Protests across the Middle East against far-right Quran burning

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Thousands joined protests across several predominantly Muslim countries on Friday to denounce the recent desecration of a copy of the Quran by far-right activists in Sweden and the Netherlands.

Demonstrations in Pakistan, Iraq and Lebanon ended with people dispersing peacefully. In Islamabad, police stopped some crowds trying to march towards the Swedish Embassy.

In Beirut, about 200 angry protesters burned the flags of Sweden and the Netherlands outside the blue-domed Mohammed Al-Amin mosque at Beirut’s central Martyrs Square.

Earlier this month, a far-right activist from Denmark received permission from police to stage a protest outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm where he burned the Quran, Islam’s holy book. Days later, Edwin Wagensveld, Dutch leader of the far-right Pegida movement in the Netherlands, tore pages out of a copy of the Quran near the Dutch Parliament and stomped on the pages.

The moves angered millions of Muslims around the world and triggered protests.

Swedish officials have stressed that freedom of expression is guaranteed by the Swedish Constitution and gives people extensive rights to express their views publicly, though incitement to violence or hate speech isn’t allowed. Demonstrators must apply to police for a permit for a public gathering. Police can deny such permits only on exceptional grounds, such as risks to public safety.

Iraq’s powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr asked in comments released Friday whether freedom of speech means offending other people’s beliefs. He asked why “doesn’t the burning of the gays' rainbow flag represent freedom of expression.”

The cleric added that burning the Quran “will bring divine anger.” Hundreds of his supporters gathered outside a mosque in Baghdad waving copies of the Quran.