An Iraqi Christian who garnered controversy for burning copies of the Koran has been shot dead in Sweden.
The 38-year-old refugee was shot dead in an apartment in the city of Sodertalje on Wednesday night.
As Gript previously reported, Momika’s Koran burnings have sparked outrage from Muslims worldwide, with the Swedish embassy in Iraq being stormed by a mob in July 2023.
Although highly controversial, Momika was allowed to hold his koran burning demonstrations as Sweden has not had blasphemy laws since the 1970s.
Five people have been arrested on suspicion of his murder which it is believed took place while he was on a livestream.
Local police spokesperson Daniel Wikdahl said last night, “We are searching inside and outside the house,” as it is suspected that the shooter may have entered the apartment building via the roof.
Reacting to the shooting, Swedish MEP and member of the Sweden Democrats party, Charlie Weimers, said, “Sweden is a dangerous country for critics of Islam. It will take a ruthless policy against Islamists to change that.”
It was reported that Momika had been charged with incitement against a specific group after he held four different Koran burnings in 2023. The verdict in this case was expected at 11am local time today
In a statement, Stockholm District Court said,”Since it has been confirmed that one of the defendants has died, the sentence must be adapted to the fact that it is not possible to sentence a deceased person,”.
Momika’s co-accused Salwan Najem took to X to express his shock at his associate’s death saying,
“I’m next,”.
Freedom of Expression in Sweden
Swedish associate professor of sociology at the University of Uppsala, Göran Adamson complied a paper entitled ‘Multiculturalism in Flames’ which was published by MMC Brussels, argued that freedom of expression is also under threat in Sweden due to the less tolerant attitudes held among many of its migrant population saying that, “threats of violence from migrants and the concerns of elites about ‘inflaming’ tensions or ‘offending’ minorities, freedom of expression is now under serious threat in Sweden.”
The paper outlines how individuals who criticised Islam, such as Lars Vilks, have been forced to live with 24hr security due to threats to their lives., in Vilks’ case before his untimely death.
Goran says that freedom of expression in Sweden is “under relentless pressure from certain migrant groups trying to have it dismantled for the benefit of multicultural ‘tolerance’.”
He argued that, from a classic left-wing perspective, this is reminiscent of religious submission, which may explain why traditional left-wing ideas have been abandoned by today’s multicultural left-wingers.”
He said that amid the Vilks controversy a news-anchor, instead of defending freedom of speech had “grabbed the opportunity, saying Vilks was merely referring to ‘freedom of speech … in order to humiliate Muslims’,” and that the Church of Sweden had announced its intention to“to distance ourselves from Vilks’s blasphemies”.