Claim: Iraqi refugee Salwan Momika, who has engaged in incidents of burning the Quran, has been found dead in Norway.
Fact: Salwan Momika is not dead. He has denied rumours of his death, saying he was being held by Norwegian authorities after fleeing Sweden with the intention to seek asylum in Norway.
On 31 May 2024, Facebook user ‘Mohd Sayeed’ posted (archive) two pictures of Salwan Momika, an Iraqi refugee who has participated in Quran-burning events in Sweden, with a caption that reads as follows:
“MALOON SALWAN MOMIKA WHO DESCECRATED QURAN SHAREEF FOUND DEAD IN NORWAY😡😡😡😡😡”
The post was made in a Facebook group called ‘Friends who like Hyderabad City Police’, which has over 5,500 members.
Who is Salwan Momika?
Momika is known for carrying out a series (archive) of Quran burnings, causing anger and riots in multiple Muslim-majority countries for his actions, as well as attaining worldwide publicity. The Iraqi refugee sought asylum in Sweden where his temporary residence permit expired on 16 April.
Before his temporary permit expired, however, he decided (archive) to apply for asylum in neighbouring Norway, where he was arrested on arrival, jailed (archive) at the police immigration detention centre in Trandum, as per an Oslo court order, and deported (archive) later.
On 11 April, he was returned to Sweden, where he is under investigation “for incitement against ethnic groups”, according to The Associated Press.
He is also one of the reasons why Sweden’s bid for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) membership was at risk (archive) and being blocked by Turkey, although the nation’s “Accession Protocol was subsequently ratified by all NATO member countries according to their national procedures”, as per the group’s website (archive).
Investigations into Momika’s past by France 24’s The Observers (archive) and Arab News (archive) have revealed the “contradictions” in his mysterious life.
According to The Observers, Momika has been part of the Imam Ali Brigades, an Iraqi militia “accused of war crimes”, a Christian militia, and the Swedish Democrats, an ultra-nationalist party. He has also had ties with the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), “a group of militias that have been integrated into the Iraq army since 2016 with the aim of fighting against the Islamic State group organisation”, or Daesh.
He has active accounts on multiple social media platforms but all of them “were created after he had refugee status in Sweden”.While The Observers verified old videos of Momika showing he was a part of the Imam Ali Brigades, which operates under the PMF, he has denied having links to the group.
Swedish authorities have also confirmed that he once “threatened to kill a man while holding a knife” and was consequently punished.
According to Arab News, Momika has previously “praised” Muqtada Al-Sadr, an Iraqi cleric and politician who founded the Sadrist movement but also announced his intention “to file a lawsuit” against him in another instance. He founded the Syriac Democratic Union party and the Hawks Syriac Forces, which is “an armed militia established in 2014 that was affiliated with the pseudo-Christian militia Babylon Brigades”.
“His Facebook and Instagram feed was first dominated by criticism of the Iraqi government following the mass protests of 2019 up until six months ago, when he took an extremely anti-Islamic stance and consistently posted derogatory statements about the Prophet Muhammad and the Muslim faith,” the publication added.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check first observed that there was no credible source or evidence in the social media posts claiming Salwan Momika’s death.
We then reviewed relevant news articles and found an interview (archive) of Momika published by Swedish newspaper Expressen after he was forced back from Norway. The publication quoted him as saying that he couldn’t deny the rumours as Norwegian authorities had confiscated his phone.
The fact that he was detained was also confirmed by Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK).
Document.no, a far-right Norwegian website, also published (archive) an article to address rumours of Momika’s death. writing that the National Police Immigration Service’s (PU) communications department said it was “not aware that Salwan Momika has been found dead in Norway” or that “someone with the above name has died in Norway recently”.
The website also quoted the Oslo Police, which “confirmed that they have received several inquiries about the case, but say that the information is not correct”.
A few days after he was detained in Norway, Momika officially rebutted (archive) the claims of his death himself. In a post on 11 April, he added, “Your rumors and false media will not scare us. I am alive and will not surrender despite the injustice I was subjected to by the Norwegian authorities.”
In another X post (archive) on 12 April, he wrote, “Norway returned me to Sweden yesterday after it rejected my asylum application, and I am now in Sweden without any rights, as if I live in an Islamic country. I hope that some country will receive me and grant me asylum.”
Momika has since been posting regularly on his X account.
Reuters Fact Check, which is accredited by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), of which Soch Fact Check is also a signatory, also debunked claims of Momika’s death, stating that Norway’s National Police Immigration Service (NPIS) refused to comment “on an individual’s case but denied online claims of Momika’s death”.
The publication also quoted Runar Pedersen, the protection adviser at the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI), as saying Momika’s case was processed “according to the Dublin Regulation” and that he “had to return to the Dublin-Regulation country responsible for his case (Sweden)”.
“The Swedish Migration Agency also told Reuters that Momika was transferred back to Sweden in accordance with the provisions of the Dublin Regulation on asylum,” the outlet wrote.
Rumor Scanner, another IFCN-accredited outlet, reached out to Norwegian fact-checking organisation Faktisk, which confirmed that Momika was detained in and sent back from Norway.
Oslo-based media outlet Filter Nyheter wrote that police in Norway consider Momika to be “a threat to national security”, according to Rumor Scanner.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the claim here, here, and here on X, here, here, here, here, and here on Facebook, here, here, and here on Instagram, here, here, and here on YouTube, and here on LinkedIn.
Multiple news websites, including Pakistani ones, also published false reports; these include SAMAA TV, Aaj News English, Minute Mirror News, The Neutral, Daily Pakistan, Dialogue Pakistan, and MM News TV.
Conclusion: Salwan Momika was not found dead in Norway. The anti-Islam activist was detained by the Norwegian authorities after he fled Sweden and arrived in Norway with the intention to seek asylum there. During that time, he was unable to address rumours of his death; he has since refuted the rumours on his X account.
Background image in cover photo: @Salwan_Momika1
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