STOCKHOLM: At least 10 people were arrested, and several police officers injured, in violence which broke out in southern Sweden after an anti-Muslim Danish politician was blocked from attending an extremely offensive rally, police said on Saturday.

Protesters threw stones at police and burned tyres on the streets of Malmo late on Friday, with the violence escalating as the evening wore on, according to police and local media.

The demonstration of about 300 people was connected to an incident earlier in the day in which protesters burned a copy of the Islamic holy book, police spokesman Rickard Lundqvist told Swedish tabloid Expressen.

Between 10 and 20 protesters were arrested late on Friday and “have all been released”, police spokesman Patric Fors said.

Several police were slightly injured, he added. The violence had subsided by Saturday morning.

“Those who act like this have nothing to do with Islam,” Samir Muric, an imam, said on Facebook.

“It’s not right,” Malmo resident Shahed told the SVT public broadcaster. “But it wouldn’t have happened if they hadn’t burnt the (Holy) Quran,” he added.

Rasmus Paludan, who leads the far-right Danish anti-immigration party Hard Line, was due to travel to Malmo to speak at Friday’s event, which was being held on the same day as main weekly prayers for Muslims.

But authorities pre-empted Paludan’s arrival by announcing he had been banned from entering Sweden for two years. He was later arrested near Malmo.

“We suspect that he was going to break the law in Sweden,” Calle Persson, spokesman for the police in Malmo said.

“There was also a risk that his behaviour... would pose a threat to society.”

But his supporters went ahead with the rally, during which six people were arrested for inciting racial hatred.

“It hurts,” Salim Mohammed Ali, a Muslim resident of Malmo for over 20 years, told SVT on Saturday.

“People get angry and I understand that, but there are other ways of doing things,” he added.

Paludan later put up a scathing message on Facebook. “Sent back and banned from Sweden for two years. However, rapists and murderers are always welcome!” he wrote. Malmo is an industrial city of 320,000 inhabitants, Over 40 per cent of its residents have foreign roots.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2020