Riots in Sweden's Malmo after anti-Islam Danish leader slapped two-year ban, blocked from Quran burning rally

The incident took place on Friday night, hours after protestors burned a copy of the holy Quran, police spokesman Rickard Lundqvist told Swedish tabloid Expressen.

The demonstration began after anti-Muslim Danish leader Rasmus Paludan was barred from attending an anti-Islam rally.

Paludan, leader of Hard Line, a Danish anti-immigration party, has been banned from the country for two years.

The politician was due to travel to Malmo to lead the rally, but the authorities arrested him before the event.

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Calle Persson, spokesman for the police in Malmo, told AFP, "We suspect that he was going to break the law in Sweden."

"There was also a risk that his behaviour... would pose a threat to society," the spokesman added.

In 2019, Paludan received criticism after burning a copy of Quran wrapped in bacon, a meat considered 'haram' (forbidden) in Islam.

Sweden has accepted Muslim refugees from  Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan generously and it is a haven for asylum seekers but it also led to an internal crisis fuelling anti-migrant sentiments with many blaming rising crimes to migrants besides a rise of the far right groups.

According to a 2017 report from the Swedish Agency for Support to Faith Communities, there were 170,915 Muslims in Sweden who practiced their religion regularly.

The US Department of State sets the Muslim population figure in Sweden at around 6% (almost 600,000) of the total Swedish population. A 2017 Pew Research report documents Muslim population at 8.1% of the total population of Sweden of 10 million