MOSCOW - Morocco has recalled its ambassador to Sweden indefinitely after a man tore up and burned a Quran outside Stockholm's central mosque on the first day of Eid al-Adha, one of Islam's major holidays, the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates said Wednesday.
"The Ambassador of His Majesty the King (Mohammed VI) to the Kingdom of Sweden was recalled to the Kingdom for consultations for an indefinite period," the ministry said on the website, adding that "this new offensive and irresponsible act disregards the feelings of more than a billion Muslims during this sacred period of the great pilgrimage to Makkah and the blessed feast of Eid Al-Adha."
Morocco's Foreign Ministry also summoned Sweden's chargé d'affaires in Rabat and expressed the kingdom's "strong condemnation of this attack and its rejection of this unacceptable act".
Earlier in the day, media reported that the Swedish police allowed the protest action featuring the burning of a Quran near the main mosque in Stockholm. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said that the decision of the police was "legal but inappropriate". - BERNAMA