Salmann was born in 1955 in the occupied West Bank and grew up in Wadi El Joz in east Jerusalem.
His father was Salim (Saleem) Abu Khaled al Tamimi, a businessman and passionate activist, and his mother Salim's second wife Nazima abu Rajabb al Tamimi;[1] his elder siblings are, in order of age, Younes, Rawda, Safah, Amneh, along with his younger sister Amal.
Salmann worked as a sailor and in construction before completing his studies in computer science at the University of Iceland.
Amal claims that Salmann felt her daughters were not safe in her home because of her relationship with a Christian man.
[10] On 24 July 2014, Salmann made the headlines in Iceland for his comment on Israel at a Jerusalem Post news article[11] about the funeral of Israeli soldiers: "To hell inshallah.
Salmann, however, has close ties with Björk Vilhelmsdóttir, a prominent member of the Social Democratic Alliance.
In 1997, Salmann founded the Association of Muslims in Iceland (Félag múslima á Íslandi), being succeeded as its chair in 2010 by Ibrahim Sverrir Agnarsson.
[14] His successor, however, said that funds for the mosque would be raised abroad, including Muslims in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
[18] However, in a television interview on 18 June 2014 Salmann reiterated that he supported amputation as a punishment for theft, just as murderers deserve the death penalty, unless "the family of the deceased does not forgive them".