New clashes over anti-immigration rally in Sweden

Swedish police said officers wounded
three people Sunday in the eastern city of Norrkoping as demonstrators
protested plans by a far-right group to burn copies of the Koran.

“Police fired several warning shots. Three people appear to have been hit
by ricochets and are currently being treated in hospital”, police said in a
statement.

The three who were injured were under arrest, police said, adding that
their condition was not known.

Sunday’s clashes in Norrkoping were the second there in four days.

On the first occasion, the demonstrators had protested against a rally by
anti-immigration and anti-Islam group Hard Line, led by the Danish-Swedish
politician Rasmus Paludan, 40.

On Sunday, they rallied again in protest another gathering, which in the
end Paludan abandoned.

Four people were arrested among the approximately 150 participants, as
protester threw stones at officers and cars were set on fire, police said.

According to health services quoted by local news agency TT, 10 people
were hospitalised with minor injuries following the clashes and similar
unrest in the neighbouring town of Linkpping, where far-right Hard Line also
abandoned a demonstration.

– Swedish ‘tour’ –

Paludan, who intends to stand in Swedish legislative elections in
September but does not yet have the necessary number of signatures to secure
his candidature, is currently on a “tour” of Sweden.

He is visiting neighbourhoods with large Muslim populations where he wants
to burn copies of the Koran.

A lawyer and YouTuber, he has previously been convicted of racist insults.

In 2019, he burned a Koran wrapped in bacon and was blocked for a month by
Facebook after a post conflating immigration and crime.

On Saturday, one of his rallies was moved from a district of Landskrona to
an isolated car park in southern Malmo, the large neighbouring city, but a
car tried to force the protective barriers.

The driver was arrested and Paludan then burned a Koran.

Hard Line’s tour has sparked several clashes between the police and
counter-protesters across the Scandinavian country in recent days. On
Thursday and Friday, around 12 police officers were injured in the clashes.

In the wake of the string of incidents, Iraq’s foreign ministry said it
had summoned the Swedish charge d’affaires in Baghdad Sunday.

It warned that the affair could have “serious repercussions” on “relations
between Sweden and Muslims in general, both Muslim and Arab countries and
Muslim communities in Europe”.

In November 2020, Paludan was arrested in France and deported.

Five other activists were arrested in Belgium shortly after, accused of
wanting to “spread hatred” by burning a Koran in Brussels.

AFP