STOCKHOLM: Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Thursday he is “very concerned” about the Quran burnings in the Scandinavian country, reported German news agency (dpa).
A whole series of protests have been announced for the coming week, which could lead to the burning of the Quran, the Moderate Party politician told a press conference in Stockholm.
Kristersson said it is now up to the police to decide whether the protests are allowed to go ahead.
“If they are approved, we have a number of days with the obvious risk that serious things could happen,“ Kristersson said, without outlining what he meant specifically.
The government will task 15 agencies with strengthening protection against terrorism, he announced.
Islamophobic actions by small groups in Sweden and Denmark, in which copies of the Quran were burned, have recently sparked angry protests and threats in several Muslim countries.
Reactions in Iraq, whose government expelled the Swedish ambassador, were particularly violent.
On Wednesday, the country’s Säpo domestic intelligence service warned that the recent Quran burnings have created an increased security risk in Sweden.
At a press conference on Thursday, Säpo boss Charlotte von Essen emphasised that the terror warning level had not yet been raised, but the country had gone from being a “legitimate” to a “priority” target in the eyes of extremists.
In addition to extremists on both sides, Sweden blames state and semi-state actors for the tense situation.
Among other things, Moscow was behind an anti-Swedish disinformation campaign, Swedish Minister of Civil Defence, Carl-Oskar Bohlin, claimed on Wednesday.-Bernama
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