A Christian nationalist far-right group in Sweden decided Holy Week would be the right time to ignore Christ’s lesson to treat others the way you would wish to be treated, and they burned a Koran, setting off four days of protests and counterprotests around the nation, leaving a bus and cars burned, the BBC reports.
The Danish-Swedish Christian national group Stram Kurs, or Hard Line held an event Thursday in which its leader, Rasmus Paludan, burned a Koran. (And a disclaimer: at the risk of unfairly characterizing all member of the group Stram Kurs–because some may not feel this way or do these things–I’m going to refer to them as a single entity, even though some Stram Kurs defenders may find that bigoted.). Paludan said the he would repeat the act in the city of Norrköping.
Muslims obviously reacted to the provocation by Stram Kurs, with hundreds taking to the streets in Stockholm, surrounding suburbs and in the cities of Linköping and Norrköping.
The members of the far right movement counter-protested in the southern city of Malmo Saturday, setting a bus on fire. During that riot, police fired bullets over the protesters to disperse the crowd. An anti-immigrant crusader recently released from prison for racist speech and inciting violence, Paludan vowed to continue holding rallies and Koran burnings.