United Kingdom (MNN) — As Europe’s Muslim population grows, a clash of worldviews is testing its courts of law.
Last weekend in Manchester, England, a man was arrested after allegedly burning a copy of the Quran. According to one report, he claimed to be doing it in honor of Salwan Momika.
Who was Salwan Momika? He was an Iraqi-born critic of Islam charged with burning copies of the Quran in 2023. The verdict to his criminal trial was scheduled for yesterday, February 6, 2025. But last week, January 29, someone took justice into their own hands and killed Momika in his home in Sweden. (Read this insightful article to consider the message Momika’s killing sends.)
Salwan Momika in 2023 (Photo courtesy of Frankie Fouganthin via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Both of these men were taken to court over burning the Quran. But here’s the question: should those actions be considered crimes or as expressions of free speech? It’s a question England appears to be wavering on.
Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations says it’s natural for followers of Islam to take that question seriously.
“When they’re coming in [to other nations] and they’re bringing their religious practices, they bring what they know. Half of the world’s Muslim countries have variations of blasphemy laws,” he says.
Pakistan, Afghanistan and Mauritania are among those Muslim countries with blasphemy laws. Kelley says that in Pakistan, for example, these laws have devastating effects on Christians and religious minorities. It often devolves into vigilante justice, not unlike what Salwan Momika tragically experienced last week.
England itself had blasphemy laws on the books until 2008, protecting certain Christian beliefs. Those laws were abolished in 2008 with the Criminal Justice Act. Yet what will England, Sweden and other nations say today about what should happen when someone insults Islam?
“What we’re seeing is with this blasphemy [issue], it’s a push from the [Muslim] leadership to really establish an Islamic culture in these communities, and it’s only going to grow,” Kelley says. “The only thing that the UK can do is their government can step in and not allow that. But they’re caving to it because it’s a loud voice. [The Muslim community is] a minority now that’s growing, but it’s a loud, aggressive voice.”
Yet other voices recognize these two cases in Europe as endangering free speech. Read the perspectives on these events from Free Speech Union and an editor at spiked.
Find your place in this story
Watch and pray over these religious freedom/freedom of speech conversations in Europe. This is a critical topic facing many nations today.
As you pray, don’t forget that bringing Muslims to Europe is part of God’s divine plan. He’s working these complex situations together for good. Pray for justice and freedom that will allow more people to know Christ and be saved.
Finally, if you live in a country where you can speak about Christ more freely than most, thank God and “[make] the most of every opportunity, for the days are evil” (see Ephesians 5:15-16).
Header photo of a copy of the Quran is a representative stock photo courtesy of GR Stocks via Unsplash.
