A Swedish protestor who set fire to several pages of the Quran outside a Stockholm mosque says he plans to do so again—even after the condemnation of his own government.
Swedish authorities arrested 37-year-old Iraqi national Salwan Momika on hate crimes charges Wednesday after he used a pre-approved permit from Stockholm city officials to burn pages of the Quran outside Stockholm’s central mosque on Wednesday during the observance of Eid al-Adha, a major holy day for Muslims.
The incident, the second Quran burning in the country since January, prompted an almost immediate rebuke from nations including the United States, Jordan, Iran and the United Arab Emirates, who expressed continuing frustration with the country after a series of Quran burnings by right-wing politicians sparked riots across the country in 2022.
Iraqi Muslims took to the streets outside of the Swedish embassy in Baghdad throughout the day Thursday to condemn the incident as well, where some protesters set fire to a rainbow-colored flag representing the LGBTQ+ community, per reporting for Al Jazeera.
Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty
Swedish officials condemned the protest in a statement Thursday, saying the act “in no way reflects the opinions of the Swedish Government.” However, they declined to prosecute further, claiming Momika’s actions were protected speech under federal law.
Momika, meanwhile, says he intends to burn the Quran again.
“Within 10 days I will burn the Iraqi flag and the Quran in front of Iraq’s embassy in Stockholm,” he told the newspaper Expressen Friday.
“The police have the right to investigate whether the burning is a hate crime,” he later added. “They could be right and they can be wrong.”
While some countries—particularly the United States—also defended Momika’s right to speak his mind in their condemnation of his unsavory protest against Islam, the fallout of the move could have potentially significant implications on Sweden’s international policy.
The incident also potentially put the future of Sweden’s bid to join NATO as a member in jeopardy amid an ongoing blockade by the Turkish government on allegations Sweden was shielding militants from the banned Kurdistan Workers Party, which officials in both Ankara and Washington, D.C., have labeled as a terrorist organization.
“We are sick and tired of enabling Islamophobia and continued instances of hatred for our religion on the part of European authorities, especially in Sweden,” Fahrettin Altun, a spokesperson for the Turkish government, said in a statement Thursday. “Those who seek to become our allies in NATO, cannot tolerate or enable destructive behaviors of Islamophobic and xenophobic terrorists. This is obviously yet another provocative terrorist act targeting our religion on this sacred day.”
“Whoever enables this criminal act is complicit,” added Altun. “Swedish authorities must take swift action and take a clear stance against terrorism in all of its forms. They cannot hide behind the excuse of freedom of expression and freedom of speech.”
Newsweek has reached out to the Swedish Foreign Ministry via email for comment. Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, meanwhile, has so far declined to speculate about how the protest could affect Sweden’s NATO admission process, saying the burning of the Quran was “legal but not appropriate.”
However, the incident, which came the same day UN Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced a July 6 summit between Turkey, Sweden and Finland intended to break the blockade, certainly didn’t help.
After Momika’s arrest, Turkish President Recep Erdogan issued a video statement of his own condemning the burning, saying the Swedish position represented an untenable position for them as they continued to hold the fate of Sweden’s stymied entry into the military alliance in their hands.
“Those who allow these under the pretext of freedom of expression and turn a blind eye to this viciousness, as well as those who have committed this crime, will not reach their goals,” Erdogan said in a video message Wednesday. “We will teach the arrogant Western people that it is not freedom of expression to insult the sacred values of Muslims.”
Share
Print
