Iraqis try to protest at Danish Embassy after reports Koran was burned

[July 22, 2023]  BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi security forces fired tear gas to repel hundreds of protesters as they tried to get to the Danish Embassy in Baghdad early on Saturday after reports a Koran was burned in Denmark, according to a government source and videos on social media. 

The incident at the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad happened two days after demonstrators stormed and set alight the Swedish Embassy in protest at a planned burning of the Koran in Stockholm.

The Iraqi government condemned the attack on the Swedish Embassy but also expelled the Swedish ambassador in protest at the planned burning of the Koran, the central text of Islam which Muslims believe to be a revelation from God.

On Friday in Denmark, a man set fire to a book purported to be the Koran on a square across from the Iraqi Embassy in Copenhagen.

The event was livestreamed on the Facebook platform of a group that calls itself "Danish Patriots". The video shows the book burning in a tin foil tray next to the Iraqi flag on the ground, with two onlookers standing and talking next to it.

(Reporting by Timour Azhari in Baghdad and Louise Rasmussen in Copenhagen; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Frances Kerry)

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