A series of Quran burnings in Sweden triggered international protests, embassy attacks, and prompted Denmark to reintroduce blasphemy laws.
Key Facts
- Most notable incident date
- 28 June 2023
- Perpetrator
- Salwan Momika, 37-year-old Iraqi Assyrian refugee
- Location of main burning
- Outside the Stockholm Mosque
- Embassy stormed
- Swedish embassy in Baghdad, 20 July 2023
- Denmark's legal response
- Reintroduction of blasphemy laws
- Momika's death
- Shot in Södertälje, 29 January 2025
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Salwan Momika, an Iraqi Assyrian refugee living in Sweden, chose to publicly burn pages of the Quran as a provocative act of protest. Sweden's strong legal protections for freedom of expression permitted such demonstrations, setting the stage for the incidents that followed.
On 28 June 2023, Momika ripped out and burned pages of the Quran outside the Stockholm Mosque, the most prominent act in a series of Quran burnings collectively labeled the 'Korankrisen' by Swedish media. A planned follow-up burning on 20 July further escalated tensions internationally.
The burnings provoked widespread protests and condemnation across the Muslim world, including the storming and arson of the Swedish embassy in Baghdad. Follow-up Quran burnings outside Muslim-majority country embassies in Denmark prompted that country to reintroduce blasphemy laws criminalising inappropriate treatment of religious texts.