Religious sectarianism has been present in war-scarred Iraq ever since the toppling of brutal dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, threatening the social fabric of a country that has witnessed decades of bloodshed, including the rise and fall of extremist groups such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (ISIS).
Sectarianism reared its head again on Wednesday when Salwan Momika, a 37-year-old Iraqi refugee, burned a copy of the Quran outside a mosque in the Swedish capital of Stockholm, coinciding with the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
Momika stomped on the holy book and placed bacon - the consumption of which is forbidden in Islam – between the pages, before lighting a few pages on fire and kicking it around like a football while raising Swedish flags.
His actions sparked a sensation of rage across Islamic communities around the world, with people in the street and officials in Iraq calling for him to be brought before a court of law. While Momika has lived in Sweden for several years, the Iraqi government, foreign ministry, and judiciary have called on Swedish authorities to extradite him so that prosecutors can take the necessary measures to bring him to justice.
Iraq’s marginalized Christian community has also borne the brunt of his stunt, as Momika, despite declaring himself as an atheist on his Instagram profile, comes from a Christian background in his home country. The community has long been on the brink and their very existence in Iraq came under threat when ISIS swept through their ancestral homeland in the Nineveh Plains in 2014.
“It is nothing short of despicable. We are a peaceful community too occupied with survival and we vehemently condemn the act. Burning religious books does not further our progress whatsoever and the government must do its part to ensure that Christians are not targeted because of this,” Fadi Hanna, a member of the Chaldean Catholic community in Ainkawa, a Christian-majority district on the northern edge of Erbil city, told Rudaw English on Saturday.
Christian leaders in Iraq were quick to condemn Momika’s stunt, stressing that such acts seek to destabilize the already-fragile social and religious fabric in a country which has witnessed decades of conflict.
Mar Awa Royel, patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, which has its seat in Erbil, quickly issued a statement strongly condemning the burning on Wednesday, saying that the actions of “an atheist of Iraqi origin,” referring to Momika, do not reflect the stance of Christianity or any Christian church.
“Committing acts of offense in any way against the faith of other religions is an irresponsible act aimed at broadcasting and disseminating hate speech, at a time when we are all called upon to be bridge-builders, and to strengthen and spread the bonds of love, tolerance, and respect … regardless of our faith,” the patriarch stated.
“The Assyrian Church of the East … rejects today – as it has always rejected – all actions and reactions that aim to offend what is sacred, the houses of worship, and the believers of other faiths in any way,” he added, calling on the Swedish government to not grant such actions a spotlight.
As church leaders and local Christian officials rushed to condemn Momika, the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq, a group of Sunni Muslim religious leaders, were quick to task Iraqi Christian religious leaders with condemning the Quran burner, despite his identification as an atheist and not Christian.
The association “called for Christian religious figures, especially in Iraq, to state their positions regarding this explicit crime in hostility to Islam and its sanctities and with clear intentions in creating hatred towards Muslims, warning that their silence puts them in a position of refraining from criminalizing and condemning it,” it said in a statement.
In conflict-ridden Iraq, where the population is largely reactionary towards any acts of offense, the association’s statement incited fear among the marginalized Christian community, who remain wary that it could serve as an excuse for anti-Christian reprisal by Muslims.
“I am not sure if I feel safe anymore. Such statements tend to incite hatred towards us and completely contradict our peoples’ desire, which is to live a safe, quiet life far away from sources of conflict,” a Christian resident of Momika’s hometown Qaraqosh (also known by its Christian name of Bakhdida) in the Nineveh Plains’ al-Hamdaniya district told Rudaw English over the phone on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
“I have already received threats from Muslims online even though I am sure every single Iraqi Christian, myself included, condemn the perpetrator’s immoral act,” he said.
Photos circulating on social media platforms in Iraq have shown crosses and the Bible being burned, stoking fears of religious strife.
“Why are we getting hate for a crazed person’s actions? I have not heard of a single Christian, my family and friends included, that felt joy watching the videos of the Quran being burned by that man. We are a peaceful community and we want no part to do with this,” Yousif Matti, a middle-aged butcher in Ainkawa, told Rudaw English.
Christian religious figures generally condemned Momika’s actions, but some say that years of brutal persecution of their community, including massacres, could have pushed him to take the approach he chose.
