By Annisa Essack

29:08:2020

Violence erupted in the troubled district of Rosengård in Malmö, Friday night in Sweden after far-right activists burned a Qur’an near a mostly migrant neighbourhood. Crowds of young men wielded bars taken from street signs and metal barriers and threw stones and fireworks after smashing up bus shelters. Around 300 rioters threw objects at police, set fire to debris, and threw objects at police and rescue services slightly injuring several police officers and leading to the detention of about 15 people. Further, up the road, cars, tyres, pallets and rubbish bins were set ablaze.

The rally had been organised by Rasmus Paludan, leader of the Danish far-right party Stram Kurs (Hard Line). Three people were arrested on suspicion of inciting hatred against an ethnic group after kicking the Qur’an.

Police in Malmö had hesitated for two weeks over whether to give Paludan, the leader of Denmark’s extremist Hard Line party permission to hold an anti-Islamic protest. Permission was denied on Wednesday. Paludan was stopped on Friday afternoon as he left the Öresund bridge, deported and banned from entering Sweden for two years. But this did not stop his supporters from filming themselves burning a copy of the Qur’an and kicking another around Malmö’s main square like a football, for which three of them were arrested on suspicion of hate crimes.

During the riot, Samir Muric, a prominent Malmö imam, paced up and down in the space between the police and the rioters, imploring the rioters to stop and accusing them of shaming their own religion. Muric also condemned the rioters on his Facebook page.

Throughout the night, police held their position at the crossroads marking the dividing line between Rosengård and central Malmö, pushing the rioters back with a series of charges.

A press spokesman for the Malmö police, Patric Fors, said calm had not returned to the area until about 3 am on Saturday. A few policemen have been slightly injured but there were no reports of any members of the public being injured. Thirteen suspects are wanted for rioting, five of them have been arrested, but they have all now been released.

Many witnesses expressed their worries about how the Qur’an-burning and the angry reaction to it might change the city.