Who is Salwan Momika, the Quran burner who is fueling international tensions?

2023-07-21 01:56:59

But who is Salwan Momika? So far a rather discreet man, the past of this Iraqi living in Sweden has nothing to do with a long calm river. On June 28, the 37-year-old man trampled on a copy of the Koran before slipping bacon into it and burning a few pages outside Stockholm’s largest mosque on the first day of Eid al-Adha, a holiday celebrated by Muslims around the world.

Thursday, he organized a new rally, authorized by the Swedish police, during which he trampled and tore to pieces a copy of the holy book of Islam in front of the Iraqi embassy, ​​but without setting fire to it as he had announced. Both times, Salwan Momika, square sunglasses on his face, adopted a defiant attitude in the face of counter-protesters criticizing his act, countering their insults with a smirk.

Political fight against Islamic ideology

Originally from the province of Nineveh in northern Iraq, Salwan Momika arrived in Sweden in 2018. According to a source from the Swedish Immigration Agency, he was granted refugee status in April 2021. According to Les Observateurs de France 24, he has this status for a period of three years, until April 2024. Based in the small town of Järna south of Stockholm, the man is very present on social networks. On Facebook, he describes himself as a “thinker and writer, a free atheist who does not belong”. “There are no limits to my ideas and my pen, I invite everyone to investigate, reflect and doubt,” he adds on the network belonging to the Meta group.

Above, he also comments on the Iraqi news, not mincing his words to express his disappointment with politics and denounce the movement of Moqtada Sadr. Before his exile in Sweden, his accounts on social networks testify to an attempt at a political career in Iraq. A political activity which results in its links with a Christian armed group during the fight against the Islamic State group, the creation of an obscure Syriac political party, rivalries with influential Christian paramilitaries or even a brief arrest. He also participated in the vast demonstrations against corruption in Iraq at the end of 2019, an unprecedented protest movement bloodily repressed by the authorities. It had caused more than 600 deaths.

In early July, he confessed to having political ambitions in Sweden, saying he hoped to one day run for parliament for the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats (SD) party. This party, which supports the current coalition government of Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, then replied that Salwan Momika’s actions did not represent him. After his action on Thursday, he posted a message on Facebook promising to “continue to confront Islamic ideology and its merchants until it is banned”.

Diplomatic conundrum

Asked by the Swedish daily Aftonbladet in April, Salwan Momika assured that he did not intend to “harm this country” which offered him a welcome and “dignity”, adding that he wanted to see the Koran banned in Sweden. His gesture of June 28, however, had led to condemnations around the world, including in Turkey, whose green light is necessary for Sweden to join the Atlantic Alliance.

Sweden’s decision to let its second protest go ahead prompted Iraq to retaliate to expel the Swedish ambassador to Baghdad and suspend Swedish telecom equipment giant Ericsson’s license in the country. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), based in Saudi Arabia, has called for collective measures to prevent copies of the Koran from being burned again.

In Baghdad, supporters of Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr briefly entered the Swedish embassy in protest.