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Protesters storm Swedish embassy in Baghdad, set it on fire over planned Koran burning (www.france24.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hundreds of protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad in the early hours of Thursday morning and set it on fire, a source familiar with the matter and a Reuters witness said, in a protest against the expected burning of a Koran in Sweden.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It’s not a friendly act, but should it be banned?

I didn't argue for either way. I'm just pointing out the importance of this specific book and that obviously we should be aware of potential consequences. It certainly sucks that some people take their religion so seriously to injure or kill other people, but it's really not unexpected nor unprecedented.

So if Sweden does allow the burning, which does have it's pros and cons, then they have to consider the ramification they could face. That of course should include taking the security of their embassies in extreme religious countries into consideration. Not sure what they did in that regard, but it certainly wasn't enough.

It's very easy to sit behind anonymity and argue for the importance of allowing such freedom of expression when we aren't the ones put in danger because of it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I think Sweden, and Denmark for that matter, are very well aware of the potential violence this unleashes, they've been suffering quite a few attacks against their embassies in recent years for jokes, cartoons or quran burnings.

And yes, it's easy for me to say this behind anonymity. I live in Brussels and wouldn't be speaking so easily under my own name. Which says a lot about the degradation of freedom to express your opinions about religion without fearing for your security in Europe today. So yeah, I don't want to lose that freedom. Better to close the embassies in Iraq.

Again, I wouldn't burn a quran. But do I think it's a sacred book above criticism? No, I absolutely do not.