He wanted to tour Sweden’s Muslim-populated neighborhoods and “burn the Quran.” Rasmus Paludan was behind the ultra-violent clashes that rocked the country in April 2022. Rioters set fire to Malmö, Sweden’s third-largest city, and Norrköping (southwest of Stockholm). All were protesting against anti-immigration and anti-Islam rallies by the Stram Kurs (Hard Line) movement.
This group is led by the Danish-Swedish figure of the Swedish far right. And it turns out that, according to The Parisiana 42-year-old man was indicted Wednesday in Sweden for “insult” and “incitement to racial hatred,” according to a statement from the public prosecutor’s office. And if the name of Rasmus Paludan does not appear in the press releaselocal media are adamant: it is indeed the far-right activist. The latter is charged for two incidents dating from April and September 2022 that occurred in Malmö, at the time of the famous riots triggered by the Stram Kurs provocations.
“Denmark’s most endangered man”
Very little is known about Rasmus Paludan. His fame as the man with the baby face comes from YouTube, the platform on which he launched his channel The Voice of Freedom (now banned). Some of his videos have exceeded 25 million views. And it was on YouTube, in 2019, that the Danish-Swede made a name for himself by burning a Koran surrounded by bacon, soiled with “Christian piss” or pig’s blood. The forty-something then believes that the sacred work of Muslims “propagates principles incompatible with Danish values” and calls it a “whore’s book”. He says he wants “Islam to be banned as much as possible within the framework of the Constitution”.
In 2019, Stram Kurs won 1.8% of the vote in the Danish parliamentary elections. the group was subsequently excluded from the country’s political life for having manipulated the lists of signatures needed to submit candidacies. This is why Rasmus Paludan, described as both a “clown” and a “politician of the future”will turn to Sweden, which is facing serious immigration issues.
There, in 2021, the forty-something, who defines himself as “the most threatened man in Denmark” and who often wears a bulletproof vest, will publish a photo amalgamating immigration and crime which will earn him a month’s blockage by Facebook. In January 2023, he will again burn a Koran near the Turkish embassy in Stockholm. Ankara will react by demanding the rejection of Sweden’s application for membership in NATO, formalized seven months previously, denouncing an affront to the Muslim faith without the Swedish authorities intervening. “When Rasmus Paludan burned a copy of the Koran, it was mainly police officers and journalists who watched him,” observed the liberal daily newspaper at the time. Daily News.
The lawyer, naturalized Danish in 2020, is virtually unknown in France. However, he is listed as an S and banned from staying there, according to information from our colleagues at ReleaseOn November 11, 2020, Rasmus Paludan was arrested in Paris while he was planning to burn a copy of the Koran near the Arc de Triomphe on the occasion of the Armistice commemorations.