Nothing says Islam is a religion of peace quite as clearly as shooting someone dead for saying that Islam is not a religion of peace.

At the end of last month Salwan Momika, an ethnic Assyrian from Iraq, was murdered in a Sharia-style execution in his home in Sweden. At the time he was awaiting the verdict in his trial for ‘incitement to racial hatred’. His crime? Having first-hand knowledge of the persecution faced by non-Muslims in the Middle East, he had burned a Quran in protest against Islam in Stockholm in 2023.

Causing Distress

According to the charge sheet, Momika and a friend, Salwan Najem, had desecrated and burned the Quran and made derogatory remarks about Muslims. That the pair were on trial in the first place suggests that Sweden’s commitment to freedom of expression has been subordinated to the creed of multiculturalism.

In August, convinced that the governments of Sweden and Norway were facilitating the Islamisation of their countries, Momika posted on X: ‘I have come to awaken the people and thwart the Islamization project of the West, and I will not be afraid of you.’

That the pair were on trial in the first place suggests that Sweden’s commitment to freedom of expression has been subordinated to the creed of multiculturalism.

Two days after Momika’s murder, Martin Frost burned a copy of the Quran in Manchester close to the memorial for the 22 young people slaughtered by a Muslim fanatic in the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing. The Quran burning had been advertised online beforehand and live-streamed on social media.

Frost was immediately arrested on suspicion of a ‘racially aggravated public order offence’. Greater Manchester Police‘s Assistant Chief Constable Stephanie Parker told GB News: ‘We understand the deep concern this will cause within some of our diverse communities and are aware of a live video circulating.’ The charge sheet reads that Frost has been charged with using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour to cause harassment, alarm or distress.

He is also accused of a second offence of racially or religiously aggravated intentional harassment or alarm to a complainant, Fahad Iqbal, by ‘displaying some writing, sign or other visible representation which was threatening, abusive or insulting thereby causing him or another person harassment, alarm or distress.’ The offence was considered to be religiously aggravated.

In the West our governments evade the accusation of enforcing Sharia blasphemy laws by refusing to prosecute people for burning a Quran. In both Sweden and Great Britain these men were arrested for causing ‘distress’ to Muslims by burning the Quran. This indicates that it is accepted by governing authorities throughout the West that Muslims will fly into a murderous rage if they think that the Quran has been desecrated.

This indicates that it is accepted by governing authorities throughout the West that Muslims will fly into a murderous rage if they think that the Quran has been desecrated.

In 2023 in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, a 14-year-old schoolboy was at the centre of a furore when a Quran was barely scuffed when dropped by a group of boys. He received death threats and his mother was forced to grovel in apology before the local mosque and beg for her autistic son’s safety. At the meeting, Chief Inspector Thornton of West Yorkshire Constabulary criticised the boys for the ‘lack of understanding’ of their actions before turning to the imam and saying: ‘Really, really deep-hearted thanks from me in regards to the tolerance and understanding shown.’

Only Islam

I can understand Muslims being upset when a Quran is deliberately burned. I would not like it if a Bible was burned in a demonstration against Christianity. However, I know of no Christian who would think it appropriate to murder the person who did this. I can think of no other religion, not Hindu, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Sikh or Shinto, which would demand the death of anyone for the desecration of their holy books. Only Islam.

There is no other religion where the governing authorities in the West live in fear of offending its practitioners. Only Islam.

With the Labour Party’s acceptance of a severely restrictive definition of Islamophobia, we see that fear of giving offence about to be enacted into law here in the UK. The members of no other religion are campaigning for the definition to be approved. Only Islam.

The members of no other religion are campaigning for the definition to be approved. Only Islam.

I have never burned a Quran, and have no intention of doing so. Burning books calls to my mind pictures of Brownshirt students in 1933 Germany creating bonfires of ‘degenerate’ books. It always strikes me that Quran burning has elements of performing art, and as a stuffy stick-in-the-mud Presbyterian that is a no-no. I have, however, put a Quran in a dustbin. I am pretty sure that some would call that Islamophobic although there was no intention to cause offence.

Appeasement

We never seem to learn that appeasement of Muslim extremists only makes them stronger. The West’s collective failure to take a firm stance for liberty in 1989 when Ayatollah Khomeini, the Supreme leader of Iran, declared a fatwa calling for the execution of novelist Salman Rushdie has made it ever more difficult to uphold the principle today.

When in 2005 the Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard drew a cartoon of Muhammed for the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, Muslims across the world rioted; many died and embassies were attacked. Westergaard received death threats and survived an attempted assassination. He ended up having to live with a bodyguard at a secret address. Some amongst the chattering classes considered that he had brought this upon himself.

A religion which abandons reason and argument to make its point and instead embraces violence is a religion which is insecure and unable to defend itself in any other way.

After the 2015 Charlie Hebdo massacre the great and the good marched through Paris holding signs proclaiming ‘Je suis Charlie’. Only they weren’t Charlie; it was just another self-justifying performance and quickly forgotten. The staff of Charlie Hebdo had taken on all-comers in defence of free speech; our leaders routinely appease the Muslim enemies of free speech.

This does not indicate the strength of Islam, but rather its weakness. A religion which abandons reason and argument to make its point and instead embraces violence is a religion which is insecure and unable to defend itself in any other way.

There are no other religions which choose this violent route. Only Islam.

The Rev. Dr Campbell Campbell-Jack is a retired Church of Scotland minister; now a member of the Free Church of Scotland. Check out his many incisive articles on his blog, A Grain of Sand.