Swedish capital on Wednesday by a diaspora community member and criticized the Nordic country’s authorities for permitting such a “provocation,” according to statements.

"Iraq strongly condemns and denounces the Swedish authorities’ permit for an extremist to burn a copy of the holy Quran in a manner that gravely insults the religious sacred values", a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs read on Thursday.

The Ministry described the act as a “dangerous provocation,” urging the international community to put an end to such “unacceptable acts” and hold the perpetrators accountable, he added.

Salwan Momika, 37, a member of the Iraqi diaspora community in Sweden, set a number of the Quran’s pages ablaze on Wednesday, as Sunni Muslims around the world marked the first day of the Eid al-Adha (Feast of Sacrifice) holiday.

In the presence of heavy police presence, Momika, stomping on the Quran, lit a few pages of the holy book on fire before kicking it.

He put a few strips of bacon, whose consumption is forbidden in Islam, inside the Quran in an act to further infuriate the crowd near the mosque, who were shouting Allahu Akbar (God is the Greatest).

Accompanied by a co-protestor, the Iraqi protestor told Swedish media that he wanted to highlight “the importance of freedom of speech.”

Police later launched an investigation into the man for "agitation against an ethnic group".

The act has drawn severe condemnation from Muslims in Iraq and other parts of the world. Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan swiftly reacted to the burning act on Wednesday.  

"It is unacceptable to allow these anti-Islamic actions under the pretext of freedom of expression," Fidan said in a tweet.“Turning a blind eye to such atrocious acts is to be complicit," he added. 

The fate of Sweden’s accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) depends on Turkey’s greenlight, which had not been given so far due to Ankara’s opposition to Stockholm’s “support” for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an outlawed Kurdish militant group fighting Turkey since the mid-1980s.

Top diplomats from Turkey and Sweden are set to meet on July 6 in Brussels, five days before the security consortium’s summit in Lithuania.

Ankara has previously voiced its strong criticism of Sweden regarding similar incidents of burning the Quran.