Salwan Momika, an Iraqi immigrant who set off enormous protests when he burned a Quran in Stockholm in 2023, has been killed, the Swedish Prosecution Authority said Thursday morning.
The police said that they had arrested five people and that a murder investigation had been launched. Mr. Momika had been set to appear in Stockholm District Court on Thursday on charges related to the 2023 incident, which resulted in protests in Sweden and across the Muslim world.
The Stockholm police, who declined to confirm that Mr. Momika had been killed, said that there had been a shooting late on Wednesday in Sodertalje, a city near Stockholm, and that a man had died. The prosecution authority then confirmed that Mr. Momika was that man.
Mr. Momika’s defense attorney, Anna Roth, said he had received death threats. The authorities did not say if they believed the killing was connected to Mr. Momika’s burning of the Quran.
Mr. Momika, a Christian, had set the Quran ablaze during Eid al-Adha, a major Islamic holiday, outside a mosque in Stockholm. He said that he was trying to raise awareness about the mistreatment and killing of Christian minorities by Islamists in some parts of the Muslim world.
“I am warning the Swedish people about the dangers of this book,” Mr. Momika had said through a megaphone outside the mosque.
The response from the Muslim world was swift and furious, with much of the criticism aimed at the Swedish authorities for not stopping the burning.
In Iraq, several hundred people stormed the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad and set parts of it ablaze. Iraq expelled Sweden’s ambassador and directed its ambassador to Sweden to withdraw from its embassy in Stockholm.
Egypt called the Quran burning “a disgraceful act.” And Morocco recalled its ambassador in Sweden, its state news agency reported.
The Swedish authorities had condemned Mr. Momika’s actions at the time, but the police granted a permit for his planned demonstration after a Swedish court ruled that banning it would impinge on the right to freedom of speech.
The permit, however, did not allow him to burn objects, and Mr. Momika was subsequently charged with agitation against an ethnic or national group in four incidents of kicking, stamping on and burning a Quran. He also made speeches with derogatory statements directed against Muslims and Islam, according to the indictment.
“The fact that statements are made in a large square and disseminated is a prerequisite for incitement to racial hatred,” said Anna Hankkio, a Swedish prosecutor who initially brought the charges against Mr. Momika. “It is up to the district court to assess whether the burning of the Quran can also be considered incitement against a group of people.”
Later that summer, Mr. Momika again burned Qurans, according to the indictment.
The Quran burnings — and the resulting horror and outrage from the Muslim world — sparked debates in Sweden, which has struggled with whether to allow such protests.
Before Mr. Momika burned the holy book, Swedish authorities had denied other anti-Quran protests, citing concerns about disruption to public order. After the burning, Sweden’s foreign ministry called Mr. Momika’s action Islamophobic, and officials warned that such protests could affect the country’s national security policy. The domestic security agency briefly raised its terrorism threat to its most severe designation.
Salwan Najem, who joined Mr. Momika in some protests and was also accused of burning a Quran, was a co-defendant in the case that was to be decided on Thursday. He is now set to receive his verdict on Feb. 3, the Stockholm District Court said in a statement.
On Thursday, Mr. Najem expressed fear, posting a link on X to a story about Mr. Momika’s killing.
“I am next,” he wrote.
