Rasmus Paludan – The Extremist Who Burned the Quran to Fuel Unrest in Sweden After His Political Failure in Denmark
Since April 14, riots have been sweeping the Swedish cities of Linköping, Norrköping, Örebro, Landskrona, Malmö and the Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby after the 40-year-old Danish extremist, Rasmus Paludan, burned copies of the Quran.
Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, condemning what happened, stressed that the riots "are exactly the kind of violent reactions that Rasmus Paludan wants, and the main goal is to turn people against each other."
For 3 consecutive days, violent clashes continued between the Swedish police and demonstrators protesting against the continued burning of copies of the Holy Quran by the leader of the Danish extremist far-right party Stram Kurs, Rasmus Paludan.
14 April, Paludan's supporters demonstrated in a suburb of Stockholm, and since Friday they moved to other areas on the south of the country, where citizens of Muslim origin reside.
After Paludan burned a copy of the Quran the first time, he started burning the second copy, before the police lost control of the protesters, which led to violent clashes in the street, after 200 extremist right-wing supporters came out in the Aribero area.
Fueling Violence
Paludan was behind the burning of a copy of the Quran in the second largest Danish city Malmö at the end of August 2020, which led to violent unrest in the city. Paludan later said that the riots went as he had planned.
He had called for Denmark to be free of Muslims before the Danish elections in 2019, but he failed to join parliament. Many Swedish media professionals view his move from Denmark to Sweden as "a way to attract attention," stressing that "the media showed the true face of his hate speech."
The extremist made repeated provocative attempts against immigrants in Denmark, through which he aimed to mobilize the popularity of the right around him. However, he did not succeed in that. He failed to gain support for his policy in Denmark, where Danish voters viewed the party's desire to banish all Muslims from Denmark and ban Islam as too extreme.
Paludan was arrested several times in France, as well as in Germany, while trying to enter the German capital despite the German decision to prevent his entry.
Sweden also decided to ban his entry, but since one of his parents has Swedish citizenship, he was registered as a Swedish citizen in 2020.
Odd Person
Rasmus Paludan was born and raised in North Zealand, Denmark. He studied at the University of Copenhagen and obtained a law degree in 2008. He spent a semester as an intern with the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. While studying, he also worked for Kromann Reumert, one of the largest law firms in Denmark. In 2014, Paludan established his own law firm.
According to the Swedish local newspaper Aftonbladet, his life story undoubtedly contains many oddities. First odd known event in Paludan’s life was his report to the police and prosecution of another law student named Rasmus Paludan Malver because the latter signed an article in a local newspaper only with his first and middle name, i.e. Ramsus Paludan, using the email address paludan@konservativungdom.dk.
The Danish newspaper Politiken reported a second odd hobby he had. During his last year of university, he was used to sitting by the lakes in Osterbro in Copenhagen and taking pictures of strangers on bicycles, whether they were biking on the sidewalk or releasing their hands from the handlebars, and he was posting those pictures on His website kriminelle.dk. He pretended that this was his way to persuade people to follow the Danish traffic law.
"I'm against people who don't do it right," he said at the time. "It's not fair for people to think it's okay just because it's a simple violation of the law."
His political views and provocative “Show” of Quran burning was not only rejected and condemned by Muslims but also by his friends and family members.
His younger sister, Tyne Paludan, a writer and poet, decided to end all contact with him. She said in a Facebook post 3 years ago:
“I have given up contact with my big brother. We are too far away.”
His other brother, Martin Paludan, who works in communications and was formerly in charge of social media for the Danish Alternativet party, has distanced himself from his brother's far-right views.
Failed Politician
The Danish extremist who claims to have Swedish origins, Rasmus Paludan, ran in his country's parliamentary elections in 2019, and suffered a great defeat after the Danes abstained from voting for him.
Denmark's Muslims and the anti-far-right left practiced what they called "complete disregard" for the man and for his "provocation plays in the street" which made his news completely absent from the local media. After losing his luster in his country of origin, he chose to go to Sweden repeatedly to do the same actions in residential areas where newly arrived refugees and Muslims live, to invoke violent reactions, as Stockholm Prime Minister Anderson said.
His political career began in 2017 with the Ny Borgerlige party (The New Right), where he was nominated as the party's candidate in Copenhagen's municipal elections, according to Jyllands-Posten.
At the same time, he was active in the Association for Freedom against Islamization. Rasmus Paludan said in a speech during one of the association's demonstrations: “Our streets and alleys will turn into rivers of blood. And the blood of foreign enemies will end in the sewers, where the strangers belong.” Shortly after these statements, he became unwelcome in that party.
Against this, he formed his own party, the far-right Stram Kurs party. While Paludan used nicknames such as "freedom soldier", and the "guardian of society," critics describe him as a racist, provocative preacher with far-right hatred.
He is currently investing all his effort to join the Danish Parliament. The 334 videos on his YouTube Channel show pictures of Quran burnings, mostly verbal and physical confrontations with opposition protesters.
Sentenced Twice
In 2015, he was sentenced to a ten-day fine of 400 DKK for threatening a police assistant.
In 2019, a Gloucester court sentenced Rasmus Paludan to 14 days in prison for incitement against ethnic groups, after posting a video on YouTube in which he claimed Africans had a low IQ.
But in Sweden, he was not convicted of any crimes.
Rasmus Paludan is now investing in bringing his party into the corridors of power, not only in Denmark, but also in Sweden.
His focus is on the parliamentary elections this fall. However, the prospect of his political success seems too restricted with 95 party members joining his far-right extreme party.
