PROTESTERS DENOUNCE MOSQUE ARSON ATTACK IN SWEDEN

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.

“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.

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)