IRAQI MILITIA SALWAN MOMIKA, WHO BURNED QURAN SEVERAL TIMES IN SWEDEN, REPORTED TO HAVE BEEN FOUND DEAD

Tue 02 April 2024:

An Iraqi man who carried out several Quran burnings in Sweden was reportedly found dead in Norway. Salwan Momika, 37, had staged several burnings and desecrations of the sacred book of Islam in Sweden over the past few years. Last, week Momika told a newspaper that he had been seeking asylum in neighbouring Norway.

A Christian who turned atheist, Momika described himself as “a liberal atheist critic and thinker”.

On Eid, in June 2023, Salwan Momika stunned the world as he stomped on a copy of the Quran, the holy book of Muslims, and then burnt it in front of Stockholm’s largest mosque. A friend of his filmed this act of defiance.

“The lifeless body of Iraqi refugee and Islamic critic Salwan Sabah Matti Momika has been found in Norway. Momika was known for organizing demonstrations in Sweden where he publicly burned the Koran several times,” Radio Genoa posted on X.

The lifeless body of Iraqi refugee and Islam critic Salwan Sabah Matti Momika has been found in Norway. Momika was known for organizing demonstrations in Sweden where he publicly burn Koran several times.https://t.co/I9yOTeSQOJ

— RadioGenoa (@RadioGenoa) April 2, 2024

Contradictory reports

However, later the same platform claimed that those who announced his death have now deleted the post. “Those who announced Momika’s death with over 1 million impressions deleted the tweet. We are waiting for further confirmation,” it added in a late post.

Momika was known for organizing demonstrations in Sweden where he publicly burned the Koran several times.”

Salwan Momika has been in the news after he shifted to Norway from Sweden. He was granted a Swedish residency permit in 2021.

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Momika moved out of Iraq in 2018, seeking asylum. Though a Christian who turned atheist, Momika behaved like an extreme Ex-Muslim.

Ex-Muslims are individuals who identified as Muslims once, left the religiondue to personal reasons, differing beliefs, or disillusionment with its teachings, practices, or community norms.

Facilitated by the internet, a movement of Ex-Muslims has gained ground across the world.

“Today I left Sweden and am now in Norway under the protection of the Norwegian authorities,” Salwan Momika posted on March 27.

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“I applied for asylum and international protection in Norway because Sweden does not accept asylum for philosophers and thinkers, but only accepts asylum for terrorists. My love and respect for the Swedish people will remain the same, but the persecution I was subjected to by the Swedish authorities does not represent the Swedes,” he added in the post.

Momika had staged a series of public desecrations of the Quran in 2023.

Clashes broke out in Malmo, Sweden’s third-largest city, in September last year after an angry mob tried to prevent Momika from burning a copy of the Quran.

Sweden allowed his protests on the aegis of free speech. But questions were also asked if the Swedish authorities had gone too far by allowing Momkia to burn the Quran.

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Momika’s burning of the Quran was termed “Islamophobia” by the Swedish foreign minister. Police had denied him permission for the act, but a court gave him the go ahead based on the principles of free speech.

Swedish police, however, filed preliminary hate speech charges against him.

Sweden’s Migration Agency decided to revoke Momika’s residence permit after finding out that the Iraqi asylum-seeker had provided false information in his application for asylum, according to Swedish broadcaster TV4.

Salwan Momika also provoked Palestine supporters amid the Israel-Hamas war by posting images of burning the Palestinian flag.

Last September, Iraq demanded Momika be extradited. He challenged the request saying Iraq was seking his extradition “so that I can be judged and held accountable in Iraq according to Islamic laws”.

SWEDEN ORDERS IRAQI QURAN BURNER TO LEAVE COUNTRY

SALWAN MOMIKA AS MILITIA LEADER IN IRAQ

Salwan Momika was born into a Christian family in the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar.

Though not much is known about his childhood, there are images and videos of him as a militia leader in Iraq.

In one video that gained online traction since his burning of the Quran on Eid, Momika introduces himself as the head of a Christian militia in Iraq.

His outfit was within the Imam Ali Brigades, an organisation created in 2014 and accused of war crimes, according to France24.

The Imam Ali Brigades is a group under the umbrella organisation of the Popular Mobilization Forces. Several outfits under Popular Mobilization Forces have been integrated into the Iraqi army to fight the Islamic State.

Salwan Momika ran his armed group in the outskirts of the Iraqi city of Mosul in 2017.

He had to flee from Iraq in 2018 after a power struggle with Rayan al-Kaldani, the head of Babylon, another Christian militia outfit.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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