Third night of unrest in Sweden over far-right anti-Islam rally

Demonstrators threw stones and burned vehicles during a protest against an anti-Islam event organised by Danish far-right Stram Kurs party

Unrest broke out in southern Sweden late on Saturday despite police moving a rally by an anti-Islam far-right group, which was planning to burn a Qur’an among other things, to a new location as a preventive measure.

Scuffles and unrest were reported in the southern town of Landskrona after a demonstration scheduled there by the Danish right-wing party Stram Kurs party was moved to the nearby city of Malmo, 27 miles south.

Opponents of Stram Kurs numbering up to 100 mostly young people threw stones, set cars, tires and dustbins on fire, and put up a barrier fence that obstructed traffic, Swedish police said. The situation had calmed down in Landskrona by late Saturday but remains tense, police said, adding no injuries were reported.

Kim Hild, spokesperson for police in southern Sweden, had said earlier on Saturday that police would not revoke permission for the Landskrona demonstration, organised by the Stram Kurs party, because the free-speech threshold for doing that is very high in Sweden.

The right of the protesters “to demonstrate and speak out weighs enormously, heavily and it takes an incredible amount for this to be ignored”, Hild told Swedish news agency TT.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/17/third-night-of-unrest-in-sweden-over-far-right-anti-islam-rally