BAGHDAD: Iraqi security forces on Saturday dispersed about 1,000 supporters of Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr who tried to march to Baghdad’s Green Zone housing foreign embassies after a Holy Quran was desecrated in Denmark. On its Facebook page, the extreme right group Danske Patrioter posted on Friday a video of a man burning what seemed to be a Holy Quran and trampling an Iraqi flag.

Copenhagen police deputy chief Trine Fisker told AFP that “not more than a handful” of protesters had gathered Friday across from the Iraqi embassy. “I can also confirm there was a book burnt. We do not know which book it was,” she said. Hours later, the Danish Refugee Council office in Iraq’s main southern city of Basra came under armed attack, its executive director for the Middle East, Lilu Thapa, said.

“Our staff on the premises at the time were physically unharmed, but there has been damage to the property with structures set on fire.”

Sadr, who has a following of millions among the country’s majority Shiite population and wields great influence over national politics, has urged action. His followers on Saturday reacted to the news from Copenhagen, and gathered in the predawn darkness at Tahrir Square in central Baghdad, some carrying portraits of Sadr. “Yes, yes to the Quran!” shouted the protesters, mostly young men.

Security forces cut two bridges leading to the high-security Green Zone where governmental institutions and foreign embassies are located. The demonstrators tried to force their way through but dispersed several hours later, following scuffles, an interior ministry official told AFP, speaking anonymously because he was not allowed to brief the media. Another security source said officers used batons and tear gas to repel a small group of demonstrators who managed to break into the Green Zone in an attempt to reach the Danish embassy.

Early Saturday, Iraq’s foreign ministry had condemned “the desecration of the Holy Quran and the Iraqi flag” in front of the embassy in Denmark. The ministry’s statement said that “these actions provoke reactions and put all the parties in delicate situations”. It reaffirmed Baghdad’s “full commitment” to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and said it guarantees “the protection and security provided to diplomatic teams”. Iraqi President Abdel Latif Rashid called on Western governments to put a stop to the “provocations”.

Neighboring Iran called in Danish ambassador Jasper Vahr to protest, the foreign ministry said. “Book burning in Europe is a reminder of the dark atmosphere of the era of ignorance and the Middle Ages, which is the biggest threat to the freedom of thought in the West,” its Western Europe director general Majid Nili Ahmadabadi said.

Following the Copenhagen incident, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said: “The Danish government is responsible for preventing insults to the Holy Quran and Islamic sanctities, as well as prosecuting and punishing those who insult them.” The Danish foreign ministry said it “condemns the burning of the Quran”. “Burning of holy texts and other religious symbols is a shameful act that disrespects the religion of others,” it said in a statement. “It is a provocative act that hurts many people and creates division between different religions and cultures.”

Sadr on Saturday said in a vague tweet that “words are no longer enough” in defending religion. The chameleon-like figure, who has made several reversals of position over the years, in April had said he was “freezing” for a year his movement, though the decision would not affect religious activities. Last August he said he was retiring from politics.

Hamzeh Hadad, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations think-tank, said Sadr was indirectly challenging his rivals. “This both allows him to show he still possesses force & challenge his rivals’ credibility among the international community,” Hadad wrote on Twitter. The cleric’s supporters had rallied by their hundreds in Baghdad’s Sadr City after Friday prayers, chanting support for the Holy Quran. Protests also erupted in Tehran and Lebanon. – AFP