“It was most certainly a vile act, one that is inexcusable and completely condemned. However, it is also a bad precedent, as it goes to show the anger that Christians feel about being persecuted. We are a peaceful religion, and we respect all religions despite hardships, as was taught to us by Jesus Christ,” a bishop in the Chaldean Catholic Church who did not want to be named told Rudaw English.
Christian politicians and political alliances also issued strong condemnations of the burning, saying that it damaged all components in Iraq and does not reflect the attitudes of the population.
“This does not represent freedom of speech, of expression, or human rights in any way, but was an act full of hate, envy, disrespect, and everything far from human principles and respect,” Ano Abdoka, Minister of Transportation and Communications in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), said on Friday.
The lone Christian minister in the KRG’s cabinet, Abdoka called on Iraqis to refrain from attacking Christians in retaliation for Momika’s actions, reiterating remarks that the act was not endorsed by the community.
Iraq’s Christian community has been devastated in the past two decades. Following the US-led invasion in 2003, sectarian warfare prompted followers of Iraq’s multiple Christian denominations to flee the country and attacks by ISIS in 2014 hit minority communities especially hard. Fewer than 300,000 Christians remain in Iraq today, but not all live in a permanent place they can call home.
Abdoka, in an interview with Rudaw Arabic on Saturday, postulated that Momika could have used the burning as an “excuse” to compel Sweden to grant him citizenship because he fears returning to Iraq.
In response to the Quran burning, Iraqi firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for massive demonstrations outside the Swedish embassy in Baghdad, issuing several demands including severing ties with Sweden and burning the LGBTQ+ flag because that “enrages” those who he labeled as “unbelievers.”
On Saturday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein called on the Swedish government to extradite Momika so that legal procedures could be taken against him according to Iraqi law, in a phone call with his Swedish counterpart Tobias Billstrom.
In response, Billstrom expressed Sweden’s “condemnation of this action” and “deep regret” for the burning, saying Stockholm “fully understands” that Muslims in Sweden and worldwide were offended by the events that unfolded.
Spokesperson for Iraq's foreign ministry Ahmed al-Sahaf on Friday said the ministry had received a letter from their Swedish counterparts condemning Momika’s actions and stating that police have begun an investigation into whether he violated Sweden’s hate crime law.
Plans to repeat Quran burning
Momika fled to Sweden from Iraq several years ago. He said he was burning the Quran to express his opinion about the Islamic holy book. On his Instagram page, he said that his idea behind the burning was also to highlight the principle of freedom of speech in Sweden.
“This is democracy. It is in danger if they tell us we cannot do this,” he said in a video message.
He identifies himself on his Instagram as a “secular liberal atheist,” and on his website as the founder of the Syriac Democratic Union party and the Hawks Syriac Forces, an armed militia formed in 2014 to fight ISIS and was affiliated with the pseudo-Christian militia Babylon Brigades, which is funded by and allied with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and closely allied with the Badr Organization.
He fell out with Babylon Brigades leader Rayan al-Kildani - who is on the US Treasury sanctions list for corruption and human rights abuses - in 2017 after expressing opposition to the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) dominating Christian areas of the Nineveh Plains. The PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic, is a network of pro-Iranian Iraqi militias.
Rudaw English reached out to the local administration in Qaraqosh for further information about Momika but they were not readily available.
He was also an admirer of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, former deputy chief of the PMF who was assassinated in a US drone strike on January 3, 2020 alongside Qasem Soleimani, head of the IRGC’s elite Quds Force. A Facebook post last year shows Momika paying tribute to the fallen PMF commander.
As Islamic communities around the world expressed rage and condemnation over Momika’s antics, he said on Thursday that he intends to repeat the burning of the Islamic holy book.
“Within 10 days I will burn the Iraqi flag and the Quran in front of the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm,” he told Swedish newspaper Expressen. Momika also said that he knew his actions would incite anger and that he had already received “thousands of death threats,” but denied that his actions constituted a hate crime.
“The police have the right to investigate whether the burning is a hate crime. They could be right and they can be wrong,” he said.
It remains to be seen whether the authorities will grant him permission to carry out another Quran burning, especially as Muslim countries and the United Nations expressed strong condemnation of the event, and Momika is being investigated for a possible hate crime.
