An anti-Islam activist who sparked outrage across Muslim countries for burning the Koran has been shot dead in Sweden during a livestream on TikTok.
Salwan Momika, 38, was ruthlessly shot dead in an apartment in the city of Sodertalje on Wednesday night.
The Iraqi refugee was notorious for staging public demonstrations where he burnt and destroyed the Islamic holy book – a stunt that enraged Muslims around the world.
A Stockholm court was due to rule on Thursday whether Momika, a Christian Iraqi who burned Korans at a slew of protest in 2023, and his co-protester Salwan Najem, were guilty of inciting ethnic hatred.
According to the charge sheet, the duo had desecrated and burned the Koran and had also made derogatory remarks about Muslims.
It postponed the ruling to February 3, saying that ‘because Salwan Momika has died, more time is needed’.
Najem tweeted this morning: ‘I’m next’.
Police said they rushed to the scene, where they found Momika suffering from gun wounds. He was rushed to hospital and was later confirmed dead.
The assassination was reportedly caught on video as the activist is said to have been on a live-stream just moments before the callous shooting, Aftonbladet reported.
Five people have been arrested in connection to Momika’s death, prosecutor Rasmus Ohman, who is leading the investigation, said.
Momika first sparked global anger in June 2023 when he set a Koran on fire and stomped on the holy book outside Stockholm’s main mosque, with several Muslim countries condemning Sweden for allowing the Iraqi man to perform the act during the Eid al-Adha holiday and the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.
Saudi Arabia, Iran, Morocco, Bahrain and the UAE joined in the chorus of condemnation, with the US also calling the protest ‘disrespectful and hurtful’.
Dozens of Iraqi protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad in response to Momika’s stunt, with videos showing an angry mob breaking through an iron gate and climbing on top of the compound.
The demonstrators also distributed leaflets that carried messages in Arabic and English that said: ‘Our constitution is the Koran. Our leader is Al-Sadr’.
‘Yes, yes to the Koran,’ was also scrawled on the gate leading to the embassy, according to the photographer.
Momika later pulled a similar stunt, in which he burned the Koran outside the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm.
The activist received a string of death threats as a result.
Meanwhile, 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’.
Police had granted him a permit for the protest in line with free-speech protections after an appeals court rejected their ban on Koran burning protests, but said later the man had been charged with agitation against an ethnic or national group.
He had also been granted a renewed residence permit in Sweden as he risked being tortured if he returned to his home country of Iraq.