To get an actual Muslim-immigrant riot, you don’t even need to burn the Quran. You only need to talk about it.
Stated plans by a Swedish far-right group to burn copies of the Quran were enough to cause violent clashes in that country that led to more than 40 arrests, reports the BBC. Three people were injured in the fracas in Norrkoping on April 17 when officers fired warning shots at rioters, police said.
All it took to spark the violence was a series of rallies staged by Danish-Swedish politician Rasmus Paludan, who says he has burned Islam’s holy book before and wants to do it again.
Books are of course manufactured commercial products of paper and cloth, but a great weakness of radical Muslims is their sensitivity to shows of disrespect towards the Quran.
Saudi Arabia even condemned what it called the “deliberate abuse of the holy Quran by some extremists in Sweden, and provocation and incitement against Muslims.” Iran and Iraq summoned their Swedish ambassadors to lodge protests.
How are Christian titles treated in Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq?
Sweden’s national police chief said the April 17 clashes in Norrkoping were the worst he had ever seen. The Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby and the western city of Orebro also saw violence, and on April 16 a riot broke out in the southern city of Malmo.
Police said Monday that 26 police officers and 14 others had been injured in the violence and that more than 20 vehicles had been damaged or destroyed. They said around 200 people were involved in the violence.
