Respectful Coexistence Despite Quran Desecration in Sweden

On Wednesday, hundreds of bystanders stood outside the Stockholm Central Mosque as Salwan Momika desecrated the Quran. While some hurled insults at the man, most simply laughed, mocked, or ignored him. The Swedish Prime Minister labelled the act as legal but not appropriate, while the US State Department called it disrespectful. Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan criticized the incident and called it unacceptable. His country is blocking Sweden's NATO membership bid, submitted a year ago along with Finland. The US State Department urged Turkey to ratify the accession protocol without delay.

Momika, an Iraqi refugee, was seeking to ban the Quran in Sweden. He laid a strip of bacon on the holy book and began stamping on it with his foot, then lit it on fire. The act was largely ridiculed or ignored, and police detained a man carrying three rocks as he approached the security cordon. Avsan Mezori, 32, a financial manager in the crowd, said, “I feel bad for him [Momika], not for us”. Husam El Gomati, a political activist originally from Libya, dismissed the act as a “trick” intended to provoke a reaction. Ramona Sinko, an Orthodox Romanian, berated a woman holding a cross in the air. “Can’t we all just live side by side, like my friend Khaled here?” Sinko said, pulling close a grinning man from the crowd. Stockholm Central Mosque Director and Imam Mahmoud Khalfi expressed disappointment over the police decision to grant permission for the protest during the Muslim holiday. Police later announced they were investigating one of the men for “agitation against an ethnic group”.