Fresh incident of Quran burning outside Swedish Parliament: Report

A Quran was set alight by two men outside Swedish Parliament in Stockholm on Monday (July 31), reported AFP. The incident reportedly tookplace at a protest similar to previous ones that stoked tensions between Sweden and the Islamic world.

Salwan Momika and Sakwan Najem allegedly kicked and stomped on the holy book, then proceeded to set its pages on fore before slamming it shut, just like in a protest outside Stockholm's main mosque in late June. It had sparked outrage and condemnations across West Asia.

The same duo was also involved in protest outside Iraq's embassy in Stockholm on July 20. On that day, they stomped on the holy book but did not burn it.

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"I will burn it many times until you ban it," organiser Salwan Najem told Expressen newspaper.

At one of the earlier protests, Momika and Najem were the only participants. At the time, a small group of counter-protesters had gathered outside the police cordon, as reported by AFP.

Mats Eriksson, a spokesman for the Stockholm police told AFP that the recent protest "had been conducted without any serious public order disturbances".

During the protest, Momika also stomped on a picture of Shiite Muslim cleric and political leader Moqtada Sadr -- whose followers had stormed Sweden's embassy in Baghdad in response to previous desecrations. They had started fires within the compound the night before the July protest.

"We saw him standing there again and yelling stuff about the Koran and about Islam, playing with the Koran, and honestly it's all for attention and it's pretty obvious," Tamazight El Yaakoubi, an 18-year-old law student from the Netherlands, told AFP.

"Before we came here we were pretty scared, we were like, 'Koran burned down, why?'" added the Muslim visitor.

"But when we came here almost everyone is full of love and everyone is very respectful."

Sweden's relations with the Islamic countries have come under strain due to previous Quran burning protests. The police in Sweden have previously stressed that permits are granted to people only to hold public gatherings and not for the activities conducted during the events.

(With inputs from agencies)

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