(ZENIT News / Rome, 13.02.2025).- Iraqi Salwan Momika, was killed on January 29, 2025 in the Swedish city of Sodertlje. Three months earlier he burnt the Koran publicly, the sacred text of Islam, for which he received threats and unleashed Muslim protests worldwide.
Momika was born into an Assyrian Catholic family in the Nineveh province of Iraq. Having emigrated to Germany in 2017, he declared himself atheist. He went to Sweden in 2018, where he requested political asylum and was given the status of refugee. In 2021 he obtained a temporary residence permit. It was in June of 2023, that he burnt two copies of the Koran: one close to a mosque in Stockholm and another in front of the Iraqi Embassy.
He was accused officially in Sweden for “inciting ethnic hatred,” but was protected by the Security Police, in keeping with the law. The Stockholm Court sentenced him on January 30. However, the day before his murder was caught on video, which was broadcast live on TikTok. The Court postponed the ruling until February 3 given Momika’s death.
The Police found Momika with bullet wounds. He was taken urgently to hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Attorney Rasmus Ohman reported that five people were arrested in connection with his death.
Salwan Najem, Momika’s collaborator in anti-Islamic activity, said he might be the next to die. Has Salwan Momika’s murder killed freedom of expression and human rights in Sweden and Europe?”
Momika’s action against the Koran was condemned officially by several Muslim countries, which pointed out Sweden for permitting such acts of profanation. A spokesman of the U.S. Department of State described the actions as “disrespectful and wounding.:” A group of Iraqi protestors entered the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad in July of 2023 and set the building on fire. The Iraqi Prime Minister expelled the Swedish Ambassador from the country and suspended the work permit of the Ericsson Swedish Telecommunications Company in Iraq.
During the public burnings of the Koran, Momika said he acted in a gesture of “protest” — not prohibited in Swedish Law –, in the name of freedom of expression. “My problem isn’t Jewish, Christian or books of other religions. My problem is the Book that foments violence: the Koran.” Given these statements, one should ask oneself if a violent action is valid to reject violence, and if freedom of expression impedes books such as the Koran to exist. Moreover, to attack a religion in the name of atheism seems to be an action opposed to freedom of belief.
Sweden’s dominant culture puts freedom of expression above the aggression that exists when destroying publicly a sacred book. In many Islamic countries, the action of burning or trampling on the Koran entails the death penalty or life in prison.
