Activists of radical anti-blasphemy party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan protest against the burning of the Koran in Sweden, in Karachi on January 27, 2023. File
| Photo Credit: AFP

Swedish prosecutors on Wednesday (August 28, 2024) charged two men with inciting ethnic hatred over several protests involving the burning of Korans in 2023, which sparked widespread outrage in Muslim countries.

Salwan Momika, a Christian Iraqi who burned Korans at a slew of protests, and co-protester Salwan Najem were charged with “agitation against an ethnic group” on four occasions in the summer of 2023.

“Both men are prosecuted for having on these four occasions made statements and treated the Koran in a manner intended to express contempt for Muslims because of their faith,” senior prosecutor Anna Hankkio said in a statement.

According to the charge sheet, the duo desecrated the Koran, including burning it, while making derogatory remarks about Muslims – in one case outside a Stockholm Mosque.

“In my opinion, the men’s statements and actions fall under the provisions on agitation against an ethnic or national group and it is important that this matter is tried in court,” the prosecutor added.

Relations between Sweden and several Middle Eastern countries were strained by the pair’s protests.

Iraqi protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad twice in July 2023, starting fires within the compound 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 Koran burnings had made the country a “prioritised target”.

The Swedish government condemned the desecrations while noting 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 crime over a 2022 protest in the southern city of Malmo, which also included burning the Koran.

In October 2023, a Swedish court convicted a man of inciting ethnic hatred with a 2020 Koran burning, the first time the country’s court system had tried the charge for desecrating Islam’s holy book.

Prosecutors have previously said that under Swedish law, the burning of a Koran can be seen as a critique of the book and the religion, and thus be protected under free speech.

However, depending on the context and statements made at the time, it can also be considered “agitation against an ethnic group.”