Salwan Momika, a refugee from Iraq who burnt the holy Quran in Stockholm in 2023, was murdered on Wednesday evening. Five suspects arrested the same evening were released a few days later due to a lack of sufficient evidence.
Momika was living in a suburb outside Stockholm, presumably under police protection but it has not been confirmed. After the Quran burnings, he was indicted for incitement against an ethnic group and the sentence was to be pronounced on Thursday. The indictment has now been cancelled.
In Summer 2023, public burnings of the holy Quran took place in Sweden and Denmark causing violent protests in Muslim countries and condemnations by the EU and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The burnings also sparked an intensive debate over whether they were protected by freedom of expression or should be banned as a form of hate speech.
Momika burnt the Quran in front of the Swedish Parliament (Riksdagen) and outside the grand mosque in Stockholm. He told media that his intention with the burnings was to ban the Quran because, as he claimed, it encourages to violence. At the time of the incidents it was considered legal in Sweden to burn the Quran and he had received permission from the local Swedish police authority to burn the Quran in public.
According to Swedish court decisions, the burning of books, including those that are sacred to religious communities, is considered as an expression of freedom of expression and assembly and cannot be banned by the police even if it would threaten public order or security.
At a press briefing, the Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, described the murder as “spectacular” and confirmed that the security services are involved in the investigation because of the risk of a link to a foreign country. His press unit did not reply immediately to a request for comment about the current play of state of Swedish legislation or interpretation concerning banning Quran burnings.
In an editorial, the leading Swedish daily, Dagens Nyheter, defended Momika’s freedom to burn the Quran as inviolable and similar to the freedom to revile religion in artworks and books. There is a perception that banning the burning of books that are considered sacred by religious communities would become a slippery road to the blasphemy laws that were common in the past.

One Quran burning took place outside the grand mosque in Stockholm in July 2023, credit: The Brussels Times
In the past, the European Commission has denounced Quran burnings and described them as “irresponsible acts by irresponsible individuals intended to sow division in the EU”. It also refers to the Framework Decision from 2008 on combating certain forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law.
This legal instrument could be applied against Quran burnings. The Framework Decision was due to be transposed into the Member States’ national legislation already by November 2010.
Although the Commission has strongly condemned the Quran burnings, it has fallen short of explicitly calling on Member States to apply the Framework Decision in this context. Asked in the past about the correct application of the Decision, the Commission replied that it cannot comment on its application in concrete cases.
What is clear is that Sweden has not transposed the Framework Decision correctly. A public inquiry was published in 2023 on proposals for legal amendments to address the loopholes in the implementation of the Decision identified by the Commission but they had nothing to do with the burnings of the Quran and other religious texts, according to the Swedish ministry of justice.
Asked at the Commission’s press conference on Friday, a spokesperson replied that he could not comment on Swedish legislation but repeated the Commission’s position that manifestations of anti-Muslim hatred and intolerance have no place in Europe.
The German poet Heinrich Heine warned already in 1823 against burning books. “Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings.” They have nothing to do with freedom of expression in a democratic society. Burning books are violent acts which took place in Nazi-Germany and incites to violence against people.
M. Apelblat
The Brussels Times