The Swedish migration authority is reconsidering the residence permit granted to an Iraqi refugee who was behind several incidents of desecration of the Quran in Stockholm in recent weeks enraging Muslims around the world.
According to the Swedish News Agency (TT), the man has a temporary residence permit in Sweden that is scheduled to expire in 2024, but the authority is now reviewing his case.
An email to the Swedish newspaper “Svenska Dagbladet” included that the migration authority said that the information received from the Swedish authorities provided a justification to examine whether the man’s status in Sweden should be revoked, AFP reported.
The man burned a copy of the Quran last month in front of the main mosque in Stockholm, and he also staged a demonstration in front of the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm in July in which he said he would burn a copy of the Quran, but he did not do so.
Sweden has found itself at the center of international attention in recent weeks after the desecration and burning of copies of the Quran.
The Swedish government condemned what it described as an “anti-Islamic act”, and the police opened an investigation into “incitement against an ethnic group” because the burning of the Quran took place in front of a mosque.
Incidents of burning and desecration in Sweden and Denmark cause a sense of humiliation for many Muslim countries, including Turkey, whose support Sweden needs in order to join NATO, a goal Stockholm seeks to achieve after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Beside petitions to burn the Quran, there are also many petitions to burn other religious books such as the New Testament and the Old Testament, which prompted many to criticize Sweden.
It should be noted that Swedish courts have ruled that the police cannot prevent the burning of holy books, but the government of Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said earlier in July that it would consider whether there was reason to change the public order law to enable the police to prevent the burning of the Quran.
It is noteworthy that the accounts of the Iraqi refugee in Sweden, Salwan Momica, on social networking websites, confirm his political activity in Iraq, and show his links to an armed Christian group during the fight against the “Islamic State”.
“This book poses a danger to this country (Sweden), so I will demand that it be banned from all schools,” he said on June 28, referring to the Quran. “I am addressing the Swedish society about the danger of this book. Trust me, now they are weak and cannot implement it, but After years, they will implement it with you as they did to the Assyrians hundreds of years ago and to the Yezidis years ago.”
Salwan Momica admitted in early July that he has political ambitions in Sweden, saying he aspires one day to run for parliament for the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats.
The right-wing Sweden Democrats party came in second in the recent Swedish elections.
It is worth mentioning that the Coordination of Combating Islamophobia in Europe recently revealed remarkable and significant numbers in its recent annual report, which monitors the phenomenon of spreading Islamophobia, as it recorded 467 incidents of racism, 128 incidents of hatred and provocation, 71 incidents of insults, 59 incidents of moral harassment, 44 incidents related to defamation, 27 incidents related to physical assault, and 33 incidents related to the Anti-Separatism bill. According to the same report, schools are the fertile environment that leads to an increase in the frequency of this phenomenon.
