Two women were arrested by Norwegian police after being accused of driving an anti-Islam activist off the road following a Qur’an burning in Oslo over the weekend.
Two women are accused of a hit-and-run against the vehicle of Lars Thorsen, the leader of the hardline anti-Islam Stop Islamisation of Norway (SIAN) group, on Saturday following a demonstration that saw a copy of the Islamic Qur’an set on fire.
Anti-Islam protesters allege that Muslims can be violent and quick to anger, and that the reactions to their Qur’an protests simply prove this. Others claim the protests are deeply provocative and hateful. Whoever is right, the protests are often followed by acts of extreme violence.
In this case, the incident saw a vehicle ram Thorsen’s truck a number of times following the Qur’an burning that took place outside a mosque in Mortensrud in Oslo on Saturday afternoon. The suspect’s vehicle eventually rams Thorsen’s truck into a full turn at high speed, causing it to flip over, broadcaster NRK reports.
Five people were in the vehicle at the time of the alleged attack, with four rushed to a local emergency room. None, however, suffered serious injuries.
Several minutes of widely-reported footage of the incident shows a grey vehicle hit Thorsen multiple times before running him off the road into a ditch and police say that at least one of the women present in the vehicle was witness to the Qur’an burning earlier that day.
Ole Petter Drevland, the lawyer for one of the women arrested by police, commented on the incident saying, “My client is affected by what has happened. She was questioned by police yesterday. She has explained herself about the course of events as she believes it unfolded.”
Both women have denied any wrongdoing in the case and while the passenger, who also owns the vehicle, was released, the driver has been kept in police custody and charged with intentional hit and run and grievous bodily harm.
While the driver claims Thorsen hit her first with his vehicle, police official Aase Schartum-Hansen stated that investigators are not considering the case as self-defence.
John Christian Elden, a lawyer for the SIAN group, slammed the alleged attack saying, “My clients are fine. They have come from the attack safely and smoothly, but are amazed that such an attack on freedom of expression can take place in Norway.”
The incident is not the first time violence has erupted following a Qur’an burning protest by Thorsen and SIAN in recent years. In 2019, violence broke out in Kristiansand with counter-protestors fighting with members of SIAN as well as attacking police.
The following year, a Somali migrant admitted to setting two Norwegian churches on fire in Dombås and at Sel, claiming that the attacks were revenge for SIAN burning a copy of the Qur’an.