Morocco has called back its ambassador and diplomatic officer to Sweden after protesters burnt an Islamic divine scripture, Qur’an outside Stockholm’s main mosque on Wednesday.
Reacting to the incident, the North African country condemned the act, which occurred with the start of the Muslim festival of Eid-al-Adha, as “offensive and irresponsible.”
According to Reuters, the Morocco Foreign Affairs Minister called Sweden's ambassador to Morocco in Rabat, expressing Morocco's "strong condemnation of this attack and its rejection of this unacceptable act."
Recall that SaharaReproters had reported that the Swedish Police gave permission to protesters who planned to burn a Quran outside Stockholm’s main mosque on Wednesday, during the Muslim Eid al-Adha festival celebration.
According to Alarabiya News, the Swedish security operatives made this known in a written statement claiming that the permission was given because “the security risks associated with the burning were not of a nature that could justify, under current laws, a decision to reject the request.”
This police’s permission was given two weeks after a Swedish appeal court nullified the police’s decision to deny permits for two demonstrations in Stockholm which were to include the burning of the Muslim holy book, Quran.
Police claimed security concerns at the time, following the January burning of the Muslim holy book outside Turkey's embassy, which sparked weeks of protests, and calls for a boycott of Swedish goods, and further hampered Sweden's NATO membership quest.
Turkey, which has rejected the request due to Stockholm's reluctance to fight down on Kurdish groups it considers "terrorists," took special offence that police had authorised the January protest.
Police then prohibited two more requests for protests involving Quran burnings outside the Turkish and Iraqi embassies in Stockholm in February, one by a single individual and one by an organisation.
The appeal court concluded in mid-June that the police were wrong to ban those, stating that "the order and security problems" mentioned by the police did not have "a sufficiently clear connection to the planned event or its immediate vicinity."
The Wednesday rally was requested by the same private individual who had his earlier request denied.
In January, burning the Muslim holy book outside the Turkish embassy led to weeks of protests and sparked diplomatic tensions with Turkey, further stalling Sweden’s NATO membership bid.
Due to this, Turkey blocked the country’s NATO bid due to what it perceives as Stockholm’s failure to crack down on Kurdish groups it considers “terrorists”.
The organiser of Wednesday’s protest, who fled from Iraq to Sweden several years ago, told news agency TT in advance of the protest that he wanted to highlight the importance of free speech.
“This is democracy. It is in danger if they tell us we can’t do this,” Momika said.
Similar acts have in the past sparked violent protests and outrage across the Muslim world.