More than 1,000 protesters have taken to the streets in Sweden to demand an end to a spate of mosque fires.
The demonstrations in Stockholm, Malmo and Gothenburg, the country’s three largest cities, came a day after what was believed to be the third arson attack on a mosque in a week.
"We want to send the message that these attacks are a problem for all of society and not just Muslims," The Guardian quoted spokesman for Sweden’s Islamic Association said during the largest demonstration, in the Swedish capital of Stockholm.
"This is about people being denied their basic rights Everyone needs to ask themselves, politicians and citizens if this is the kind of society they want." Witnesses reported seeing a man throw a petrol bomb at a mosque in Uppsala in the east of the country early on New Year’s Day, three days after a late-night blaze at a mosque in Esloev in the south.
Sweden's Prime Minister, Stefan Lofven, denounced the "hateful violence."