Iraqi refugee sets fire to bacon-stuffed Quran pages outside Stockholm mosque

A man set fire to several pages of the Quran outside Stockholm’s main mosque, after Swedish police granted a permit for the protest that coincided with the start of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha.

The police said in its written decision that the security risks associated with the burning “were not of a nature that could justify, under current laws, a decision to reject the request.”

The protest unfolds calmly.

Salwan Momika, 37, who fled from Iraq to Sweden several years ago, had asked police for permission to burn the Muslim holy book “to express my opinion about the Quran.”

Ahead of the protest, Momika tells news agency TT he also wanted to highlight the importance of freedom of speech.

“This is democracy. It is in danger if they tell us we can’t do this,” Momika says.

Under a heavy police presence and with around a dozen opponents shouting at him in Arabic, Momika, dressed in beige trousers and a shirt, addresses the crowd of several dozen through a megaphone.

At various times, he stomps on the Quran, put strips of bacon in it, lit a few pages on fire before slamming it shut, and kicked it like a football, while waving Swedish flags, AFP correspondents at the scene report.

Police had cordoned off an area in a park next to the mosque separating Momika and a co-protester from the crowd.