Following the Wednesday Koran burning outside Stockholm’s major mosque, Morocco has called back its ambassador.
Morocco criticized the conduct as “offensive and irresponsible” and noted that it took place at the same time as the Muslim celebration of Eid-al-Adha.
The Foreign Affairs Minister called Sweden’s ambassador to Morocco in Rabat to convey Morocco’s “strong condemnation of this attack and its rejection of this unacceptable act.”
The Swedish police ruled that the security dangers involved with the burning “were not of a nature that could justify, under current laws, a decision to reject the request.” The demonstration, which was organized by a 37-year-old Iraqi Kurd named Salwan Momika, was allowed.
The approval came two weeks after a Swedish appeals court rejected the police’s decision to deny licences for two other demonstrations involving Koran burnings.
According to the appeals court, “the order and security problems” that the police had mentioned did not have “a sufficiently clear connection to the planned event or its immediate vicinity.” Therefore, the police were wrong to ban those.
A burning of the Qur’an outside the Turkish embassy in January provoked weeks of demonstrations and heightened diplomatic tensions with Turkey, further delaying Sweden’s application for NATO membership.
Due to what it sees as Stockholm’s reluctance to crack down on Kurdish groups it views as “terrorists,” Turkey has blocked the nation’s bid for NATO membership.
Prior to the protest, the protest’s organizer, who emigrated from Iraq to Sweden several years ago, told the news agency TT that he wanted to emphasize the value of free expression.
