BAGHDAD — Tensions flared once more in Iraq Saturday over a collection of latest protests in Europe involving desecration of the Quran, Islam’s holy ebook, which have sparked a debate over the stability between freedom of speech and spiritual sensitivities.
Hundreds of protesters tried to storm Baghdad’s closely fortified Green Zone, which homes international embassies and the seat of Iraq’s authorities, early Saturday following reviews that an ultranationalist group burned a replica of the Quran in entrance of the Iraqi Embassy within the Danish capital, Copenhagen.
The protest got here two days after individuals angered by the deliberate burning of the Islamic holy ebook in Sweden stormed the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad.
Security forces on Saturday pushed again protesters, who blocked the Jumhuriya bridge resulting in the Green Zone, stopping them from reaching the Danish Embassy.
Elsewhere in Iraq, protesters burned three caravans belonging to a demining venture run by the Danish Refugee Council, or DRC, within the metropolis of Basra within the south, native police stated in a press release. The fireplace was extinguished by civil protection responders, and there have been “no human casualties, only material losses,” the assertion stated.
The DRC confirmed in an emailed assertion to The Associated Press that its premises in Basra “came under armed attack” early Saturday.
“We deplore this attack – aid workers should never be a target of violence,” Lilu Thapa, DRC’s government director for the Middle East stated.
Iraq’s prime minister has minimize diplomatic ties with Sweden in protest over the desecration of the Quran in that nation.
An Iraqi asylum-seeker who burned a replica of the Quran throughout an illustration final month in Stockholm had threatened to do the identical factor once more Thursday however in the end stopped in need of setting fireplace to the ebook. The man – an Iraqi of Christian origin dwelling in Stockholm, now a self-described atheist – did, nonetheless, kick and step on it, and did the identical with an Iraqi flag and a photograph of influential Iraqi Shiite cleric and political chief Muqtada al-Sadr and of Iran’s supreme chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The proper to carry public demonstrations is protected by the structure in Sweden, and blasphemy legal guidelines have been deserted within the Nineteen Seventies. Police typically give permission based mostly on whether or not they consider a public gathering might be held with out main disruptions or security dangers.
On Friday afternoon, hundreds protested peacefully in Iraq and different Muslim-majority nations.
In Iran, the highly effective Revolutionary Guard’s chief, Gen. Hossein Salami, stated that “we do not allow those who insult the Quran to be safe”, the semi-official Tasnim information company reported Saturday.
Muslims “will decree a severe punishment for the perpetrators of these crimes,” he continued.
In the incident in Copenhagen, in accordance with Danish media reviews, members of the ultranationalist group Danske Patrioter burned a replica of the Quran and an Iraqi flag in entrance of the Iraqi Embassy, livestreaming the motion on Facebook.
Copenhagen police spokeswoman Trine Fisker informed The Associated Press that “a very small demonstration” with fewer than 10 individuals occurred Friday afternoon throughout the road from the Iraqi Embassy and {that a} ebook was burned.
“We do not know what book it was,” she stated. “Apparently they tried to burn the Iraqi flag and after that, somebody stepped on it.”
Fisker stated the “political angle is not for the police to comment” on, however the “event was peaceful … from a police perspective.”
The Danish authorities on Saturday condemned the demonstration. Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen referred to as the motion “stupidity that a small handful of individuals did.”
“It is a shameful act to violate the religion of others,” he informed Danish public broadcaster DR. “This applies both to the burning of Qurans and other religious symbols. It has no other purpose than to provoke and create division.”
The incident prompted the protests in Baghdad in a single day. Chanting in assist of Sadr and carrying photographs of the distinguished chief and the flag related along with his motion, together with the Iraqi flag, lots of of protesters tried to enter the Green Zone and clashed with safety forces earlier than dispersing.
In a press release on Saturday, the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned “in strong and repeated terms, the incident of abuse against the Holy Quran and the flag of the Republic of Iraq in front of the Iraqi Embassy in Denmark.”
It referred to as the worldwide neighborhood “to stand urgently and responsibly towards these atrocities that violate social peace and coexistence around the world.” the assertion learn.
Another protest is scheduled to happen in Baghdad at 6 p.m.
Content Source: www.washingtontimes.com