JAKARTA: Hundreds of Indonesian Muslims marched on Monday to the heavily guarded Swedish Embassy in the country's capital on Monday to denounce the recent desecration of Islam's holy book by far-right activists in Sweden and the Netherlands.
More than 300 demonstrators gathered in downtown Jakarta and trampled and set on fire portraits of Danish anti-Islam activist Rasmus Paludan, along with the flags of Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands, a major thoroughfare wowed with white flags bearing the Islamic declaration of faith.
Authorities blocked streets leading to the embassy, where more than 200 police and soldiers were deployed in and around the building that was barricaded with razor wire.
Paludan received permission from the police to stage a protest outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm on January 21, where he burned the Quran on January 21.
Days later, Edwin Wagensveld, the Dutch leader of the far-right Pegida movement in the Netherlands, tore pages out of a copy of the Quran near the Dutch Parliament and stomped on them.
It angered millions of Muslims around the world and triggered protests, including in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation. Protesters in Jakarta chanted God is Great and Get out of the Swedish Embassy!