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Noise and clashes erupted in Sweden on Thursday during rallies by a far-right and anti-Islamic Danish group that planned to burn the Koran in several cities. On Sunday, police said three people were injured after apparently being hit by police bullets during a clash.
In 2017, the Danish-Swedish extremist Rasmus Paludan created the Danish far-right movement Stram Kurs or Hard Line, which broadcasts a strong anti-immigrant and anti-Islamic program. On Thursday and Friday, the party broadcast a live video of Paludan burning the Koran, the holy book of Islam, in various Swedish cities. Paludan is known for organizing such burns.
Protesters and counter-protesters clashed in the central city of Örebro on Friday. Clashes broke out in the southwestern town of Malmö on Saturday, which Swedish police described as a “messy night” with many “fire disturbances and attacks on police”, as well as Molotov cocktails and stones. Vehicles, including a city bus, were set on fire. In a statement, police said their goal was to uphold “constitutionally protected freedom of expression and assembly” of licensed assemblies and counter-protesters.
On Sunday, Paludan announced on social media that he would cancel demonstrations in Linköping and Norrkoping, nearby cities in eastern Sweden. – because the police have shown that they are “incapable” of defending themselves and Paludan.
The same day three people in Nhoroping were obviously hit by police bullets after the authorities made warning shots as they tried to scatter protesters angry with last-day demonstrations, Associated Press reported. “They appear to have been hit by ricochets,” police said in a statement, adding that the three were not seriously injured but received medical treatment.
In a Sunday interview with the Swedish daily Aftonbladet, Swedish Justice Minister Morgan Johansson told the rebels to “go home”. Johansson called Paludan “a right-wing extremist fool whose sole purpose is to lead to violence and divisions”, but added that “Sweden is a democracy and in a democracy, fools also have freedom of speech”.
In 2020, Paludan was sentenced to three months in prison on charges of racism and slander.
In 2019, his party was close to entering the Danish parliament. Although Stram Kurs did not win a place this year, Denmark in particular saw a major change on the right in terms of anti-immigration policies. In 2018, the nationalist and right-wing populist Swedish Democrats, a group of neo-Nazi backgrounds, won about 18 percent of the vote in Sweden’s general election. Its impetus is largely attributed by analysts to concerns about crime and migration.
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