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29-06-2023
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN: Salwan Momika strutted into view behind rows of police officers outside the picturesque Stockholm Central Mosque, waving two Swedish flags as the national anthem blasted over a speaker system.
With white AirPods in his ears and a cigarette hanging nonchalantly from his mouth, he then desecrated the Quran repeatedly on Wednesday by tearing it up and lighting it on fire.
Momika, an Iraqi refugee seeking to ban the Quran in Sweden, also laid a strip of bacon on the holy book and began stamping on it with his foot. Another unidentified man with him spoke to the crowd through a megaphone.
It was a scene intended to shock and antagonize the Muslim community celebrating the holiday of Eid al-Adha. Instead, the display was largely mocked, dismissed, or ignored by about 200 people gathered outside.
Muslim community members handed out chocolates, chit-chatting with the police as Momika spoke in Arabic through a megaphone.
A few people hurled isolated insults at Momika outside the mosque, which is perched on a hill in a trendy, bustling district in the Swedish capital, especially when he attempted to light the Quran ablaze with his cigarette.
Some ridiculing comments drew laughter from the crowd. “Speak Swedish”, some shouted, mocking Momika for waving a Swedish flag but seemingly unable to speak the language.
A group of teenage boys swore repeatedly at the two men who were hemmed in behind a police cordon. One boy then turned to a frowning, towering police officer. “All good?, the boy asked him. “Just hot”, the officer responded, smiling.
Avsan Mezori, 32, a financial manager in the crowd, said, “I feel bad for him (Momika), not for us”. He added that, as a Muslim, “what I have in me, he can’t take; I don’t want to give him the attention”.
Husam El Gomati, a political activist originally from Libya, dismissed the act as a “trick” intended to provoke a reaction that could be used to “portray Muslims as violent”. (Int’l News Desk)
