Swedish police are no nearer to finding the killer(s) of Quran burner Salwan Momika after five suspects were released from custody.
A Swedish prosecutor said that suspicions against the five “had weakened “and there was no reason to keep them under arrest while the investigation into the murder of the 38 year old Iraqi refugee continues.
Police had arrested the five men just hours after Momika – the man behind a number of Quran-burning protests in Sweden in recent years – was shot dead in an apartment on Wednesday night during a TikTok livestream.
A lawyer defending one of the men told Swedish radio that he wasn’t surprised by his client’s release from custody and that, in his opinion, all suspicions against him will be dropped.
Authorities in Sweden have also said they are investigating a possible “foreign connection” to the murder.
Meanwhile, Swedish radio has also been canvasing the views of Muslims outside a mosque in Stockholm.
They reported that an imam said the murder shouldn’t have happened and that Muslims should just ignore such provocations. Others said they felt “no sorrow” over the killing while others expressed happiness.
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Momika, a Christian-turned-atheist asylum seeker, became infamous in 2023 after sparking global protests over his repeated desecrations of the Islamic holy book, the Quran.
Momika was granted a residence permit in 2021 and used his new location to turn Sweden into a hotspot for anti-Islam hate speech.

Editorial credit: Loredana Sangiuliano / Shutterstock.com
His protests centred on burning copies of the Quran and other images associated with Muslim countries.
His protests would normally take place in areas with a significant Muslim presence or outside embassy buildings of Muslim majority countries like Iran, Egypt or Turkiye.
Last year, Momika, along with another activist Salwan Najem, was formally charged with “offences of agitation against an ethnic or national group” four separate times for acts which they committed in the summer of 2023.
The Swedish Migration Agency revoked Momika’s residency permit, citing false information in his original application.
Then Momika, who had been living in Sweden since 2018, left for Norway on March 27 last year but was arrested and deported back to Sweden.
During 2024, Momika expressed support of Israel multiple times at similar Islamophobic demos, burning Palestinian flag pictures and defending Israel amid widespread anger over Israel’s crimes in Gaza.
The burning of Quran copies in Sweden and Denmark under the pretext of free speech has sparked a backlash in Muslim countries, including attacks on diplomatic missions.
After Momika began going viral for his desecration demonstrations in 2023, massive protests occured across the Muslim world with Sweden coming under intense pressure.
Protesters demanded sanctions on Sweden and Denmark, Turkiye stalled Swedish efforts to enter into the NATO alliance and a host of Muslim countries publicly condemned Sweden for permitting the offensive hate speech.
The incident sparked a major debate in Europe about the concept of free speech and divided politicians across the European bloc regarding the right to offend and the limits of hate speech.
Following protests in the Muslim world, Denmark passed legislation in December making it illegal to burn copies of the Quran in public places.