Algerian diplomacy announced on Monday night that it had summoned diplomats from Denmark and Sweden to serve them with formal protests following the recent desecrations of copies of the Koran in Copenhagen and Stockholm.

“Following the repeated incidents of self-immolation and desecration of the Holy Koran in Copenhagen and Stockholm, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned” yesterday Monday “the Danish ambassador and the Swedish chargé d’affaires in Algeria in order to serve them with Algeria’s official protests,” the press release published in Algiers states.

The Algerian government “strictly” condemns these “immoral and disrespectful acts, which targeted something sacred to Muslims everywhere, all over the world.”

Furthermore, it is emphasized that these actions “have nothing to do with freedom of expression, as those who defend, promote and capitalize on them unfairly claim”.

The foreign ministry asked Denmark and Sweden to take “all necessary measures to prevent the repetition of such acts”, which are against “all monotheistic religions, laws and customs internationally”.

“These reprehensible actions, which oppose the values ​​of tolerance and coexistence, by their very nature are intended to revive hatred and feed Islamophobia,” the text added.

Sweden’s embassy in Baghdad was stormed and set on fire by protesters in the middle of the night last week, as a second copy of the Koran was burned and desecrated in Stockholm.

Salwan Momika, an Iraqi refugee, placed slices of bacon between pages of a copy of the Koran and burned others in late June, before trampling to shreds a second time last Thursday in the Swedish capital.

Reacting to Swedish police giving Mr Momika permission to go ahead with his protests, followers of the powerful Iraqi Shiite preacher Moqtada Sadr stormed the Swedish embassy and set it on fire in the early hours of Thursday.

At the same time, Baghdad expelled the Swedish ambassador to Iraq and revoked the Swedish telecommunications giant Ericsson’s license to operate in the country.

On Friday, Stockholm announced it was repatriating Swedish embassy staff to Iraq for security reasons. The previous day, the head of Swedish diplomacy, Tobias Billström, condemned the “unacceptable attack” and stressed that the Iraqi authorities violated their “obligation” to protect the Swedish diplomatic mission. At the same time, he condemned the desecration of the Koran, “offensive” and “impious” acts.

On Saturday, there was a new demonstration in Baghdad, after the desecration of the Koran in Denmark. On Facebook, the far-right movement Danske Patrioter uploaded a video of a man burning a copy of the Koran and trampling on an Iraqi flag.

The Danish Foreign Ministry condemned “the self-immolation of the Koran”, an act that was “reprehensible” and “provocative”.