Protests against Quran burning held across the Middle East

BEIRUT (AP) — Angry protesters in several Middle Eastern countries have gathered to denounce the recent desecration of Islam’s holy book by far-right activists in Sweden and the Netherlands. Friday’s protests in Lebanon, Pakistan and Iraq came days after 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, the leader of a Dutch far-right movement in the Netherlands tore pages out of a copy of the Quran near the Dutch parliament and stomped on the pages. Iraq’s powerful Shiite cleric Muqata al-Sadr also condemned the desecration of the Quran, while protesters in Beirut burned Swedish and Dutch flags.