"We don't have this under control": Riot erupts in Sweden's Malmo after anti-Islam event

RT
Sat, 29 Aug 2020 10:00 UTC

© TT News Agency/Reuters

Smoke billows from the burning tyres, pallets and fireworks during a riot in the Rosengard neighbourhood of Malmo, Sweden, on 28 August 2020.

A riot erupted as at least 300 people protested against anti-Islam activities in the Swedish city of Malmo on Friday, police said.

Protesters threw objects at police officers and set car tyres on fire, with violence intensifying as the evening wore on, a police spokesperson said.

The police said the protests were linked to an incident earlier in the day in which right-wing extremists burned a copy of the Quran, the Islamic holy book.

"We don't have this under control, but we are working actively to take control," police spokesman Rickard Lundqvis said.

He added that the protests had escalated in the same area where the Quran had been burned.

"We see a connection between what is happening now and what happened earlier today."

Rasmus Paludan, leader of Danish far-right political party Hard Line, was due to travel to Malmo, Sweden's third-largest city, to speak at the far-right rally, which was being held on the same day as Muslim Friday prayers.

Authorities pre-empted Paludan's arrival by announcing he had been banned from entering Sweden for two years. He was later arrested near Malmo.

"We suspect that he was going to break the law in Sweden," Calle Persson, another police spokesperson in Malmo told AFP.

"There was also a risk that his behaviour... would pose a threat to society."

Daily Aftonbladet said several anti-Islam activities took place in Malmo on Friday after the ban on Paludan, including three men kicking a copy of the Quran between them in a public square.

Three people were arrested at the anti-Islam events for inciting racial hatred.

Last year, Paludan attracted media attention for burning a Quran wrapped in bacon - a meat prohibited in Islam.

Comment: RT reports:

Clashes erupted between protesters and law enforcement in Malmo's Rosengard district, seeing stones, paving bricks and fireworks hurled at officers and emergency response vehicles.

Chants of "Allahu akbar" ("God is great" in Arabic) could be heard in footage that circulated online, which also showed tires and other debris burned in the street and a billowing column of black smoke rising into the night sky. A major fire was also reported in an underground parking garage in Rosengard, about 1km away from the main area of unrest.

The activists filmed the burning of the holy book, which was done in a public park.

Elsewhere in Malmo, three Stram Kurs members were reportedly arrested for incitement against an ethnic group after torching another Koran in public.

A court argued that while "the freedom of assembly and demonstration are constitutionally protected rights," the government may prohibit a gathering "for reasons of order and safety."

A similar event occurred on the same day in Oslo, Norway:

Anti-Islam protest in Oslo ends with Koran-tearing and scuffles between anti-protesters & police

The rally outside the parliament building in Oslo was organized by a group called Stop Islamisation of Norway, or SIAN. Some of their past rallies have ended with clashes between group members and their political opponents. The police had a heavy presence at the scene in advance of Saturday's event.

The protest escalated into violence when a female activist held up a copy of the Koran and tore pages from the Islamic holy book. Angry counter-protesters then launched an attack, and the police rushed to intervene. One person was reportedly injured, and several others were arrested.

Before the scuffle, the rally had been mostly peaceful for around two hours, with demonstrators chanting, singing, and listening to SIAN leader Lars Thorsen as he delivered a speech in which he denounced Islam's Prophet Mohammed as a "false prophet".

A security barrier had been erected beforehand to separate the rival sides and keep order. As the situation became more tense and volatile, law enforcement agents used pepper spray on several occasions and pushed back counter-protesters who tried to cross the line.

Shortly after the Koran-tearing incident, the protest ended. SIAN activists were escorted away by the police, while the counter-protesters were allowed to remain at the scene.

The serious problems created by mass migration in Sweden aren't going to be solved by burning the Quran, in effect they merely serve to further the divide and conquer games that benefit the establishment that pushed these policies onto Sweden in the first place:

• Volvo CEO laments Sweden's high crime rate, says company might move its HQ abroad
• Sweden on fire 2 weeks before election: Buildings, a business and 7 cars torched overnight as wave of arson attacks continue

Also check out SOTT radio's: The Truth Perspective: Weapons of Mass Migration: Interview with Michael Springmann on Europe's Migrant Crisis