by Victor Lavrinenko
| The rest of the story. Possibly there aren’t any good guys at all here. |
Although, perhaps, if the Swedish state had sent Momika to prison after his first action, it would have saved his life.
ATTRACTED ATTENTION
A few years ago, Sweden was hit by an epidemic of public burnings of sacred books of various religions. These blasphemous actions were carried out by half-mad liberal activists who took advantage of loopholes in local legislation. One of the authors of this trend was an Iraqi named Salwan Momika, who moved to Sweden in 2021. Even at that time, he had an extremely turbulent biography behind him.
Born to an Assyrian-Aramaic Christian family in the city of Qaraqosh, Momika fled in 2012 after a local court found him guilty of causing death by negligence (in a car accident) and sentenced him to three years in prison.
During the Iraqi civil war, when local Christians were persecuted by Islamic extremists, Momika joined the Assyrian Patriotic Party. He worked as a security guard at the party's headquarters in Mosul.
After ISIS captured Mosul in 2014, Momika became involved with the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), a coalition of Christian, Shiite, and Yazidi militias fighting ISIS. He appeared in videos dressed as a militiaman, pledging allegiance to the Shiite Imam Ali Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Movement of Iraq (an affiliate of the PMU).
Momika then positioned himself as one of the leaders of the Brigade of the Spirit of God Jesus, Son of Mary (another branch of the SNM). Having political ambitions, he became the founder of the Syrian Democratic Union party. He also stood at the origins of the armed organization "Hawks of the Syrian Forces", created in 2014, which maintained contacts with the Iraqi party "Babylon Movement", which claims to represent the interests of Christians, although the majority of its members and voters are Shiite Muslims.
In 2017, Momika, having received a Schengen visa, fled to Germany.
| Wow. He actually went legally, getting legal permission first instead of arriving and demanding accomodation. |
In April 2021, he was granted a three-year temporary residence permit but denied permanent residency. Immigration officials caught him in a lie: Momika lied about the nature of his collaboration with the Imam Ali Brigades, claiming that he was affiliated with a political organization rather than a military militia.
The refusal greatly annoyed Momika, since he considered a permanent Swedish residence permit as a "bridge" to citizenship. Moreover, the emigrant intended to run for the Riksdag (parliament) and established contacts with members of the Swedish Christian Democratic Party.
He was later investigated after threatening a man with whom he shared an apartment with a knife. Momika was convicted of the threats, given a suspended sentence and community service. Salwan wanted to somehow attract public attention to himself, believing that this would allow him to return to politics. And he chose extreme Islamophobia as his signature gimmick, which may seem strange given that he once got along well with Muslims from the Popular Mobilization Forces.
Momika began making and posting videos expressing extreme anger toward Islam, which he said was "fanatical oppressors" and was responsible for the destruction of his homeland, which he called "Mesopotamia."
SIX KORANS
The videos alone were not enough to attract attention. Momika was inspired to take further action by the example of far-right activist Rasmus Paludan, who burned the Koran on Swedish territory in April 2022 and January 2023. Deciding to follow this example, the “actionist” bought a copy of the Koran in 2023 and filed a police report for holding a “public action” near the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm.
But to his disappointment, the police initially refused. After Paludan's antics, the authorities did not want to risk provoking Sweden's large Islamic community. According to Momiki, he felt "very sad and hurt."
In a conversation with the press, the Iraqi stated that "the police decision supports Islamic terrorists in Sweden and Europe." At the same time, another person, a black Swedish citizen Chris Makundul, applied for the blasphemous action. And he was also refused.
Momika and Makundul went to court, where a ruling was made that fully satisfied the blasphemers: they were granted the permission they had requested. However, Makundul got scared and did not burn the Koran. But Momika was unable to stop in time and on June 28, in front of a large crowd of the press, he burned the holy book in the center of Stockholm.
The action predictably caused a storm of indignation among Muslims living in Sweden. Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran expressed extreme indignation, accusing the Swedish authorities of condoning blasphemy. Morocco even recalled its ambassador from Sweden, and Iraq asked the Swedish ambassador to leave. In this country, the authorities of Momiki's hometown offered a reward of $2 million and a gold-plated Koran to anyone who killed him. The Iraqi government simply demanded his extradition.
Surprisingly, Momika became a geopolitical factor for a while.
Turkey blocked the Scandinavian country's entry into NATO for four months, and Istanbul cited the Swedish authorities' unwillingness to stop the blasphemer as one of the reasons for this. However, as it soon became clear, Istanbul's principled stand was inflated: Turkey agreed to Sweden's entry into the alliance, and Momika continued his antics.
The first Koran he burned was far from the only one. On July 20, 2023, under the protection of Swedish police, who protected him from angry believers, he burned another copy of the Muslim holy book - again under the walls of the Iraqi embassy. Less than two weeks later, on July 31, he did the same near the Swedish parliament building.
On September 3, 2023, Salvan Momika appeared with the Koran under his arm in one of the squares of the city of Malmö. And everything was repeated - the click of a lighter, the flames engulfing the pages of the book. On October 21, 2023, the "refugee" did this in Stockholm, on Benny Fredriksson Square.
