Internationally known Quran burner Salwan Momika and his associate Salwan Najem have been charged with four counts of incitement to racial hatred.
– The two are accused of making statements and handling a Quran in a manner intended to express contempt for Muslims on the basis of their faith on these four occasions, prosecutor Anna Hankkio confirms.
Previously, prosecutors have concluded that burning a copy of the Quran is not a violation of the law, but something that falls under the constitutionally protected freedom of expression, but Hankkio disagrees.
– In my opinion, the men's statements and actions fall under the provision on incitement against ethnic groups, and it is important for the court to be able to examine this issue, she said in a press release.
They are charged with four incidents, two Quran burnings on June 28 and August 25, 2023, which took place outside the mosque in Södermalm, and two more Quran burnings at Rinkeblyplan and Benny Fredrikssons Torg on August 25 and 26, 2023. Salwan Najem is also charged with breach of trust.
Momika and Najem came to Sweden from Iraq in 2018 and 1998, respectively. Najem has been a Swedish citizen since 2005, while Momika had a temporary residence permit.
The Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket) has tried to deport Momika on several occasions, but due to the alleged threat in his home country, no deportation decision has been enforced - as recently as July, his residence permit was extended for another year.
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According to the latest report from Försäkringskassan, over 4,000 gang criminals are estimated to have been granted benefits totaling approximately €320 million.
A new report from Försäkringskassan (the Swedish Social Insurance Agency) shows that around 4,000 individuals assessed by police as actively involved in gang crime receive their primary income through Swedish welfare systems. The report has sparked strong reactions within the government.
According to the report, the benefits primarily consist of sickness benefits, disability benefits, and activity support.
In total, approximately €320 million has been paid out in recent years to around 4,000 individuals in the gang criminal environment.
Among the benefit-related criminal schemes identified in the report are fake medical certificates and so-called sham separations, where couples register as separated but in practice continue living together.
Anna Tenje, Swedish Minister for Elderly Affairs and Social Insurance, has reacted strongly to the findings.
In a comment to the Swedish news agency TT, she says: – This is astonishing and deeply provocative. Our collective welfare funds should go to those with the greatest need. Instead, they end up in criminals' pockets and fuel gang crime.
Anna Tenje emphasizes that the findings confirm a problem the government has long been aware of, and points to several measures aimed at stopping welfare fraud linked to the gang criminal environment.
According to Försäkringskassan, several billion has been paid out to gang criminals in recent years. Press photo: Riksbanken
Stricter regulations
An important component, according to Anna Tenje, is the new legislation on confidentiality-breaking provisions that will take effect in December this year. This tool is intended to make it easier for government agencies to share information with each other.
She also highlights efforts against fake medical certificates and a stricter sanction system with benefit blocks for individuals who repeatedly commit welfare fraud.
The government estimates that between €1.3 and €1.7 billion is paid out incorrectly from welfare systems each year, of which approximately half is assessed to constitute outright welfare fraud.
– This is about maintaining the legitimacy of the systems. Hard-working people must be able to trust that the money goes to the right people. If we are to break the gangs, we must cut off this supply of our collective tax funds, says Tenje.
Det är djupt provocerande att 4000 gängkriminella lever på bidrag för att finansiera sin kriminella livsstil. Det kommer vi aldrig acceptera. Hårt arbetande människor ska kunna lita på att deras skattepengar går till den som har behov av och rätt till det, inte till kriminella. pic.twitter.com/VrjOUQs7sm
Nils Öberg, director general of Försäkringskassan, says in a press release that the report shows how gang criminals exploit the social insurance system to create a "facade of legitimate income".
– We see increasing gang crime that attacks the entire society, and we are now working on a broad front to secure the welfare system. This report is a result of government agencies now being able to share information with each other to a much greater extent than before. This makes it easier for us to break down the criminal economy, he says in a comment to TV4, owned by Norwegian media company Schibsted.
The Swedish police's latest situation assessment shows that around 67,500 people are part of the Swedish gang environment.
Of these, 17,500 are classified as active gang criminals, while the remainder are assessed as having some form of connection to the networks.
Swedish steel company Stegra has been granted an additional €35 million in state funding from the Swedish Energy Agency. This despite Turkish workers raising alarms about unpaid wages for nine months.
Stegra was founded in 2020 by billionaire Harald Mix through investment company Vargas and was originally called H2 Green Steel. Mix was also involved in starting the battery factory Northvolt, which has now collapsed.
However, the billionaire left the steel company in October, along with his investment company, which was replaced by Just Climate, a subsidiary of notorious climate activist Al Gore's environmental investment firm.
The goal of the new steel plant in Boden, northern Sweden, is to produce steel using hydrogen gas. This is claimed to be "climate-friendly" by reducing carbon dioxide emissions by up to 95 percent.
But the "climate-smart steel" project has not been particularly successful – the plan was for steel production to start in 2024 and also create significant job opportunities for residents in the region.
Instead, the production start has been postponed to the turn of 2026/2027, while both costs and debts have skyrocketed.
No wages for nine months
In November this year, Turkish workers raised alarms that they had not received wages for nine months, and that they were planning to go on hunger strike until the wages were paid into their accounts.
