Status: 04/17/2022 2:39 p.m
The head of the Islamophobic party Stram Kurs had announced that he wanted to burn a Koran at a demonstration. Because Sweden’s authorities approved the right-wing extremists’ rallies, opponents protested. There were riots.
In Sweden, violent protests broke out in several cities on Saturday evening and Sunday night following a right-wing extremist party was allowed to hold rallies.
Vehicles and rubbish bins burned in Malmo, and a bus also caught fire following being thrown with a burning object, Swedish broadcaster SVT reported. Stones and Molotov cocktails were thrown at police officers. There were no reports of injuries.
Burning of the Koran planned
The protests were triggered by rallies by the Danish right-wing party Stram Kurs. Their party leader Rasmus Paludan had announced that he also wanted to burn a Koran. In Linköping he is said to have done the same, in other places it apparently stayed with the announcement.
The protests in Malmo emerged following the event originally planned in the city of Landskrona was moved to Malmo due to riots. According to the police, around 100 mostly young people threw stones and set fire to cars, garbage cans and tires in Landskrona. After the transfer to Malmö, the protests escalated there as well. Party leader Paludan was pelted with a stone and hit.
Violent protests for days
There had already been protests in various cities in the past few days following Stram Kurs had announced rallies, including in Stockholm and Norrköping. Police cars were set on fire in Örebro on Friday.
Party wants to compete in parliamentary elections
Right-wing extremist Paludan has Danish and Swedish citizenship and plans to run with a Swedish branch of his party in late summer’s parliamentary elections. In Denmark, Stram Kurs calls for a ban on Islam and the expulsion of people who are not ethnic Danes.
Response from Malaysia
Paludan’s burning of the Koran also provoked an official reaction from Malaysia. The foreign minister of the mostly Muslim island nation said the action went “beyond the moral limits and norms of the right to freedom of expression.” She fuels hatred “which must be rejected by everyone who seeks peace and promotes peaceful coexistence,” it said.