ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Swedish prosecutor on Wednesday charged two individuals with inciting hatred in connection with protests last year that involved burning the Quran, the Muslim holy book. One of the people facing charges is a refugee from Iraq.
Salwan Momika set the Quran alight twice in 2023 as a protest against Islam. The first time was outside a mosque in Stockholm and the second time was outside the Iraqi embassy. Momika received permission for both of his protests from Swedish authorities who said they fell under freedom of expression.
The prosecutor on Wednesday charged Momika and a co-protester Salwan Najim of "agitation against an ethnic group" on four occasions last summer.
"Both men are prosecuted for having on these four occasions made statements and treated the Quran in a manner intended to express contempt for Muslims because of their faith," Swedish senior prosecutor Anna Hankkio said in a statement.
"In my opinion, the men's statements and actions fall under the provisions on agitation against an ethnic or national group and it is important that this matter is tried in court," she added.
The desecration of the Quran sparked angry protests in Iraq and Muslim countries. Iraqi protesters stormed Stockholm’s embassy in Baghdad twice in July 2023 and the Iraqi government expelled Sweden’s ambassador and recalled its charge d’affaires.
In a July 2023 letter addressed to Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom, Iraq and representatives of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation countries in Sweden said that authorizing the desecration of the Quran incites hatred and discrimination in violation of the United Nations covenant on civil and political rights.
“I note the concern you express in your letter and I hope to assure you that all acts of Islamophobia in any form are strongly rejected by the Swedish government,” Billstrom wrote in response.
Earlier this month, Swedish prosecutors charged Rasmus Paludan, a far-right Swedish-Danish activist and politician, with the same crime. Paludan burned a copy of the Quran outside Ankara’s embassy in Stockholm.
