August 18, 2023
As Quran desecration continues in Sweden:
A woman interrupts a Quran-burning by spraying activist with a fire extinguisher
Media reports
Swedish police detained a woman on August 18, 2023 who sprayed an anti-Islam activist with a fire extinguisher as he staged a Quran burning stunt outside the Iranian Embassy in Stockholm, the Associated Press reported.
Video of the scene showed the woman rushing up to Salwan Momika and spraying white powder toward him before she was intercepted by plainclothes police officers who led her away. Momika, who appeared stunned but unhurt, then resumed his demonstration, which had been authorized by police.
Police spokeswoman Towe Hägg said the woman, who was not identified by police, was detained on suspicion of disturbing public order and violence against a police officer.
Momika, a refugee from Iraq, has desecrated the Quran in a series of anti-Islam protests that have caused anger in many Muslim countries. Swedish police have allowed his demonstrations, citing freedom of speech while filing preliminary hate speech charges against him.
Momika has said he would continue to burn the Quran despite threats directed at him and Sweden, saying he wants to protect Sweden’s population from the messages of the Quran. “I have freedom of speech,” Swedish news agency TT quoted him as saying.
The act of sacrilege has opened the floodgates of protest across the world’s Muslim community. Hours before the planned desecration, hundreds of Iraqi protesters amassed outside the Swedish embassy in Baghdad, scaling its walls and setting fire to parts of it.
Iran summons Swedish ambassador
Last month Iran summoned Sweden’s ambassador to Tehran over a second incident of stateauthorized desecration of the Holy Qur’an in the Swedish capital, conveying the Islamic Republic’s vehement protest against the heinous act of blasphemy.
The Swedish envoy was summoned by Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani. Just hours earlier, Salwan Momik, a Sweden-based Iraqi refugee, had stomped on a copy of the Qur’an and kicked the Muslim holy book during a demonstration outside Stockholm’s main mosque amid strict protection provided for the rally by the Swedish police.
“We strongly condemn the repeated desecration of the Nobel Qur’an and Islamic sanctities in Sweden, and consider the Swedish government to be fully responsible for the fallout from provocation of the sentiments of the world’s Muslims,” Kanaani told the Swedish diplomat.
“Continuation of disrespect against the Islamic sanctities and hatemongering in this way serves as a complete example of organized violence and is considered to be a hostile measure against the world’s two-billion-strong Muslim population, God-fearing people, and followers of divine religions,” Kanaani told the Swedish envoy.
The spokesman further asked how come Sweden, which lays claim to respecting human and civil rights, had come to brook such an act of profanity against the rights of the world’s Muslim population, around one million among whom reside in Sweden.
The Iranian official reminded the envoy that the United Nations Human Rights Council had recently passed a resolution condemning the desecration of the Holy Qur’an, denouncing Sweden’s disregard for international ratifications that had witnessed Stockholm allowing repetition of the act of sacrilege.
Lashing out at the Swedish government for its efforts to try and justify such profanity under the banner of “freedom of speech,” Kanaani said freedom of speech should not feature “violation of the dignity and religious sanctities” of other people.
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The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
