Salwan Najem, an Islam-critic whose fellow Quran-burning activist Salwan Momika was shot dead on January 29 in Stockholm, has been convicted of incitement against an ethnic group.
According to the Stockholm district court on February 3, Najem “expressed contempt for the Muslim ethnic group” and “exceeded free-speech protections by a wide margin”.
This went beyond a fair debate and critique of religion, the court found.
It did, though, also note that burning the Quran might not always be regarded as a hate crime and that it did not have any extra protection just because it was a sacred text for Muslims.
“There is a wide scope within the framework of freedom of expression to be critical of a religion in a factual and objective debate,” chief Judge Göran Lundahl said in a statement on the court’s website.
“At the same time, expressing one’s opinion about religion does not give one a free pass to do or say anything and everything without risking offending the group that holds that belief.”
Najem’s offending statements were made during four public events where Qurans were burned in Stockholm and led to public outrage within the Muslim community in Sweden and Islamic countries worldwide.
Many decried the burnings as blasphemous and an attack on their faith.
Najem was fined 4,000 Swedish Crowns (€450) and given a suspended sentence.
His lawyer has said he would appeal against the verdict, arguing that his client’s statements fell within the scope of criticism of religion, which is covered by the country’s freedom of expression laws.
The court was initially due to rule on the case on January 30 but, hours before revealing its judgment, co-defendant Momika was shot dead in his own apartment, leading to the postponement.
Authorities have yet to charge anyone in relation to his death although five suspects were initially held shortly afterwards before being released.
Ulf Kristersson, the Prime Minister of Sweden, has suggested the shooting might have been connected to a foreign power.
That was possibly because the city of al-Kufa in Iraq offered a prize of $2 million (€1.2 million) and a 2kg gold Quran to anyone who killed Momika. His extradition had also been demanded by the government in Baghdad.
Iran’s intelligence ministry had published a statement linking Momika to the Israeli regime and called him “a Mossad agent”.
Brigadier General Ali Fadavi, the deputy of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), also said he considered the death penalty should be imposed on Quran burners.
Despite testifying that there was a bounty on his head, Momika’s former attorney Anna Roth claimed after the shooting that her client had not received any official protection.
Najem was also an Iraqi-born refugee, who fled to Sweden in 1998 and obtained Swedish citizenship in 2005.
Both he and Momika were staunch critics of Islam, describing it as a dangerous and violent religion.