An anti-Islam activist was murdered in Sweden Wednesday night, apparently while he was live-streaming on TikTok from his home. Salwan Momika became an infamous figure in the Muslim world when he held public anti-Islam protests in 2023 which included the burning of a Koran on more than one occasion. There was a bounty on his head and last night he was murdered. A group of men have been arrested.
A spokesperson for Sweden’s prosecutor’s office confirmed to CNN that Momika was shot dead in capital city Stockholm on Wednesday.
Stockholm police told CNN that five people had been arrested on Wednesday night on suspicion of murder.
Momika was born in Iraq to a Christian family but became an atheist and an anti-Islam campaigner. He took the position that the Koran was incompatible with western values.
Salwan Momika said he came to Sweden five years ago from Iraq and has Swedish citizenship. He told CNN he identifies as an atheist.
He said he was doing this demonstration after three months of legal battles in court.
“This book should be banned in the world because of the danger it causes to democracy, ethics, human values, human rights, and women’s rights. It just doesn’t work in this time and age,” he said.
Momika applied for a permit to hold his protest and a court eventually decided it should be granted on the grounds of freedom of speech. But the Koran burning created an international incident with Muslim countries around the world condemning Sweden for not stopping him. Here’s a report from June of 2023:
The burning of a Quran outside a mosque in Sweden on one of the holiest days in Islam sparked outrage Thursday in many Muslim countries and widespread condemnations of the Swedish authorities.
In Iraq, several hundred people protested outside the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad at the urging of Muqtada al-Sadr, a populist cleric who called on the Iraqi government to break off diplomatic relations with Sweden, which he called “hostile” to Islam.
The crowd became increasingly angry, scaling the wall surrounding the compound and pushing through an external gate. There was no sign that Iraqi diplomatic police forces attempted to stop them. The protesters did not enter the embassy itself, which was closed for the Islamic holiday, and eventually left. Mr. Sadr called for larger protests after prayers on Friday.
Iraq’s foreign ministry also condemned Sweden “for allowing an extremist to burn a copy of the holy Quran.”
Other countries joined in the condemnation.
…allowing such an inflammatory protest stirred a backlash in Turkey, a NATO member state that has obstructed Sweden’s accession bid. Sweden and neighboring Finland both formally applied to join the bloc after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.”
Turkey’s foreign minister condemned the protest on Wednesday, calling it a “heinous act.”
“It is unacceptable to allow these anti-Islamic actions under the pretext of freedom of expression. To turn a blind eye to such heinous acts is to be complicit in them,” Hakan Fidan said in a statement.
After allowing the protest, Sweden reversed course and prosecuted Momika and Salwan Najem, who joined him for several protests, of incitement to racial hatred. Momika and Najem were supposed to hear the verdict in the case against them today. Najem has since posted a link to a story about the murder on X with caption “I am next.”
Jag är nästahttps://t.co/BbXL5P9lga
— Salwan Najem (@NajemSalwan) January 30, 2025
He may be right about that. Unfortunately, Momika joins a long list of people who’ve been murdered for criticizing Islam.
