9mo ago

An Iraqi man who carried out several Quran burnings in Sweden has been killed

An Iraqi man who carried out Quran burnings in Sweden is killed in a shooting

Summary

Salwan Momika, the Iraqi man who staged several Quran burnings in Sweden in 2023, was shot and killed in Sodertalje, near Stockholm.

His actions had sparked international outrage, riots, and diplomatic tensions. Swedish police confirmed a murder investigation is underway, and several arrests have been made.

Momika, who sought asylum in Sweden in 2018, faced charges of incitement to hatred, with a verdict scheduled for the day after his death.

His protests were permitted under free speech laws but led to legal action against him.

74 comments

He was a asshole, but he sound have been free and safe to be an asshole.
Fuck religion
- If this was a Swedish-born guy, I would jump on the bandwagon of calling him an asshole.
  But this guy was an Iraqi. I cannot outright condemn someone who gets so tired of the shit of the majority of their own country that ends up overreacting the moment they find themselves somewhere where they can express themselves freely.
  Like, turban knocking in a Western city is (rightly) a hate crime. Turban knocking in Tehran? That's fucking righteous.
  Middle eastern Christians, atheists, etc very often end up being "wrong" wherever they find themselves. Wrong in their home countries for being the kuffar Other, wrong in the West as "islamophobes" when they speak out about their othering.
- I'm not for the death penalty or killing people generally (very rare exceptions, maybe).
  That said, he did it to rile up millions of people with hate speech (for them it is I bet), so like don't do that or you might face consequences.
  Free speech isn't about the right to hate speeching. What a douchebag.
  Edit: idiot below trying to frame it I think you shouldn't "blasphemy". No lol go ahead and blasphemy all you want, that's free speech IMO.
  
  Being offended is not a justification for killing nor is it hate speech.
  
  I don't think we should consider blasphemy as hate speech. Or do you want to be required to follow the rules of all religions because they are all offended by it?
- Yeah because the actions of one "religious" person represent the bunch right?
  
  On social media? Yes.
  Replace “religious” with “police” as an example.
This guy?
- look i hate netanyahoo and his party but i don't think this iraqi guy deserved it, i belive in freedom of religion and expression
  and i think based on my experience (due to coming from sunni family) islam is something more than a religion
  
  His schtick was grifting and being as racist as possible against brown people. This blatant racism is unacceptable in any way. We do not see Muslims mass burning Torah's because they hate Israel either nor should they be doing that.
  This is straight up Nazi rhetoric. but because it is against Islam it is accepted in most Western countries. Even part of the more liberal establishment will defend it.
  This man will be slightly more missed than the United Healthcare CEO.
  
  Hate speech is an exception to the freedom of speech in Sweden. (Same as in EU countries).
  You are allowed to practice your religion and express yourself, but hate speech is off the table.
  So if he was not jailed or fined for these book burnings, the law has failed and somebody could have taken matters in their own hands.
  
