An Iraqi immigrant in Sweden, Salwan Momika, was scheduled to appear in a Stockholm court on Thursday, but he didn’t show up. A Swedish judge, Göran Lundahl, announced that this was because it had been discovered that a murder victim in an apartment building in nearby Sodertalje was Momika. This was to have been, however, much more than an ordinary court appearance, and while the murder of any human being is a tragedy, the murder of Salwan Momika is much more than that.
All this has been a long time coming. Momika had become notorious worldwide for daring on several occasions to set fire to Islam’s central text, the Qur’an, and had received death threats on a more or less daily basis. In fact, that was why he was on trial. He was charged with “agitation against an ethnic or national group” for burning the Qur’an, which was ridiculous on its face: Momika was Iraqi, after all, and was setting fire to the Islamic book not because he wanted to agitate against Muslims, but because he wanted to call attention to the violence and oppression that the Qur’an inspires those who believe in it to commit.
Burning books is associated with National Socialism and with the forcible suppression of ideas, and so many people regard it with unalloyed horror. Momika, however, was not burning the Qur’an because he wanted to conceal what it says, but because he wanted to draw attention to what it says. The Swedish government should have hailed Momika as a hero of the freedom of expression; instead it vilified and persecuted him.
Reuters reported in Aug. 2024 that Swedish authorities were planning to try Momika and another Iraqi who had burned the Qur’an, Salwan Najem, “for setting fire to the Quran in a series of incidents last year that prompted outrage in the Muslim world and raised fears of attacks by jihadists.” It was because the Qur’an burnings “raised fears of attacks by jihadists” that Momika and Najem went on trial. Sweden surrendered to violent intimidation and discarded the freedom of speech out of cowardice and fear rather than committing itself to doing what it takes to defend its own way of life.
Momika faced numerous other legal difficulties in Sweden, including efforts to deport him back to his native Iraq. He went to Norway, seeking asylum, but was arrested and sent back to Sweden. He should have been celebrated as a hero but instead was treated as a criminal — the lone migrant whose presence European governments would not tolerate.
Back in March 2024, Momika explained what was at stake: “The persecution I am subjected to in Sweden is tantamount to defending Islam and supporting the project of Islamizing Sweden and the West, granting asylum and protecting Islamists, and while those who criticize Islam are expelled and persecuted, this means that the law on freedom of expression is in real danger and Islamic values may be imposed on Western societies and the application of Sharia law. Islamism will inevitably come to them unless we take action.” And now his murder proves that he was one hundred percent correct.
Momika added, “How can the Swedes be so calm when Sweden is being Islamized before their eyes? What would you say to future generations? Will you tell them that one day an Assyrian came and told us about Islam and warned of its dangers while we handed him over to Iraq to be killed?" No. He was killed right in Sweden itself.
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The way the pusillanimous and cowardly governments of Sweden and Norway treated Salwan Momika was shameful, and a significant signpost on their way to cultural destruction and the embrace of Sharia. He should have been protected as a hero of the freedom of expression, daring to risk his life to call attention to the oppression and violence that is carried out in accord with Qur’anic teaching. Instead, he was persecuted by both countries, vilified, exposed to danger, denounced, and now murdered. Salwan Momika’s fate demonstrates in microcosm what will happen to freedom in both countries.
And contrary to the ridiculous charges that he was facing, Salwan Momika was also proof in himself that criticism of the Qur’an is not “racist” or “Islamophobic.” He was Iraqi. He knew what the Qur’an does to human beings. He experienced it. When he was shot dead, he experienced it again. Yet Sweden treated him shabbily while celebrating and coddling those who bayed for his blood.
May his memory be eternal.
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