Before this, the guest workers had been promised $13 per hour, which was then reduced to $9 before wages stopped completely.
At the same time, Stegra complained that the money had run out and that they needed an additional €900 million to complete the project, something that tax-funded Swedish public broadcaster SVT reported on.
Green light for additional taxpayer money
Despite the problems with employee wage payments, the Swedish Energy Agency has now decided to grant Stegra €35 million in state funding.
The justification is that the project has "good opportunities to accelerate the transition within the iron and steel industry".
— Swedish industry is on its journey toward fossil freedom. That journey will give Sweden major advantages in the form of increased competitiveness and reduced emissions. Companies are paving the way forward through innovation, new solutions and products. But state support is necessary for industry to be able to make the technological leaps required to succeed with the transition, says Caroline Asserup, Director General of the Swedish Energy Agency, in a press release.
Stegra has already received a significant amount in state funding, with the Swedish Energy Agency previously granting a total of €108 million, of which €76 million has already been paid out. €23 million is planned to be paid out in November.
Furthermore, the company has also received €250 million from the EU's Innovation Fund.
The idea of a multicultural Sweden was introduced partly through initiatives and debate articles by David Schwarz (far right in the image) and with support from the Bonnier family.
Elon Musk has once again entered the Swedish immigration debate. On X, he accuses former Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme of having "destroyed Sweden" by introducing multiculturalism in 1975.
The tech billionaire is responding to an X post by journalist Christian Peterson, who claims that Palme, through a 1975 legislative change (Proposition 1975:26), laid the foundation for today's multicultural society, reports Fria Tider.
Peterson argues that the decision was made without a referendum or extensive investigation and links it to current problems such as mass immigration, gun violence, parallel societies, and demographic changes.
"Multiculturalism was added to the Swedish constitution in 1975 (Prop. 1975:26) under Olof Palme — no referendum, no long-term review. 50 years later: mass migration, record gun violence, parallel societies, major demographic shifts. A turning point that no one voted for".
In response, Elon Musk writes briefly and concisely: "He destroyed Sweden" and also attaches an AI-generated summary of the 1975 parliamentary decision.
The controversial 1975 proposition established that immigrants and minorities should be able to choose whether to adapt to a Swedish cultural identity or maintain their original cultural heritage.
The new policy also meant that the state would provide financial support to immigrant organizations and cultural projects. Critics argue that this became a political choice with long-term effects.
Musk and Peterson today link the decision to current concerns about integration, social division, and crime.
Elon Musk has previously engaged in Swedish legal matters. During the fall, he criticized an appeals court ruling where a man was acquitted of deportation after a rape conviction, calling the decision "insane".
His latest statement has once again touched on a deep ideological conflict within Swedish politics – a societal issue that remains a hot political topic in Sweden.
Montage. Photo: Tommy Winterskiöld Vestlie/CC BY 2.0, facsimile/Ibn Rush/YT
One of the Sweden Democrats' primary reasons for not pushing for a complete abolition of the heavily criticized law on incitement against ethnic groups (HMF), is the "increasing antisemitism" in Sweden (archive image).
The Sweden Democrats (SD) now wants to reform the country's hate speech law (hets mot folkgrupp). At the party congress in Örebro this past weekend, the party voted by a narrow margin for comprehensive reform – while proposals to completely abolish the law failed by the smallest possible difference.
The Sweden Democrats' party congress in Örebro, a city in central Sweden, resulted in a decision that the party should work toward a fundamental change to the hate speech law.
The vote was very close: 79 delegates supported the party leadership's position, while 78 voted to completely remove the law.
Prior to the decision, several motions had demanded that the law be abolished entirely. These motions received support from many delegates from the floor.
Julia Fält, a delegate from Fyrbodal in western Sweden, criticized the law's current application: — The law doesn't work as intended. It creates arbitrariness, silences debate and punishes statements that don't constitute any real threat.
Petter Nilsson, a delegate from Västerbotten in northern Sweden, joined the criticism: — Through legal precedent, it has more or less been established that Swedes cannot be subjected to hate speech. However, a large number of court cases have come to involve the 'group' of drag queens, which is quite telling.
Several speakers repeated the argument that the law doesn't protect the Swedish majority population and that it is currently applied arbitrarily in ways that limit freedom of speech.
Despite the criticism, the party leadership maintained that the hate speech law should not be abolished. Instead, they want to reform it so that it returns to dealing with ethnic groups in the proper sense.
Party Secretary Mattias Bäckström Johansson emphasized before the congress that the law should be streamlined and not linked to, for example, sexual orientation or religious affiliation.
Julia Kronlid, a member of the Swedish Parliament Riksdag and member of the party leadership, argued for the leadership's position and emphasized historical reasons for keeping the law.
— I really understand the frustration that may exist. But we must not forget the background to the law, with the persecution of Jews and the Holocaust.
Kronlid also highlighted current societal developments as a reason for the party leadership's position.
— Given the increasing antisemitism, I think it would be a major mistake to remove the law. It will be portrayed completely incorrectly. Our party leader Jimmie Åkesson will have to stand in interview after interview and answer the question 'why campaign on allowing hate speech'.
