PROTESTERS DENOUNCE MOSQUE ARSON ATTACK IN SWEDEN

Smoke rises from a mosque as firefighters search the building after it was destroyed in an arson attack on December 25, 2014, in Eskilstuna, Sweden. (Photo: Press TV)

Stockholm, 5 Rabiul Awwal 1436/27 December 2014 (MINA)– Several hundred people have taken to streets in Sweden to denounce a recent arson attack on a mosque which left five people injured.

The marchers converged on the damaged mosque in the central city of Eskilstuna on Friday (26/12), Press TV quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

A Swedish police spokesman told AFP that the large group of people “were there to deliver a message of friendship.”

Sweden’s intelligence service, Sapo, has joined the police force in the case that has been opened for aggravated criminal arson.

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“This is a serious crime, but for the moment, nothing is pointing us in one direction more than others,” said Sapo spokesman Sirpa Franzen.

No arrests have been made yet.

On Thursday, a firebomb was hurled through one of the mosque’s windows as 70 people were inside.

The attack was referred to as “hateful violence” by Sweden’s leftist Prime Minister Stefan Lofven.

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During elections in September, Sweden’s extreme right, anti-immigration Democrats party won 12.9 percent of the votes, becoming the third-largest party in the country’s parliament.

“There has been an intensification of hatred against foreigners,” said head of Sweden’s Islamic Association Omar Mustafa. (T/P010/P3)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)

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