Turkey and Taliban Rage as Iraqi Burns Qur’an in Sweden

An Iraqi burned a copy of the Qur’an outside a mosque in Sweden, sparking another rift with Turkey amid its bid to join the NATO alliance.

Iraqi national Salwan Momika, 37, who came to Sweden as an asylum seeker several years ago, was permitted by a judge earlier this month to conduct a burning of the Islamic holy book on the grounds of free speech.

Momika followed through with the act outside a Stockholm mosque on Wednesday, the start of the three-day Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday, despite around 200 Islamic protesters coming out to oppose him, including one who attempted to pelt the Iraqi with stones before being arrested, Aftonbladet reported.

While playing the Swedish national anthem and waving the blue and yellow flag of the nation, Momika began to tear pages from the book, wrapping some of the pages in bacon while using others to smoke a cigarette before ultimately setting fire to the copy of the Qur’an.

Explaining the reason for the provocative demonstration, Momika said prior to burning the book: “We will burn the Qur’an. We will say: wake up Sweden. This is democracy. It’s in danger if they say we can’t do this”.

Although he was granted permission by a court to perform the burning of the Qur’an, police announced that the activist was being investigated for “incitement against an ethnic group” — despite Muslim not being an ethnicity — and for violating a seasonal ban on lighting fires in Sweden. 

The Qur’an burning comes at a critical time in Swedish politics, with Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson saying earlier in the day that his country will seek to join the American-led NATO military alliance by the summit in Vilnius in July. For Sweden to join the alliance, all NATO members, including the ever-more Islamist government of Turkey, would need to unanimously approve their membership bid.

The Islamic nationalist government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara has threatened to derail Sweden’s NATO membership chances for its refusal to ban the burning of copies of the Qur’an in the Nordic nation located some 2,000 miles away.

In a statement, a spokesman for the Justice and Development Party of President Erdoğan, Omer Celik said: “We condemn the Swedish authorities’ approval of the application to burn the Qur’an in front of a mosque on Eid al-Adha.”

“We strongly condemn the Swedish Supreme Court’s stance on protecting hate crimes. Every disrespect is a crime against humanity. We will continue to fight against these cursed acts in the strongest way possible on all political and legal grounds.”

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan added: “I condemn the vile action in Sweden against our Holy Book, Qur’an, on the first day of the Eid-al-Adha!”

“It is unacceptable to allow these Islamophobe anti-Muslim actions under the pretext of freedom of expression,” he added. “To turn a blind eye to such atrocious acts is to be a partner in crime.”

Turkey has found common cause with the Taliban — now ruling Afghanistan again after the botched Western withdrawal — who have strongly condemned the burning. Per the AFP, the Taliban government said: “Permission for such despicable acts in front of a mosque on one of the holiest days of Islam shows nothing more than the utter contempt towards this noble religion and its close to two billion adherents by the Swedish authorities… We call on all Muslim states and organisations… to take all appropriate measures in response to such odious acts across the world.”

So far the outrage has not resulted in rioting in Sweden, as was the case last year after Danish-Swedish anti-Islam activist Rasmus Paludan burned a copy of the Qur’an which led to extensive rioting in multiple cities and attacks on police by enraged Muslims. Paludan, who also serves as the leader of the Stram Kurs party, went on to burn another copy outside of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm earlier this year, sparking fury from Ankara.

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