Swedish officials grabbed their heads. Something had to be done urgently, since Momiki's antics were turning Sweden into almost the main enemy of the vast Muslim world. This could have brought the most dire consequences on the country: the Swedish police reported that the level of terrorist threat had increased sharply. However, in the eyes of Swedish law, the blasphemous immigrant had done nothing for which he could be sent to prison. Moreover, he was given police protection - as a person who received threats on a daily basis. The protection of the "fighter against Islam" cost the country 5 million kronor.
In October 2023, the Swedish government finally decided to deport Momika for all of his "exploits." He managed to file an appeal, which was rejected. But the question arose about where exactly to deport him. According to Swedish officials, he cannot be deported to his native Iraq, since there, they say, Momika "faces torture and inhuman treatment." Therefore, he was given a temporary residence permit for several months.
Meanwhile, he came up with a new way to "troll" the Muslim community - he announced that he supported Israel and publicly burned the Palestinian flag. On February 25, 2024, he burned the Koran again - for the sixth time. Then, in February 2024, the Swedish Migration Court once again confirmed that they would like to deport Momika and ban him from entering the country for five years.
NEXT IN LINE
After this, Momika hastily packed up for neighboring Norway. "Sweden only accepts terrorists, who are given shelter and protection here, while philosophers and thinkers are expelled from the country," the activist was indignant in a conversation with Expressen.
Rumors soon spread that he had been murdered in Norway. But in early April 2024, it became known that the desecrator was alive and well and would soon be deported back to Sweden. It turned out that when he filed his asylum application, he had stated that the Norwegian authorities would facilitate his death if he was returned to Sweden. However, the security authorities there came to the conclusion that the "philosopher and thinker" was a threat to Norway by his very presence.
Momike's temporary residence permit in Sweden expired in mid-April 2024. But this did not result in his deportation - he applied for a new residence permit, and the Swedish Migration Agency reconsidered whether he could be deported to his home country.
Under Swedish immigration law, this procedure could be repeated indefinitely until the agency decided that Iraq was safe enough to deploy a provocateur there.
However, in August last year, a case was brought against him for inciting racial hatred – the verdict was scheduled to be handed down yesterday, January 30, 2025. In connection with this, Momika said that he was surprised by the charges, but hoped for a full acquittal: “I know that Sweden and Swedish society protect freedom of speech and the freedom of people to criticize and question religion.”
It was clear from the start that the method he had chosen to make a public appearance was not very compatible with life. His murder was a matter of time, which happened on the night of January 29-30. At that time, he was in his rented apartment in a Stockholm suburb and was broadcasting a live video on TikTok, which was watched by more than two thousand people.
After 11:00 p.m., a report of a shooting was received from the area, and a police patrol and an ambulance team were sent to the scene. According to viewers watching the broadcast, Momika said he was going to go out on the balcony to smoke. Shortly after, four shots were heard. Prosecutor Rasmus Jöhman confirmed that the visitor was dead - he was found with several bullets in his head. The Swedish Security Police (Säpo) has joined the investigation.
A large-scale police operation began. Within hours, Swedish security forces had arrested five people, aged between twenty and sixty, who were believed to have been involved in Momiki's murder. Four of the suspects had no previous criminal record, while the fifth had been convicted of a minor drug offence in 2020. A firearm was seized from one of the suspects' vehicles.
The motives for their actions are clear - they were Muslims taking revenge on a man who had declared himself an implacable enemy of their religion. It is noteworthy that the speed and skill that Swedish law enforcement demonstrated in catching the killers of the desecrator of the Koran is not something they often demonstrate, judging by the number of unsolved violent crimes.
In general, the reaction of the Swedish authorities is noteworthy.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson announced that the country's security services were investigating possible links between Momiki's killers and foreign powers. Deputy Prime Minister Ebba Busch called the murder "a threat to our free democracy."
Momika's accomplice Salwan Najem, who appeared next to him in some of the videos at the time of the Koran burning, actually accused the Swedish authorities of complicity. According to him, Momika's murder was made possible because the authorities had previously decided to deprive him of police protection. Najem claims that immediately after his accomplice's death he received death threats from "1,200 Muslims" and considers himself "next in line."
Related:
Salwan Momika 01/30/2025 Christian Iraqi who burnt Koran in Sweden sparking huge protests is shot dead 'in live stream assassination'
Salwan Momika 08/29/2024 Sweden to prosecute two men over Holy Quran desecration
Salwan Momika 03/31/2024 Sweden’s Quran burner says he is leaving for Norway over threat of deportation
Salwan Momika 01/30/2025 Christian Iraqi who burnt Koran in Sweden sparking huge protests is shot dead 'in live stream assassination'
Salwan Momika 08/29/2024 Sweden to prosecute two men over Holy Quran desecration
Salwan Momika 03/31/2024 Sweden’s Quran burner says he is leaving for Norway over threat of deportation