OSLO – The leader of an extremist Norwegian anti-Islamic group was in a spectacular car chase and collision yesterday, minutes after burning a Quran on the outskirts of Oslo.
Norwegian police said they arrested two people, including the driver of a car accused of deliberately ramming the SUV of Lars Thorsen, leader of the radical group “Stop the Islamisation of Norway” (Sian).
The five passengers in the SUV were slightly injured, with one requiring hospital treatment, police said.
A video posted on Facebook showed Thorsen and other activists first driving to Mortensrud, a suburb of Oslo with a large Muslim community.
The handful of activists then placed a burning Quran in the middle of a small intersection, initially managing to push back local people who tried to put out the flames.
An angry crowd gathered, including one woman who grabbed the charred book before climbing into a grey Mercedes.
The SUV of the anti-Islam activists, painted in camouflage livery, then left the scene. But seconds later, it was overtaken by the Mercedes, which first hit it lightly and eventually hit it at speed, overturning the vehicle.
The whole episode was filmed by someone in a following car.
The incident came a week after a gunman killed two people and wounded 21 others in central Oslo.
Norway’s domestic intelligence service has described the attack as “an act of Islamist terrorism”.
Scandinavian far-right anti-Islam activists have made a speciality of burning Qurans in neighbourhoods with large Muslim populations in recent years. – AFP, July 3, 2022
