New Delhi: In 2023, Iraqi activist Salwan Momika sparked global outrage by desecrating the Quran in front of a mosque in Stockholm on the first day of Eid ul-Adha. He tore pages from the book, threw them on the ground, stomped on them, placed a slice of bacon inside, and set it on fire—an act staged near the Turkish embassy. The incident triggered widespread protests across the Middle East and prompted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to once again threaten to block Sweden’s NATO accession.
On Wednesday, a day before he was to be sentenced for his anti-Islamic activities, Momika was shot dead in his apartment in Södertälje, Sweden. His death was no less sensational. Assailants entered his room while he was live-streaming on TikTok. Though the shooting was not captured on camera, a concerned viewer who heard gunshots alerted the police. Authorities later arrested five suspects.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson addressed the incident at a press conference Thursday.
“I can guarantee that the security services are deeply involved, because there is clearly a risk of connection to a foreign power,” he said, but stopped short of naming any specific nation.
Who was Salwan Momika?
38-year-old Momika, an ethnic Assyrian originally from Iraq’s Nineveh province, had made a name for himself in Sweden through his outspoken anti-Islam activism.
A former member of Iraq’s Christian militia, the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), he rose to prominence in 2023 for staging public Quran burnings, deliberately provoking Muslim communities in Sweden.
These acts, which he filmed and posted on social media, sparked protests across Muslim-majority countries, triggered riots, and heightened security concerns throughout Sweden.
Momika also fought against ISIS as part of a Christian militia and later became entangled in Iraq’s sectarian conflicts, with ties to Iran-backed factions. In 2017, after fleeing Iraq following an internal power struggle within the Christian militia he had founded, Momika sought asylum in Germany before eventually relocating to Sweden.
In 2014, Salwan Momika founded the Syriac Democratic Union and the Falcons of the Syriac Forces, an armed militia linked to the Christian Babylon Brigade, the military wing of the Babylon Movement.
In 2017, he became embroiled in a power struggle with Rayan al-Kildani, a leader within the Babylon Movement, but ultimately lost. As a result, he fled Iraq. It is also reported that Momika had ties to the Syriac Assembly Movement, a political party backed by the Kurdistan Regional Government.
The burning of the Quran by Momika and others in Sweden became a flashpoint in broader discussions about free speech, religious intolerance, and immigration.
Momika’s Quran burnings in 2023 sparked violent protests across the Middle East too. A large crowd stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad, while Iraq expelled Sweden’s ambassador, severed business ties, and revoked work permits for staff at Swedish telecommunications giant Ericsson.
In the aftermath, he lived under police protection for several months, despite the Swedish government publicly condemning his actions as inflammatory.
Momika fled to Germany in 2017 where he publicly declared his atheism and renounced Christianity.
In April 2018, he applied for asylum in Sweden, where he was granted refugee status.
By April 2021, he was granted a three-year temporary residence permit, set to expire in 2024. However, his application for permanent residency—and the chance to obtain Swedish citizenship—was rejected after authorities uncovered that he had falsified his asylum application. He had claimed a connection only to the political wing of the Imam Ali Brigades, while concealing his ties to its paramilitary faction.
While in Sweden, Momika gained some political attention, meeting with Robert Halef, a Christian Democrat member of the Swedish parliament, and Julia Kronlid, a Sweden Democrats representative. Momika later expressed aspirations to run for parliament as a candidate for the Sweden Democrats.
Despite his residence permit, Momika continued to face scrutiny for his past connections to the pro-Iranian militia. In 2023, the Swedish Migration Agency ruled that Salwan Momika should be expelled from the country. However, due to the threats against him in Iraq, the expulsion was not carried out, and instead, he was granted the temporary residence permit till April 2024.
In March 2024, it was reported that Momika had left Sweden for Norway in an attempt to seek asylum. On 4 April, Norwegian police revealed that Momika had been arrested on 28 March and that they intended to deport him back to Sweden under the Dublin Regulation. He was subsequently sent back to Sweden on 11 April.
