ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s judiciary on Thursday said that it will launch procedures to request the extradition of the Iraqi refugee who burned a copy of the Quran in front of a mosque in Stockholm a day prior, with protests expected in front of the Swedish embassy in Baghdad.
Faiq Zidan, President of Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council, instructed prosecutors “to complete legal procedures to request the extradition of the individual and to prosecute him according to the law,” reads a statement from the judiciary.
Iraqi refugee Salwan Momika, 37, burned the Quran outside a mosque in Stockholm on the first day of Eid al-Adha on Wednesday. He stomped on the holy book and placed bacon - the consumption of which is forbidden in Islam - between the pages, before lighting a few pages on fire and kicking it around like a football while raising the Swedish flag.
Momika said that he would burn the Quran to express his opinion about the Islamic holy book.
Iraqi government spokesperson Basem al-Awadi strongly condemned the burning “by some people with sick and extremist minds and souls, in a public manner full of hatred and defiance of all virtuous and human values that urges respect for religions and holy books.”
On Thursday, Iraqi top Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for a large “angry” protest outside the Swedish embassy in Baghdad, issuing several demands including severing ties with Stockholm, burning flags of the LGBT+ community, and stripping Momika off the Iraqi nationality.
Earlier in the day, the Iraqi foreign ministry 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.
