On Friday, over 300 rioters burned tires and threw stones at the police in the district of Rosengård in Malmö, Sweden. The unfortunate events took place after a video of the followers of the far-right Danish politician Rasmus Paludan burning a copy of the Quran was circulated.
The Muslim rioters wielded street-sign bars and metal barriers, and also threw fireworks and stones. Tires, cars, rubbish bins, and pallets were also set on fire. Many of the rioters were wearing face masks and hooded tops.
As the group of rioters was throwing jagged chunks at the police sheltering behind the bars, one of them yelled, ‘We’re gonna f**k this system up because they want to let a man burn the Quran. And we’re gonna f**k the police.’
Police in Malmö didn’t give nod to the anti-Islamic protest to be conducted the leader of Denmark’s extremist Hard Line party, Rasmus Paludan. But his supporters filmed themselves burning one copy of the Quran and kicking another copy like a football in the main square of Malmö. The police had arrested the three on suspicion of hate crimes.
Samir Muric, a prominent Malmö imam was seen pacing up and down between the rioters and the police, requesting the rioters to stop and also accusing them of bringing shame to the religion. Samir Muric condemned this act on his Facebook page: ‘Those who are acting in this way have nothing to do with Islam. Their shouts filled with ‘la ilaha ill Allah’ and ‘Allahu Akbar’, are just outbursts that they do not mean because if they really meant them, they wouldn’t have acted like this.’
There were some Arabs and Muslims among the crowd who were seen opposing the riot. One man complained, ‘I don’t like this, because the Arabs, they’re f**king things up for our community here in Sweden because one Danish man burned a Quran. And this is what he wants. They want us to be like this. I’ve never seen this ever in my life. I’m shocked.’
Another young who was blocked from coming back to his home in Rosengård, said: ‘A maximum of five of them are Muslim. You know why? Because a real Muslim doesn’t do this. All religions, not only Islam, are about peace.’
A young rioter said, ‘Look at them, they can’t fight to backfire with fire, that doesn’t work! They’re violating our civil rights by letting other people burn the Quran that we believe in and now we have to show that they can’t do that. It’s against us, so we’re against them. That’s how simple it is.’
A press spokesman for the Malmö police, Patric Fors said, ‘A few policemen have been slightly injured, and I don’t have any reports of any members of the public being injured. We currently have 13 suspects wanted for rioting, five of them have been arrested, but they have all now been released.’
