Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Sunday moved toward severing diplomatic ties with Sweden in an expression of outrage that Stockholm has allowed an Iraqi activist to hold demonstrations in which he desecrated the Koran.
Days after Iraq’s prime minister ordered the expulsion of Sweden’s ambassador in the face of public anger over the desecrations, Mr. Raisi said Iran will no longer welcome a Swedish ambassador in Tehran.
Mr. Raisi noted Sunday in remarks that the tenures of the current Iranian and Swedish ambassadors have come to an end, and asserted that he has ordered the Foreign Ministry not to go ahead with the exchange of new ambassadors between the two countries, according to Iran’s Fars News Agency.
The development marks the latest in a case that has found Sweden facing criticism from Muslim-majority governments and demonstrators over the handling of Salwan Momika, a man identified in media reports as an Iraqi Christian-turned-atheist who is accused of desecrating Islam’s holy book.
For Muslims, any desecration of the Koran is abhorrent.
While Swedish officials have publicly condemned any desecration of the holy book, the Momika case is at the center of a free speech fight in Sweden and has triggered demonstrations in the Middle East and beyond.
Most recently, Swedish police gave permission to Mr. Momika, who lives in Stockholm, to hold a protest in which he threatened to burn a copy of the Koran and then kicked and stood on the holy book outside the Iraqi embassy in the Swedish capital.
Mr. Momika gave similar treatment to an Iraqi flag and to photos of Iraqi Shiite Muslim cleric and political leader Muqtada al-Sadr, as well as Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The incident was the second to involve Mr. Momika this summer. Last month, he was reported to have burned pages of a Koran outside a Stockholm mosque during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, triggering condemnation from around the Muslim world.
Demonstrations in response to the desecrations have been most intense in Iraq, where protesters stormed and occupied the Swedish embassy compound for several hours and started a small fire on Thursday.
Embassy staff had been evacuated before the compound was stormed. Swedish news agency TT reported that they were relocated to Stockholm for security reasons.
Thousands of people then took to the streets in a handful of other Mideast countries, including Iran on Friday to express outrage over the Swedish government’s policy toward Mr. Momika.
Mr. Raisi weighed in Sunday, calling Mr. Momika’s actions a crime and urging Sweden to arrest him.
“Issuing a statement to condemn the insult against the Holy Quran by the Swedish government is by no means sufficient and this government must bring the perpetrators of this crime to justice,” the Iranian president stated, according to Fars.
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
• Guy Taylor can be reached at gtaylor@washingtontimes.com.
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