Middle East powerhouses Saudi Arabia and Iran have summoned Swedish diplomats to denounce Stockholm’s permission for protests that desecrate the Holy Quran on free speech grounds.

The separate moves by both majority-Muslim countries, announced in statements late on Thursday, came amid heightened tensions between Sweden and Iraq over a Sweden-based Iraqi refugee who last month desecrated the Holy Quran outside Stockholm’s main mosque.

In the latest such incident on Thursday, the refugee, Salwan Momika, stepped on the Holy Quran but did not burn it, triggering renewed condemnations and calls for protest across the Muslim world.

Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s holiest sites, said it would hand the Swedish charge d’affaires “a protest note that includes the kingdom’s request to the Swedish authorities to take all immediate and necessary measures to stop these disgraceful acts”, according to a foreign ministry statement.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said Sweden’s ambassador to Tehran had been called in to censure the permit granted to Momika’s protest and to warn Stockholm of the consequences of such actions.

“We strongly condemn the repeated desecration of the Holy Quran and Islamic sanctities in Sweden and hold the Swedish government fully responsible for the consequences of inciting the feelings of Muslims around the world,” Kanani said.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said a joint strategy will be formulated from the platform of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to counter such heinous acts, Radio Pakistan reported.

Strongly condemning the desecration, the premier said a campaign will be initiated to get reversed the decision of allowing the desecration of Holy books — the Holy Quran, Bible and Torah — the report said.

It quoted Shehbaz saying: “The desecration of sacred books, persons and rituals is not freedom of expression but [is done] to constantly torment the world.”

Terming it a part of a political and satanic agenda, PM Shehbaz said that the entire Muslim and Christian communities “must stop this conspiracy together”, Radio Pakistan reported.

It further quoted the prime minister as saying that the “decision to allow the desecration of the Torah and Bible encouraged desecrators” and promoted hatred, which was against international law.

According to Radio Pakistan, the premier termed such incidents as “fatal to world peace” as well as “abhorrent and condemnable, both legally and morally”.

Sweden moves Iraq embassy functions to Stockholm

Later today, Sweden announced that the staff and operations of its embassy in Iraq had been relocated to Stockholm, citing security concerns after protesters stormed the embassy in a pre-dawn raid this week.

“The embassy’s operations and its expatriate staff have been temporarily relocated to Stockholm for security reasons,” the foreign ministry told AFP.

News that Swedish authorities would permit the latest demonstration to go ahead had led hundreds of Iraqis to storm and torch Sweden’s Baghdad embassy in a chaotic pre-dawn attack.

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Iraq’s government condemned the attack. It also retaliated against the protest in Sweden by expelling its ambassador, vowing to sever ties and suspending the operating licence of Swedish telecom giant Ericsson.

‘Provocative’

On Thursday, the 57-member OIC denounced the Stockholm protest as “another provocative attack” that could not be justified under the right to freedom of expression.

Turkiye’s foreign ministry called on Sweden to take “dissuasive measures to prevent hate crimes against Islam and its billions of followers”.

In Lebanon, the leader of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement Hassan Nasrallah called for the expulsion of the Swedish envoy there and the recall of Lebanon’s ambassador to Sweden.

“It’s the minimum required,” he said.

Iranian authorities have called for nationwide demonstrations to be held after Friday prayers to denounce the “desecration of the Holy Quran,” according to the state broadcaster.

Tehran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in a letter addressed to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres asked him “to immediately condemn this action and take the necessary measures as soon as possible in order to prevent the recurrence of such insulting and provocative action,” the foreign ministry said.

Spokesman Kanani condemned “any insult to religious sanctities and holy books anywhere and by anyone”, arguing “freedom of speech used to attack dignity, morals and religious sanctities… has no value.”

Condemnations

The governments of several Muslim countries, including Iraq, Turkiye, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Morocco issued protests about the incident, with Iraq seeking the man’s extradition to face trial in the country.

The United States also condemned it, but added that Sweden’s issuing of the permit supported freedom of expression and was not an endorsement of the action.

Similarly, Pakistan had also strongly condemned the “despicable act” of the desecration of the Holy Quran.

The Foreign Office had stated that such intentional incitement to discrimination, hatred, and violence cannot be justified under the pretext of freedom of expression and protest.

“Under international law, states are duty-bound to prohibit any advocacy of religious hatred, leading to the incitement of violence,” it stated.

The FO had urged the international community and the national governments to undertake “credible and concrete measures to prevent the rising incidents of xenophobia, Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hatred”.

As protests continued in subsequent days, Swedish police approved a permit for a demonstration outside the Israeli embassy in Stockholm, which involved burning holy texts outside the Israeli embassy in Stockholm, sparking condemnation from Israel and Jewish organisations.

Initially, the demonstration was planned to involve burning the Torah and the Bible as a response to the Holy Quran burning protest. The application submitted to the police described it as an expression in support of freedom of speech.

However, a day later, the organiser of the protest announced that he would not proceed with it.

He had explained that his intention was in fact to denounce those who burn sacred books such as the Holy Quran in the Nordic country.

“This is a response to the people who burn the [Holy] Quran. I want to show that freedom of expression has limits that must be taken into account,” the Swedish resident of Syrian origin had said.