this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2023
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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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[โ€“] [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.