Iraqi refugee killed in his home a day before facing trial for hate speech allegations; police investigate possible political or religious motives.
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Salwan Momika, Quran-Burning Activist, Shot Dead in Sweden |
Salwan Momika, the Iraqi refugee who became a sensation in Sweden for setting fire to copies of the Quran, has been shot dead in his Sodertalje flat, local media sources have said. The murder is said to have taken place on Wednesday, one day before he was scheduled to face court for allegations of hate speech.
Momika came to Sweden in 2018. Five years later, he gained international notoriety for arranging a series of demonstrations in which he burned the Quran in Sweden. This led to protests in the majority of Muslim-majority countries. His actions strained relations between Sweden and countries like Iraq, Turkey, and Pakistan. The Iraqi government asked for him to be deported, and in 2023, the Swedish authorities began the process of deporting him, but it was not yet finalized.
The attack happened on Wednesday as a 38-year-old man was live-streaming on TikTok. The police in Sweden said they have arrested five people in relation to the killing but are yet to make public the identities of the suspects and the motive behind the act. Investigators are working to establish if the attack was politically or religiously inspired.
As reported by the media, Momika was to appear in court on Thursday to be sentenced for inciting violence against a group by setting four Qurans on fire. "Since it has been established that one of the defendants is dead, the sentence has to be altered since we cannot sentence a dead person," stated the Stockholm District Court.
The second defendant in the trial, Salwan Najem, responded to news of the murder of Momik by stating that he could be next. "I'm next," Najem tweeted.
Several people in Europe have been targeted or killed after speaking against Islam in recent years. In 2020, a teacher in France, Samuel Paty, was beheaded for showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a class discussion on free speech. Three people were killed in a knifing attack on a church in Nice later in the year. In 2015, 12 people were killed in a terrorist attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris after the magazine published satirical depictions of Muhammad.