Salwan Momika, Iraqi refugee in Sweden infamous for burning the Quran, was shot dead [Getty]
Salwan Momika, the Iraqi refugee infamous for burning the Quran, was shot dead in his apartment in the Swedish city of Sodertalje on Wednesday night.
According to local media, Swedish authorities attended the scene after receiving information of a shootout in the Hovsjo district.
The shooting occurred indoors and when police arrived they found a man who had been “hit by shots and the man was taken to hospital”, the statement said.
The killing was reportedly caught on video as the activist is said to have hopped on a live-stream just moments before the shooting, according to Aftonbladet.
“A man was found shot in a home in Hovsjo in Sodertalje late on Wednesday. It is 38-year-old Salwan Momika, who has died from gunshot wounds,” Swedish state broadcaster SVT said.
Stockholm police spokesperson Daniel Wikdahl said that five suspects had been taken into police custody for questioning in connection with the brutal “execution”.
Momika, along with Salwan Najem, was charged with “agitation against an ethnic group” on four occasions in the summer of 2023.
The 38-year-old was due to appear before a Stockholm court today accused of inciting ethnic hatred. But it postponed the ruling until February 3, saying that “because Salwan Momika has died, more time is needed”.
Momika, from Al-Hamdaniya District, east of Mosul, after setting alight a copy of the Quran twice in July 2023 while making derogatory remarks about Muslims – on one occasion outside a Stockholm mosque during the Eid al-Adha.
Following the incident, he received death threats and sparked widespread outrage after standing again outside the Iraqi embassy desecrating the sacred book.
Sweden-Middle Eastern relations strained
In August of that year, Sweden’s intelligence service Sapo raised its threat level to four on a scale of five after the Koran burnings had made the country a “prioritised target”.
Religious leaders across the Middle East and Europe condemned the acts and popular protests were held across Iraq at the time.
In Tehran, hundreds of protesters waved Iranian flags and carried copies of Islam’s holy book, chanting “Down with the United States, Britain, Israel and Sweden” as some set the blue-and-yellow Swedish flag ablaze.
Despite the outrage, Swedish police granted him a permit for the protest in line with free-speech protections in the country. The Swedish government condemned the desecrations of the Quran but upheld the country’s laws regarding freedom of speech and assembly.
Burning Islam’s holy book “is not a crime in Sweden, so it’s not possible to extradite him”, authorities said at the time.
Momika fled to Sweden several years ago after being charged with several legal complaints, including deception. In September 2013, Baghdad asked Sweden to extradite him but the Scandinavian country refused.
In 2017, he was involved in a Christian militia in Iraq but left the country after disputes with Ryan al-Kildani, leader of the “Babylon” political party.
The US Treasury Department sanctioned the party for illegal land confiscation charges in Nineveh.
Entifadh Qanbar, President of the Future Foundation Washington DC, previously claimed that Momika was a member of Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), a paramilitary force backed by Iran.
The former militia leader is married and has two sons. When he arrived in Sweden, he volunteered to work at a right-extremist Swedish party known for its hostility towards migrants, Muslims and Arabs, campaigning to deport Arab migrants from the country.
