Iraqi man burns Holy Quran outside a Stockholm mosque

An Iraqi man filled a copy of the Holy Quran with bacon and burned it in Stockholm on Wednesday after police reportedly gave permission for a protest.

The inflammatory incident was carried out by two men outside the city’s main mosque on the first day of the Muslim three-day Eid ul-Adha holiday, Daily Mail reported.

Some 200 onlookers witnessed one of the two organizers – Salwan Momika – tearing up pages of a copy of the Holy Quran and wiping his shoes with it before putting bacon in it and setting the book on fire, whilst the other protester spoke into a megaphone. 

Some of those present shouted ‘God is great’ in Arabic to protest against the burning, and one man was detained by police after he attempted to throw a rock. A supporter of the demonstration shouted ‘let it burn’ as the holy book caught on fire, the Mail reported. 

It came after police approved a request to allow the man to go ahead with the action, two weeks after a Swedish appeals court rejected a police ban on Quran burning protests which have caused anger among Muslims in Sweden and abroad.

In a recent newspaper interview, Salwan Momika described himself as an Iraqi refugee – who fled from his home country several years ago – seeking to ban the Holy Quran.