Swedish justice authorized the holding of two rallies during which an Iraqi refugee attacked copies of the holy book of Muslims. Gestures that embarrass Swedish diplomacy.
For the second time in a month, the desecration of a Koran by an Iraqi refugee in Sweden inflamed public opinion and the political class of his country of origin and part of the Muslim world on Thursday 20 July. At a rally in Stockholm, Salwan Momika finally gave up burning a copy of Islam’s holy book, as he had done in June, but stomped on it and tore it to pieces.
Sweden’s politicians are trying to find a balance between condemning their actions and defending freedom of expression, under which justice authorized the two demonstrations. A position that is costing him dearly on the diplomatic scene, Iraq having notably expelled the Swedish ambassador, whose residence was set on fire by demonstrators on Thursday. Franceinfo summarizes the case for you.
These desecrations are the work of an Iraqi refugee in Sweden
Two distinct actions are at the origin of the tensions. On June 28, the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, Salwan Momika went to the largest mosque in Stockholm. In front of a hundred journalists, he trampled on a copy of the Koran, slipped slices of bacon into it, then burned a few pages. Thursday, when he announced his intention to repeat this gesture, Salwan Momika once again trampled on a copy of the sacred work, but did not set it on fire.
A refugee in Sweden, this 30-year-old is from Iraq, a country he says he left in 2017, according to an interview published Friday by Marianne. He recounts having been a Christian and having become an atheist, and today denounces religion as “a danger to the human spirit”. But his actions specifically target Islam and the Quran, which he says “incites to crime against anyone who is not Muslim” : “I want it banned or the incitement verses removed from it”he said to the weekly.
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In Iraq, he claims to have joined a political party representing the Aramaic community, to which he belongs. According to France 24, images show him in 2015 among members of a Christian branch of a militia fighting the Islamic State, supported by Iran and accused of war crimes. In early July, he said he hoped one day to be a candidate for the Swedish Parliament for the far-right party Ddemocrats of Sweden, support of the current ruling coalition. The party responded that the activist’s actions did not represent it.
Sweden oscillates between unease and defense of freedom of expression
Salwan Momika’s actions agitated Sweden long before June. In February, the Swedish police banned the organization of two gatherings to burn the religious book, near the embassies of Turkey and Iraq. One of these demands was made by Salwan Momika, and the second by an association which said it wanted above all to block Sweden’s entry into NATO.
But in early April, the Swedish courts ruled against the police, judging that the threat of an attack invoked to ban these gatherings was not “not sufficiently concrete or linked to the demonstrations in question” to justify interference with freedom of expression or assembly. The decision was upheld on appeal on June 12, forcing to authorize the burning of the Koran by Salwan Momika. However, the police have announced that they are filing a complaint for “agitation against an ethnic group”because of the choice to commit this act in front of a mosque.
“I think we also have to think in Sweden”had reacted the conservative Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, without questioning the legislation, but by criticizing the gesture: “There is no reason to insult people. (…) “I think that it is not because certain things are legal that they are appropriate.” The Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned “firmly” an act qualified as“Islamophobe”.
However, on July 14, the police authorized a rally during which a Bible and a Torah were to be burned in front of the Israeli embassy. The next day, at the announced time, there was no burning: the organizer explained to the journalists that he wanted “show that freedom of expression has limits that must be taken into account. (…) It is against the Quran to burn [un livre sacré] and I will not burn any. No one should do that.” Similarly, the authorities did not ban Salwan Momika’s new happening on Thursday. In both cases, it was not the authorization to burn religious texts that had been requested, but that of organizing a rally about freedom of assembly, justified the police. That’s not like condoning what’s going on there, a spokesperson said.
The Iraqi activist could continue to test the limits of this judicial framework: “I will continue to burn Qurans as long as I can legally do so”he says in his interview with Marianne.
The affair turns into a diplomatic crisis and invites itself to the UN
The burning of the month of June had already provoked strong reactions throughout the Muslim world. Called to demonstrate by Iraqi Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr, a few dozen of his supporters briefly entered the Swedish embassy in Iraq, and several thousand demonstrators marched the next day. Condemnations have multiplied across the Muslim world, from Egypt to Afghanistan, targeting not only the gesture, but also the authorization given by the Swedish police. Morocco has thus denounced “repeated provocations, committed under the complacent gaze of the Swedish government”and recalled its ambassador to Sweden, while Kuwait summoned the Swedish ambassador.
The affair had also complicated the already tense relations with Turkey, which refused (for other reasons) to vote in favor of Sweden’s entry into NATO. “We will teach arrogant Westerners that insulting Muslims is not free speech”said Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a televised intervention.
The subject has even invited itself to the UN. Pakistan, on behalf of several countries of theOrganization of Islamic Cooperation, had the Human Rights Council vote on a text condemning the recent attacks on the Koran and “any advocacy and manifestation of religious hatred”. This resolution also calls on countries to adopt laws to punish those responsible for such acts. A point disputed by the European Union or the United States, which condemned the burning of Stockholm, but worried about a criminalization of blasphemy. The text was nevertheless adopted.
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A new rally took place in Baghdad on Thursday at dawn. Demonstrators set fire to the Swedish Embassy, causing no injuries, before being dispersed by the police. After condemning the fire, the Iraqi government nevertheless ordered the expulsion of the Swedish ambassador and threatened to break off diplomatic relations between the two countries. Iraq has also suspended the license allowing the Swedish telecom company Ericsson to operate in the country. On Friday, demonstrations continued in several cities in Iraq, as well as in Tehran (Iran) and Beirut (Lebanon). IDiplomatic tensions have spread to new countries: Saudi Arabia, Iran and Jordan have notably summoned Swedish representatives to their capitals. For its part, Sweden assured that its embassy in Iraq would operate temporarily from Stockholm.