  What exactly more than a religion is it?
- Well that checks out.
For some context, when one scratches a bit the back-story of this guy, some interesting facts pop up:
Momika came from Qaraqosh, a town in the Al-Hamdaniya district in the northern Iraqi province of Nineveh[5]. He was an ethnic Assyrian and raised as a Syriac Catholic.[6][7] During the Iraqi civil war, when Christians became persecuted by the Islamic State of Iraq (the precursor of ISIS), Momika joined the Assyrian Patriotic Party and worked as a security guard for the party's headquarters in Mosul. According to Iraqi government sources, Momika fled his hometown in 2012 after the local court found him guilty of causing a wrongful death during a car accident and sentenced him to three years of imprisonment in Badush.[8][9]
After the fall of Mosul to ISIS militants in June 2014, Momika joined the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) to fight against ISIS.[10] Specifically, he has appeared in videos in military uniform, as a part of the Christian unit "Spirit of God Jesus Son of Mary Battalion" (Kataib Rouh Allah Issa Ibn Miriam) brandishing firearms and pledging allegiance to the Imam Ali Brigades (to which the Christian unit is a part of), which are a PMF faction and part of the Islamic Movement of Iraq.[11] The Imam Ali Brigades are known to have close connections to Iran and is considered to be an Iranian proxy.[12] The brigades were also accused of committing war crimes and engaging in sectarian violence.[13] It's said that Momika was also affiliated with the Syriac Assembly Movement, a political party that received support from the Government of the Kurdistan Region.[14]
Momika also founded the Syriac Democratic Union and the Falcons of the Syriac Forces in 2014, an armed militia which was affiliated with the Christian militia Babylon Brigade, the armed wing of the Babylon Movement.[12] In 2017, Momika was involved in an internal power struggle with fellow Babylon Movement leader Rayan al-Kildani, which he lost. He fled the country as a result.[15]
In 2017, Momika fled to Germany with a Schengen visa, where he announced his atheism and apostasy from Christianity.
The rest of the article also describes multiple instances of him behaving erratically (e.g. threatening someone with a knife etc).
So before we go to the standard «western right wing troll» stereotyping, we must acknowledge that this is a veteran of the fight against ISIS who experienced persecution of his community during the Iraqi civil war and who probably was suffering from all sorts of trauma.
Does this excuse his behaviour, no. But it does explain it, way better than simplistic caricatures putting him in some «western racist» pigeonhole. He definitely did not deserve to die and he probably had some very legitimate reasons to hate Islam, a religion that he personally experienced in a really fucked up and extreme form in an extremely fucked up and extreme situation. Sadness all around.
- Quite a lose-lose situation indeed. People who hate each others guts. I hope they can find the perpetrators soon.
He was being charged for doing this? I had completely missed that. Was Sweden always like this?
- Are you saying his killing was justified?
  
  No? He's saying it triggers plenty of Islamophobia. If you actually follow the logic, it sounds more like he's adding more arguments against this kind of killing.
- Yeah tbh as a Muslim it’s pretty tiring and offensive to read all of that shit when most of us are just busy living our lives like everyone else. And we’re here on the supposedly progressive and liberal Lemmy…
  
  Wait, are you suggesting that its a bad idea to generalize what a billion plus people living in vastly different places and situations believe? /s
  
  It's also super tiring to read all the ahmadullilah comments under the TRT post on YouTube about this. Kind of offensive too, you know.
  I'm with you 100% combatting islamophobia everywhere, but I don't see much in terms of combatting ...islamic-supremacy(?), see I don't even know what to call it. We don't even name it. It's not "Islamism" because that means anything and nothing, it's not "Islamic extremism" because that's like the maniacs. What do we call the low key thing? The one that feeds into the culture war on the muslim side?
killed? someone who's runover by a train is killed, the guy in this article was murdered for someone else's invisible friend.
it's murder.
raised anger and criticism in several Muslim nations
I don't think there are many non-Muslims who were onboard with this stupid shit either, to be fair. Besides the spittle-flecked gammon who were already bigots to begin with, of course.
The only Quran burning I'd support would be if Elon Musk did it as part of his whole white identitarian shtick. I'd send ISIS the airfare myself.
- I have mixed thoughts on it really, like you should be allowed to do it but its just pointless and stupid so why the fuck would you?
  
  To me, it's more about the goal he was trying to achieve. He clearly did it to taunt and insult. In that context, I can see how this should be a punishable offense (not death though).
  It would be a similar thing if you had learned that the prime minister of Sweden likes to create art at home. Then buying one of his art pieces and burn it in front of his house. Sure, burning art is not a punishable offense, but the goal of intimidating someone with such a symbol could/should be.
Liberals really hate Nazis.
Unless the Nazi is being Nazi against Muslims instead of Jews. Then they love free speech.
As the saying goes, the only good Nazi
- He wasn't a nazi.
This isn't justification for what happened but people should know he was a part of a brigade in Iraq that killed people.
Oh and also, he's an Israeli supporter who called Palestinians "rats"
- As I understand, he was part of a brigade that killed people in the context of a civil war where his brigade was fighting against ISIS
  Quite an important footnote.
  
  His brigade also killed innocent people who had nothing to do with that.
- Who is that?
  
  this is some weird fediverse scam bot?
Seems like he got what he wanted.
- He died for destroying a book, for burning paper, no human was hurt and he died because some religious extremist can't control themselves.
  Great example of how religion needs to be properly regulated.
  
  He was absolutely trying to get a reaction. I'm not saying that it's good that he got the one he did, I'm just saying it was predictable.
RIP
Guess he didn't read the crowd.

74 comments