STOCKHOLM: Clashes erupted in an immigrant neighbourhood in Sweden’s third largest city after an anti-Muslim protester set fire to the Quran, the police said on Monday. The police in Malmo said they were pelted with stones and several cars were set on fire, including in an underground garage, describing the events that started Sunday and lasted overnight as “a riot.”
The clashes started after an anti-Islam activist, Salwan Momika, on Sunday burned a copy of the Quran and an angry mob tried to stop him while the police detained at least three people.
Early Monday, an angry crowd of mainly young people also set fire to tyres and debris and some were seen damaging electric scooters, bicycles and barriers in Malmo’s Rosengard neighbourhood, which has seen similar clashes in the past. In the past months, Momika, a refugee from Iraq, has desecrated the Quran in a series of anti-Islam protests that have caused anger in many Muslim countries. Sweden allows such actions, citing freedom of speech.