Violent protests in Malmö after Islamophobic politicians were banned from entering the country

Icon: enlarge

Protests in Malmö in southern Sweden

The lawyer Rasmus Paludan is the founder of the anti-immigrant party "Strammer Kurs", which advocates, among other things, a ban on Islam in Denmark. In his home country, the 38-year-old was convicted of violating the so-called racism paragraph and was banned from practicing law for three years.

Now the right-wing extremist politician has caused trouble in Sweden too: Violent protests broke out in Malmö on Friday evening after the Swedish authorities refused entry to Paludan. He had previously announced that he would take part in a demonstration in which a Koran was burned.

According to the police, at least ten demonstrators were temporarily arrested and several officers were injured.

According to the police, around 300 people are said to have participated in the riots. They attacked the officers with stones and set fire to tires. Ten to 20 people were temporarily arrested, said police spokesman Patric Fors of the AFP news agency. Everyone is now at large again.

The protests on Friday evening were in connection with the Islamophobic rally a few hours earlier, said the police spokesman Rickard Lundqvist of the tabloid newspaper "Expressen". In the course of the burning of the Koran, six people were arrested for racist agitation.

"A danger to society"

The Swedish authorities prevented Paludan's entry on the grounds that a two-year entry ban had been imposed on him. He was arrested near Malmö.

"We assumed that he would break the law in Sweden," a spokesman for the Malmö police told AFP. In addition, there is a risk that his behavior "could become a danger to society". Last year Paludan caused outrage when he burned a Koran wrapped in ham.

ala / dpa / AFP