Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah gives a speech in 2018. (Credit: AFP/Al-Manar archive photo)
BEIRUT — Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday evening called for the expulsion of the Swedish ambassador to Lebanon and called for protests following the profanation of a Quran copy in Stockholm on Wednesday.
His comments came after Iraq on Thursday ordered the expulsion of the Swedish ambassador to Baghdad in response to the trampling of a copy of Islam's holy book by Salwan Momika, a 37-year-old Iraqi refugee in Sweden.
"We call on the Lebanese government to recall its ambassador, if there is an ambassador or chargé d'affaires in Sweden, as a sign of protest against the desecration of the Muslims' sacred book," said Nasrallah in a televised speech.
"We also ask the Lebanese government... to expel the Swedish ambassador or chargé d'affaires [from Lebanese territory]."
Sweden has diplomatic representation in Lebanon, headed by an ambassador.
"This is the minimum required," added the leader of the powerful pro-Iranian Shiite party.
He also called on Muslims to take part in Friday prayers, so that it would not be a "normal" Friday, and urged all Arabs and Muslims to ask their governments to recall their ambassadors to Sweden.
Should the act be repeated, the next step must be "the severance of diplomatic relations with Sweden," he said.
According to a spokesperson from Hezbollah contacted by L'Orient-Le Jour, two demonstrations are scheduled for Friday around 1:30 p.m. in the southern suburbs of Beirut, after prayer. One will take place in front of the Al-Mojtaba complex and the other in front of the Al-Qa'em complex.
The ministry called on the Swedish authorities to take "necessary actions to stop any actions fueling hatred, Islamophobia, racism, incitement to violence, and disrespect to religions." The ministry also condemned the "burning of the Iraqi flag during the demonstration in Stockholm" while denouncing the "attack against the Swedish embassy in Baghdad."
On the diplomatic front, the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced the "desecration of the Quran in Stockholm" on Friday.
After the Swedish police announced on Wednesday that they would authorize a mini-assembly, where the Quran was trampled on but not burned as planned, supporters of Iraqi Shiite religious leader Moqtada Sadr stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad at dawn. They set fire to the building before being dispersed by police using water cannons.
At the end of June, Salwan Momika burned a few pages of a Quran in front of Stockholm's largest mosque on the first day of Adha, a festival celebrated by Muslims around the world.
The gesture provoked international condemnation. Acts of this type have taken place in Sweden and other European countries before, sometimes on the initiative of far-right movements.