Activists of hardline anti-blasphemy party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan protest in Karachi against the burning of the Quran in Sweden on January 27, 2023. File | Photo credit: AFP
Swedish prosecutors on Wednesday (August 28, 2024) charged two men with inciting ethnic hatred over a number of protests involving Quran burnings in 2023 that sparked widespread outrage in Muslim countries.
Salwan Momika, a Christian Iraqi who burned Qurans at several protests, and co-protester Salwan Najem were charged with “agitation against an ethnic group” on four occasions in the summer of 2023.
“The two men are being prosecuted for making statements on these four occasions and treating the Quran in a manner that was intended to express contempt for Muslims because of their faith,” senior prosecutor Anna Hankio said in a statement.
According to the charge sheet, the two desecrated the Quran, including burning it, and made derogatory comments about Muslims — in one case outside a Stockholm mosque.
The prosecutor said, “In my opinion, the men’s statements and actions fall under the provisions of agitation against an ethnic or national group and it is important that this case be heard in court.”
Both protests strained relations between Sweden and several Middle Eastern countries.
Iraqi protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad twice in July 2023, setting the premises on fire on the second occasion.
In August last year, Sweden’s intelligence service Sapo raised its threat level to four on a scale of five after the country was made a “priority target” following the Quran-burning incident.
The Swedish government condemned the sacrilege, citing the country’s constitutionally protected freedom of speech and assembly laws.
Earlier this month, prosecutors charged Swedish-Danish right-wing activist Rasmus Paludan with the same offence over a 2022 protest in the southern city of Malmö that included the burning of a Quran.
In October 2023, a Swedish court convicted a man of inciting ethnic hatred in connection with the 2020 Quran burning, marking the first time the country’s court system had heard a charge of desecrating Islam’s holy book.
Prosecutors previously said that under Swedish law, burning the Quran could be seen as criticism of the book and religion, and thus protected under freedom of speech.
However, depending on the context of the time and the statements made, it could also be considered a “movement against an ethnic group”.