A Swedish court gave an anti-Islam campaigner on Monday a suspended sentence and fined him, after he was found guilty of hate crimes.
Swedish citizen Salwan Najem was convicted for “having expressed contempt for the Muslim ethnic group because of their religious beliefs on four occasions,” the Stockholm district court said.
Najem’s fellow campaigner Salwan Momika, who was also involved in Quran-burning incidents, was shot dead last week. His shooting coincided with his scheduled verdict in a parallel case.
What did the court say?
The Stockholm district court said Najem and Momika both desecrated the Quran and made offensive statements about Islam, its representatives as well as mosque activities.
The court argued that the motive of the Quran-burning incidents “clearly exceeded the bounds of objective debate and criticism,” Sweden’s Dagens Nyheter newspaper reported. The Quran demonstrations intentionally “expressed contempt for the Muslim community,” the court added.
Chief Judge Göran Lundahl, in a statement which is posted on Sweden’s judicial website, argued that while there was scope for criticizing religion within the framework of freedom of expression, that does not “give one a free pass to do or say anything and everything without risking offending the group that holds that belief.”
“The crime [of] agitation against a national or ethnic group restricts freedom of expression. The penal provision should therefore be applied restrictively,” the statement read.
Najem’s lawyer said he would appeal.
“My client considers that his statements fall within the scope of criticism of religion, which is covered by the freedom of expression,” the lawyer was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying.
Quran-burning incidents cause wide debate
The 2023 Quran burnings ignited a debate on the balance between free speech rights and the rights of ethnic and religious groups. The incidents also caused wide condemnation in many Arab and Muslim countries, straining Stockholm’s relations with them.
Last August, Momika and Najem were charged with “agitation against an ethnic group” on four occasions in 2023.
The charge sheet says the pair desecrated the Quran, including setting it on fire, while making derogatory remarks about Muslims. On at least two occasions, the protest took place outside a Stockholm mosque.
The charges against Momika were dropped following his death, the court said on Monday.
Edited by: Wesley Dockery
