A man who ignited violent protests by burning the Quran has been shot dead in Sweden.
Salwan Momika, 38, is reported to have been killed in an apartment located in Södertälje, Stockholm, on Wednesday evening, January 29.
Unrest erupted after Mr. Momika set fire to a copy of Islam’s holy text outside the Stockholm Central Mosque in 2023.
Stockholm police stated in a release that five individuals had been arrested following the fatal shooting of a man in his 40s overnight.
According to the police, they had been alerted to a shooting incident in the city of Södertälje, where Momika resided.
The shooting took place indoors; upon their arrival, police discovered a man who had been “hit by shots,” and he was subsequently transported to the hospital, as mentioned in the statement.
Local media reported that Mr Momika had been live streaming on social media at the time of the shooting.
An Iraqi national living in Sweden, Mr. Momika faced charges in August alongside another individual for “agitation against an ethnic group” on four separate occasions during the summer of 2023.
Although the verdict was scheduled to be announced on Thursday, it was postponed after it was “confirmed that one of the defendants had died,” as noted by the Stockholm District Court.
Mr. Momika executed a sequence of anti-Islam demonstrations, inciting indignation in numerous Muslim-majority nations.
The turmoil occurred at the Swedish embassy in Baghdad on two separate occasions, while the Swedish ambassador was expelled from the city due to a diplomatic dispute.
The Swedish government had granted Mr. Momika authorization for the protest during which he incinerated the sacred text, asserting that it aligned with its free-speech statutes.
However, it subsequently vowed to investigate legal avenues to prohibit protests that entail the burning of texts under specific conditions.
