Swedes protest against extremism outside synagogue

More than 700 Swedes staged a protest against extremism outside the Stockholm synagogue Friday following the Copenhagen shootings earlier this month in which two people died.

The protest aimed to show that Muslims “strongly condemn all types of extremism and reject all types of hatred and hatred of Jews”, organizers wrote on Facebook.

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Loefven told the protesters their country would “never let hate take charge of our lives”, drawing cheers from the crowd.

A filmmaker and a Jewish man died in the Copenhagen shootings at a cultural center and outside the city’s main mosque on February 14-15.

Gunman Omar El-Hussein was later shot dead by police.

Protesters at Friday’s protest told AFP they were dismayed by what had happened.

“Outside the synagogue there are now police with machine guns. I’d never seen them carry machine guns in Stockholm before,” Cecilia, a 48-year-old Jewish woman who works at an IT company, said.

“It’s tragic to have to organize an event like this,” she added.

Around 300 people, meanwhile, attended a peace vigil in Copenhagen organised by Danish Muslims.