Repeat Offender Burns Another Koran Just 24 Hours After Sweden Raised Its Terror Threat Level

An Iraqi refugee who had already burned copies of the Koran in Sweden on previous occasions carried out a new action this Friday, August 18.

This time, Salwan Momika burned a copy of the Muslim holy book in front of the Iranian Embassy in the Lidingö district of Stockholm. ‘We stand outside the embassy of murderers and terror’, he shouted in Arabic and held up the Muslim holy book.

Shortly after starting his protest, Momika was rebuked by a woman who rushed towards him with a fire extinguisher. She was immediately intercepted by the police officers who were standing on duty at the location, according to aftonbladet.se.

According to the SVT network, the woman now faces a charge of disturbing public order and assaulting an officer of the law.

Momika had been granted permission for the book burning

His action came only one day after the authorities of the Nordic country had raised the level of anti-terrorist alert to Level four out of five, due to the risk of an attack.

However, the authorities had granted permission for Momika to carry out his latest burning before the security services raised the anti-terrorism risk. In principle though, it is not believed that this type of action would not have been banned by the measure adopted on Thursday 17.

A few hours after the incident, the government announced that a change could be made to the public order law. The idea is that actions like these should be able to be stopped if they threaten the security of the kingdom.

The terror threat level was raised to high

Sweden remained at level three until yesterday when both the SÄPO, Sweden’s Security Police, and the Armed Forces decided to raise it to four, which implies that the risk of attacks is high.

Charlotte von Essen, The head of the SÄPO, affirmed in a press conference that the Scandinavian country had gone from being considered in certain circles a ‘legitimate’ target to a ‘priority’ one in which to commit attacks.

Sweden has been in the spotlight in recent weeks for the burning of copies of the Koran, which brought forth political criticism and demonstrations from many Muslim-majority countries. As a result, the 57 Muslim countries in the Islamic Cooperation Organization OIC have condemned Sweden.

However, Von Essen stressed: ‘Authorities and other social actors must continue to take measures to prevent and reduce the threat of terrorist attacks in Sweden, and it is important that there are conditions for persistence in this work. In this way, we create a safer Sweden’.

‘The decision to raise the terror threat level is not prompted by a single incident, and I want to emphasise that’, she added, according to hd.se.