Momika was set to appear in court Thursday for his verdict in the trial where he faced charges of inciting ethnic hatred through his Quran burnings.
Following the killing, his co-defendant in the case, Salwan Najem, posted a message on X, “I’m next.” He also asked: “Has the murder of Salwan Momika killed freedom of expression and human rights in Sweden and Europe?”
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Similar incidents in Sweden
In 2023, Sweden was at the centre of a global controversy as several Quran burnings—collectively dubbed the “Korankrisen”, or “Quran crisis”—triggered widespread protests and condemnation, particularly from the Muslim world.
Momika’s June act set in motion a string of such desecrations which led to protests erupting in Iraq, Pakistan, and other Muslim-majority countries. His call for a repeat in July led to the attack on the Swedish embassy in Baghdad—after influential cleric Muqtada al-Sadr condemned Sweden as “hostile to Islam”—when protesters stormed the building and later set fire to it.
After the incident, Stockholm police reported receiving additional requests for permits to burn the Quran, as well as the Torah and Bible outside the Israeli embassy. However, these requests were eventually denied.
The act, however, led to a series of protests in Denmark, where the Quran was burned outside the embassies of Iraq, Egypt, and Turkey. These events led to violent protests, with some calling for boycotts of Swedish products and diplomatic ties being severed. In response, violent counter protests and calls for boycotts prompted Denmark and Sweden to reintroduce blasphemy laws, making it a crime to “disrespect” religious texts.
The Swedish government condemned the Quran burnings, calling them “Islamophobic” and distancing itself from the actions. Sweden also accused Russian-backed disinformation campaigns of falsely claiming government support for the burnings to undermine Sweden’s NATO bid.
Swedish police filed preliminary hate crime charges against Momika with PM Kristersson declaring that Sweden was facing “the most serious security situation since the Second World War”.
Afghanistan suspended Swedish aid operations, while Iran’s leadership called for the death penalty for the perpetrator. Iraq severed diplomatic and business ties with Sweden. Other countries, including Turkey, Pakistan, and Jordan, also condemned the act, with some calling for boycotts or stronger actions. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the United Nations Human Rights Council both called for measures to prevent such incidents, though these were not legally binding. The Vatican’s Pope Francis and other world leaders expressed their disapproval.
The Pakistani extremist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi called for violence against Pakistani Christians in retaliation for the burnings.
Following the June 2023 attack on the Swedish embassy in Baghdad, it was attacked again on 19 July, leading Iraq to expel Sweden’s ambassador, sever diplomatic ties, and ban Swedish businesses. Kuwait and Egypt followed suit.
Meanwhile, in response to the burnings, the Iranian militia Ashab al-Kahf issued threats against Swedes. On 16 October, two Swedish nationals were killed in Brussels by an Islamic State sympathiser, who targeted them as potential revenge for the Quran desecrations.
International organisations such as the UN and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation condemned the burnings, urging stronger legal measures to prevent similar incidents.
The controversy intensified when Danish far-right politician Rasmus Paludan also burned the Quran outside Turkey’s embassy in Stockholm in January 2023, leading to Turkey suspending NATO talks with Sweden.
These actions further complicated Sweden’s bid for NATO membership, which was already facing obstacles due to Turkey’s demands of extradition of Kurdish militants living in Sweden.
Ahead of the 2023 protest, Paludan stated that he intended to “demonstrate some freedom of speech” to Turkey.
In response, Turkey summoned the Swedish ambassador to Ankara, warning the Swedish government against permitting the demonstration. Additionally, Turkey canceled a planned visit by Sweden’s defense minister this week, during which officials were set to discuss the ongoing NATO dispute.
In 2024, Paludan was found guilty and was the first person to go on trial in Sweden and to be sentenced for burning the Qur’an during an organised demonstration.
Also read: Sweden’s Quran burner may not be a free speech activist. But defending him protects us all
Every single white Christian Swedish should come out on the street and burn a copy of the Quran in public view.
It should be an open challenge to the Islamic world – You killed Salwan Momika, now come kill each one of us.
Europe should awaken from it’s deep slumber before it’s too late.