Man who burnt Quran in 2023, sparking massive protests, shot dead in Sweden

A man who repeatedly burnt the Quran in 2023 in Sweden, sparking massive outrage and protests in Muslim countries, has been shot dead, media reported on Thursday, according to news agency AFP.

A Stockholm court was due to rule on Thursday whether Salwan Momika, a Christian Iraqi who burned Qurans at a slew of protests, was guilty of inciting ethnic hatred. It postponed the ruling, saying "one of the defendents has died."

2023 Quran burnings in Sweden

In 2023, instances of Quran-burning occurred in Sweden, which were named collectively by Swedish media as the Korankrisen. The most notable of them occurred on 28 June 2023, when a 37-year-old Iraqi Assyrian refugee Salwa Momika ripped out and set fire to pages of the Quran outside the Stockholm Mosque. This incident caused international protests and condemnation, particularly among the Muslim world. 

On 20 July, Momika planned another Quran burning in Stockholm, which resulted in protestors storming the Swedish embassy in Baghdad and committing arson.

This resulted in several follow-up protests in Denmark, in which the Quran was burned outside the embassies of several Muslim-majority countries. Counterprotests, in the form of violence and boycotts, eventually caused Denmark to reintroduce blasphemy laws criminalizing the "inappropriate treatment" of religious texts.