Mosques Burning Protests, Swedish Muslims Hold Demonstrations
DDHK News, Sweden - More than a thousand people took to the streets in Gothenburg, Malmö, and Stockholm after attacks on three mosques in a week.
Reported by the site The Guardian, Swedish Muslims held an action outside the parliament building in downtown Stockholm, Sweden, Saturday (3/1). They held a banner that read "Don't touch our mosque". Earlier, Friday (2/1), anti-racism demonstrations were also held in the cities of Malmo and Gothenburg following the burning and throwing of Molotov cocktails at three mosques in recent weeks. The last incident was on last Thursday (1/2). A Molotov cocktail was thrown at a mosque in Uppsala, eastern Sweden.
Earlier, December 25, 2014, arson hit the mosque in Esloev after a Molotov cocktail was also thrown at a mosque in Eskilstuna which left five people injured.
Swedish Culture Minister, Alice Bah Kuhnke, in Stockholm, said the government would launch a national strategy to counter the emergence of Islamophobic attitudes or fear of Islam. "It is necessary to educate people about Islam and get rid of prejudice," he said. The government has also ordered increased security in places of worship.
About 16 percent of the population in Sweden are immigrants. Many of them come from countries that are currently in conflict, namely Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, which are predominantly Muslim countries. (mel /theguardian.com/localhost/project/personal/ddhongkong.org/ddhongkong.org).*
