BAGHDAD (AP) — Hundreds of protesters attempted to storm Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, home to foreign embassies and the seat of the Iraqi government, early Saturday following reports of a Koran being set on fire by an ultranationalist group outside the Iraqi embassy in Copenhagen.
They were pushed back by security forces, who blocked the Jumhuriya bridge leading to the green zone, preventing them from reaching the Danish embassy.
The protest came two days after people angered by the planned burning of the Islamic holy book in Sweden stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad. Protesters occupied the diplomatic post for several hours, waving flags and signs showing the influential Iraqi Shia cleric and political leader Muqtada al-Sadr, and setting a small fire. The embassy staff had been evacuated the day before.
A few hours later, the Iraqi Prime Minister severed diplomatic relations with Sweden to protest against the desecration of the Koran.
An Iraqi asylum seeker who burned a copy of the Koran during a protest last month in Stockholm threatened to do the same thing on Thursday but ultimately refrained from setting the book on fire. He did, however, kick and step on it, and did the same with an Iraqi flag and a picture of Sadr and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
On Friday afternoon, thousands of people demonstrated peacefully in Iraq and other Muslim-majority countries.
Also on Friday, according to Danish media, members of the ultra-nationalist group Danske Patrioter burned a copy of the Koran and an Iraqi flag outside the Iraqi embassy in Copenhagen and broadcast the action live on Facebook.
The incident sparked protests in Baghdad overnight. Chanting in favor of Sadr and carrying images of the prominent leader and the flag associated with his movement, as well as the Iraqi flag, hundreds of protesters attempted to enter the Green Zone and clashed with security forces before dispersing.
In a statement released on Saturday, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry 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”.
He called on the international community “to stand up urgently and responsibly in the face of these atrocities which violate social peace and coexistence in the world”. the statement read.
Another demonstration is planned in Baghdad at 6 p.m.
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Associated Press writer Abdulrahman Zeyad in Baghdad contributed to this report.