Sweden sees third night of unrest after far-right anti-Islam rally
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The demonstrations are in response to an anti-Islam event organized by the Danish far-right Stram Kurs party.
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Stram Kurs, is an anti-Islam and anti-immigration group (Reuters)
On Saturday, southern Sweden had another night of disturbance as a result of an anti-Islam far-right political party's plans to burn a Qur'an, the holy book of Islam.
According to police, up to 100 people, mostly youth, threw stones, set fire to cars, tires, and garbage cans, and erected a barrier fence in the town of Landskrona after authorities moved a demonstration planned there by the Danish party Stram Kurs to the nearby city of Malmö, about 45 km to the south.
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Landskrona had cooled down by late Saturday but remained tense, according to police, who added that no injuries had been recorded in the incident.
Kim Hild, a police spokeswoman in southern Sweden, stated earlier on Saturday that authorities would not rescind authorization for the Landskrona rally organized by the party Stram Kurs since the free-speech threshold in Sweden is relatively high.
The demonstrators' freedom "to demonstrate and speak outweighs enormously, heavily and it takes an incredible amount for this to be ignored," Hild told Swedish news agency TT.
Since Thursday, confrontations have been reported in Stockholm, Linkoping, and Norrkoping - all places where Stram Kurs has planned or had rallies.
On Friday evening, violent skirmishes occurred between protestors and counter-protesters in the central Swedish city of Orebro, ahead of Stram Kurs' plan to burn a Qur'an there, injuring 12 police officers and torching four police vehicles.
Video and images from Orebro's chaotic events showed burning police cars and demonstrators throwing stones and other things at riot police personnel.
Rasmus Paludan, the head of Stram Kurs, spoke to a few dozen people at a rally in Malmö's central park on Saturday. A few counter-protesters hurled stones, prompting police to deploy pepper spray to disperse them.
Stram Kurs, or Hard Line, was founded in 2017 by Paludan, a Danish lawyer with Swedish citizenship. It promotes an anti-Islam and anti-immigration view.
