Swedish Police Deny Salwan Momika Permission To Burn Another Koran In Malmö District Of Rosengård

THE Swedish police have denied Salwan Momika permission to hold his planned demonstration at Rosengård on Saturday, September 23.

He had presented a written application to burn another Koran in the city of Malmö but it would appear that his choice of location was crucial in the ultimate decision made by law enforcement officials.

Rickard Lundqvist, a spokesperson for the police, confirmed to svt.se: ‘We have made the assessment that we cannot guarantee public order and security at the gathering’.

On the last occasion that the serial Koran-burner destroyed another of the holy books earlier this month in the Värnhemstorget district of Malmö, violent riots broke out in Rosengård. Stones were thrown at police officers and vehicles were set on fire, with two people arrested as a result.

Lundqvist was quick to point out: ‘The police must not give in to political pressure. The police’s task is to follow the existing legislation and that is what the police do. We have asked if he can try to hold the meeting in a place other than Rosengård, but he has said that he does not want to’.

Momika stated his intention to go ahead with the book burning

When asked if the previous riots had influenced this latest decision, the police spokesperson responded: ‘That is part of it. In social media there are, among other things, calls to have an ‘after party’ or ‘barbecue’, and we have reason to believe that this is with the aim of creating a similar situation as we had at the beginning of September when a lot of vehicles caught fire’.

Salwan Momika reportedly sent an SMS to the news outlet in which the Iraqi national apparently stated his intention to burn the Koran on Saturday anyway.

He told the publication he believed the Malmö police had shown an inability to defend freedoms and Swedish law when making their decision to stop him from burning the book.