Several days of unrest in Sweden, sparked by a far-right group’s plan to burn copies of the Koran, injured at least 40 people as police demanded more resources to combat the violence.
The burning of the Muslim holy book is a ploy well-practiced by the leader of the anti-immigration and anti-Islam group Hard Line, Danish-Swedish politician Rasmus Paludan.
Aiming to rally support ahead of September’s Danish general election, Paludan announced a “tour” of Sweden, planning to visit cities and towns with large Muslim populations to burn copies of the Koran during the holy month of Ramadan.
Where have protests taken place?
Violence erupted in the central Swedish city of Örebro on Friday when counter-demonstrators attacked police ahead of a planned far-right demonstration.
Police said four police cars were set on fire and at least four officers and one civilian were injured. Demonstrators threw stones and groups stormed police posts and tore down barricades.
Local media also reported clashes in the Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby after Paludan set fire to a copy of the Koran on Friday.
On Sunday, police said at least 34 people were arrested in Linköping and Norrköping after around 150 protesters threw stones at officers and set vehicles on fire.
Anders Thornberg, the Swedish police chief, said he had never seen such violent riots.
The riots in Norrköping came after Paludan said he was planning to hold a rally there but never showed up. Three people were reportedly injured by gunfire and Norrköping Police said officers “fired several warning shots” after they were attacked.
“Three people appear to have been hit by ricochets and are now being treated in hospital,” police said in a statement. “All three of those injured were arrested on suspicion of committing criminal offences.”
The far-right party leader later said he canceled the rally because the Swedish authorities had shown “their complete inability to protect themselves and me”.
“If I were seriously injured or killed because of the inadequacy of the police department, it would be very sad for Swedes, Danes and other Nordic countries,” Hard Line said in a Facebook post.
In the city of Malmo, a bus caught fire after unknown perpetrators threw a burning object at the vehicle, broadcaster SVT reported.
Who is Rasmus Paludan?
Paludan – whose father is a Swedish citizen – first came to public attention in 2017 when he started making anti-Muslim YouTube videos. He justified his stunts in Denmark – like burning the Muslim holy book, sometimes wrapped in bacon – as a tribute to free speech.
“The enemy is Islam and the Muslims. The best thing would be if there wasn’t a single Muslim left on this earth, then we would have reached our ultimate goal,” he said in a December 2018 video.
Paludan was sentenced to 14 days in prison in Denmark in 2019 for making racist remarks. A year later, he faced a month in prison and a further two months’ probation after being found guilty on 14 separate charges of racism, defamation and dangerous driving.
Hard Line, or Stram Kurs in Swedish, did not win a single seat in the last Danish general election in 2019. Now Paludan plans to run again in the June 2023 vote, but he reportedly does not have the required number of signatures to secure his candidacy.
Has this happened before?
This is not the first time violence has broken out against the Danish party’s plan to burn the holy book. In 2020, Paludan was at the center of riots in Malmo, Sweden, where protesters set cars on fire over a similar effort. He was forbidden to return to Sweden for two years.
Paludan and his Hardline party were banned from Belgium for a year in 2020 over plans to burn the Koran in a mostly Muslim-held area of Brussels. He was also expelled from France after proposing this in Paris.
How did countries react?
Officials in several Muslim countries condemned the move that sparked the protests. Iraq’s foreign ministry said Sunday it had summoned the Swedish chargé d’affaires to the capital, Baghdad.
It warned that the incident could have “serious repercussions” on “relationships between Sweden and Muslims in general, Muslim and Arab countries and Muslim communities in Europe”.
Saudi Arabia’s official news agency said the kingdom “condemned the agitation of certain extremists in Sweden and their provocations against Muslims”.
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry condemned “the hesitation to prevent provocative and Islamophobic acts…under the guise of freedom of expression.”
A demonstration took place in front of the Swedish embassy in the Iranian capital Tehran.
In a tweet, UAE Presidential Advisor Anwar Gargash dismissed “hatred” and “intolerance” against Islam.
Egypt “condemned the intentional misuse of the Holy Quran,” adding that it “is among the far-right practices that incite against immigrants in general and Muslims in particular.”
Kuwait “expressed its utter condemnation and abhorrence of acts of desecration committed by Swedish extremists against the Holy Koran,” state news agency KUNA said.
And the Jordanian Foreign Ministry said Hard Line’s actions “contradict all religious values and principles, human rights principles and fundamental freedoms and fuel feelings of hatred and violence and threaten peaceful coexistence.”