A man in Sweden who was praised for cleaning up after last year’s Easter Qur’an riots by Swedish media has been arrested after being accused of participating in the riots himself.
Hani Bilal Madi, a 20-year-old from the city of Örebro, has been arrested by Swedish police after allegedly participating in last year’s riots over Easter in the city that took place in connection to the burning of the Islamic Qur’an by the Danish anti-Islam activist Rasmus Paludan and his group Stram Kurs (Hard Line).
Madi was arrested on suspicion of throwing rocks and stones at police during the rioting, the Swedish newspaper Nerikes Allehanda reports.
The arrest comes despite the fact that shortly after the rioting, Madi was praised by the newspaper Aftonbladet in April of last year for helping to clean up a local park where the rioting had taken place and was later even given awards for his actions.
Report: Swedish Police Lacked Competence During Easter Qur’an Riots https://t.co/AvfAuMGoL9
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) December 16, 2022
“There was so much spinning in my head when I got to the park after the riot. Violent action is never the way to go, but we have to take care of each other,” Madi said at the time.
“We wanted to show some love. Both to the residents of the area affected and to the police officers. In addition to cleaning, we also handed out flowers to homeowners who had their plots vandalized,” he added.
Hani also made it clear that the thought burning the Qur’an should be illegal saying, “All religious writings should be protected by the law. Islam is my identity and that of many others and it takes a toll on you that it does not fall under ‘incitement to racial hatred’. The police authorities should have made a better decision in advance.”
Madi has denied the charges against him.
Since the Easter riots, several people have been convicted for both attacking police and sabotaging police activities, with many of them immigrants to Sweden.
A report released last month suggested that police lacked the proper skills and manpower to handle the violence, which saw some officers later express fears that they thought they were going to die during the violence.
Two of the four people convicted by a Swedish court for rioting on Easter after copies of the Islamic Qur’an were burned by anti-Islam activists will be deported. https://t.co/PT4CsgQl20
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) June 29, 2022
Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.
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