An anti-Islam activist who sparked outrage across Muslim countries for burning the Koran in protest has been shot dead while he went live on TikTok.
Salwan Momika, 38, was gunned down in an Hovsjo district of Sodertalje on Wednesday night.
Cops rushed to the scene, where Momika was found suffering from bullet wounds and was rushed to hospital.
Police confirmed this morning Momika had been killed in the brutal ‘execution’ and are currently investigating the murder.
The assassination was reportedly caught on video as the activist is said to have started a live-stream just moments before the callous shooting, Aftonbladet reported.
Police spokesperson Nadya Norton said authorities were investigating this.
Five people have been arrested in connection to Momika’s death, prosecutor Rasmus Ohman, who is leading the investigation, said.
A Stockholm court was due to rule on Thursday whether Momika, a Christian Iraqi who burned Korans at a slew of protest in 2023, was guilty of inciting ethnic hatred.
Anti-Islamist activist Salwan Momika who sparked outrage for burning a Koran has been shot dead in Sweden
Police is seen at a crime scene in an apartment block in Soedertaelje, south of the Swedish capital Stockholm on January 30, 2025
Police are currently investigating the murder of Momika. Here they are pictured outside the apartment where the shooting took place
It postponed the ruling to February 3, saying that ‘because Salwan Momika has died, more time is needed’.
Momika’s friend Salwan Najem, who was also expected to appear in court for burning the Koran, tweeted this morning: ‘I’m next’.
Momika first sparked global anger in June 2023 when he set a Koran on fire and stomped on the holy book outside Stockholm’s main mosque, with several Muslim countries condemning Sweden for allowing the Iraqi man to perform the act during the Eid al-Adha holiday and the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.
Saudi Arabia, Iran, Morocco, Bahrain and the UAE joined in the chorus of condemnation, with the US also calling the protest ‘disrespectful and hurtful’.
Dozens of Iraqi protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad in response to Momika’s stunt, with videos showing an angry mob breaking through an iron gate and climbing on top of the compound.
The demonstrators also distributed leaflets that carried messages in Arabic and English that said: ‘Our constitution is the Koran. Our leader is Al-Sadr’.
‘Yes, yes to the Koran,’ was also scrawled on the gate leading to the embassy, according to the photographer.
Police investigators are seen working at a crime scene in an apartment block in Soedertaelje
Protestor Salwan Momika raises a copy of the Koran during his demonstration outside the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm, Sweden, 20 July 2023
Salwan Momika holds a flag of Sweden as he protests outside a mosque in Stockholm on June 28, 2023
Momika later pulled a similar stunt, in which he burned the Koran outside the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm.
The activist received a string of death threats as a result.
Police had granted him a permit for the protest in line with free-speech protections after an appeals court rejected their ban on Koran burning protests, but said later the man had been charged with agitation against an ethnic or national group.
He had also been granted a renewed residence permit in Sweden as he risked being tortured if he returned to his home country of Iraq.
