More than forty people have been arrested after violent clashes in Sweden between police and people who were angry at a “far-right” group for burning copies of the Quran. The violence has left twenty-six police and fourteen civilians injured and twenty police cars destroyed since last Thursday.
The incident began after a series of demonstrations organized by Rasmus Paludan, leader of the Danish political party, Hard Line, known for anti-immigration and anti-Muslim rhetoric. He was joined by his supporters, including members of Swedish neo-Nazi groups, for demonstrations beginning on Thursday, April 14.
On Saturday, Paludan and about 100 of his supporters gathered at the entrance to a mosque in Norrköping, Sweden. They were protesting against what they called “the Islamization” of Europe and the building of mosques across the continent. The protesters burned copies of the Quran and other Islamic books and symbols.
Muslims consider the Quran the sacred word of God and view any intentional damage or show of disrespect towards it as deeply offensive.
Paludan said he had come to Sweden to protest against more than 150 new mosques built over the last few years. He also criticized Muslims for their treatment of women and children.
In response to the protests, police arrested several demonstrators, including one man who reportedly threw a bottle at a Muslim woman. Swedish police stated that they would not tolerate hate speech or violence.
Riots broke out Sunday night in Malmö, Sweden’s third-largest city, after a mob of mainly young people set fire to car tires, debris, and garbage cans in the Rosengard district. Protesters reportedly threw stones at police, who responded by firing tear gas into the crowd. A school and several cars were set on fire, but the situation calmed down by early Monday.
Police detained eleven people and arrested three in Malmö. No serious injuries had been reported.
Violence also broke out in Norrköping on Sunday after Paludan said he planned to hold a rally there, but he never showed up in the city. In a statement posted by the Hard Line party, Paludan said he canceled the rally because Swedish authorities had “shown that they are completely incapable of protecting themselves and me.”
Sweden’s National Police Commander Jonas Hysing said police were forced to use weapons in self-defense. Hysing said three people were hurt in Norrköping, hit by ricocheting bullets after police fired warning shots into a crowd of protesters.
“Some 200 participants were violent and the police had to respond with arms in legitimate self-defense,” Hysing said.
Three people seem to have been hit by ricochets and are now being cared for in hospital. In an online statement, police said all three injured were “arrested on suspicion of a crime.” They added that none of the injuries were life-threatening.
Sweden’s national police chief, Anders Thornberg, said he had never seen such violent protests as in Norrköping on Sunday.
Thornberg and Hysing claimed to have linked the violence to criminal gangs that intentionally target police.
“We suspect that those involved (in the protests) have links to criminal gangs,” Thornberg told a news conference on Monday, adding that some of those “criminal individuals” are known to police. “I have been in touch with the public prosecutor to prosecute these individuals.”
“Criminals have profited from the situation to show violence toward society, without any link to the demonstrations,” he added. “There are too few of us. We have grown, but we have not grown at the same pace as the problems at the heart of society,” he said, asking for more resources for the police.
“There is a lot to suggest that the police were targeted,” Hysing said, adding that some protesters had been suspected of attempted murder, aggravated assault, and violence against an official.
In addition to Malmö and Norrköping, violent clashes were reported in Stockholm, the central city of Örebro, the eastern town of Linköping, and the southern town of Landskrona.
Protests against the Hard Line party have turned violent in Sweden before. In 2020, protesters set cars on fire and damaged shopfronts in clashes in Malmö.
In the last Danish elections in 2019, Paludan’s Hard Line party received 1.8% of the vote, failing to win a seat. He plans to run in the Swedish elections this September, but he has not received the necessary amount of signatures to secure a spot on the ballot.
