ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi top Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called on Thursday for demonstrations outside the Swedish embassy in Baghdad following the burning of a Quran copy outside a mosque in Stockholm, issuing several demands including severing ties with Sweden and burning the LGBT+ flag.
In response to the Quran burning by Iraqi refugee Salwan Momika, 37, who stomped on the holy book and placed bacon between the pages before lighting it on fire and kicking it around like a football, Sadr urged Iraqis to take to the streets outside the Swedish embassy and issue several demands.
“First, expel the Swedish ambassador who represents his country that is hostile to Islam and supports immorality, and sever ties with it,” he tweeted.
“Second, withdraw the Iraqi nationality from the vile Iraqi criminal who brazenly and publicly burned the book of God, and the judicial authorities must work to return him to Iraq or sentence him in absentia with a judgement befitting the crime in defense of Islam.”
“Third, the government must protect the relatives of this vile criminal in Iraq in order to preserve their lives.”
“Fourth, if I had been diligent, I would have issued a fatwa for his apostasy if he was a Muslim and his hostility to Islam if he was not a Muslim,” he continued.
In his final demand, the revered cleric said that “burning the flag of the meme community,” referring to the LGBT+, “is what enrages them the most, so take it and burn it from every side and direction,” referring to those who he labels as “unbelievers.”
Earlier on Thursday, the Iraqi government strongly denounced Sweden for allowing the Iraqi refugee to burn a copy of the Quran “in a manner that constitutes a grave insult to religious sanctities.”
Other Muslim countries including Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey also voiced their condemnation of the act.
