Sweden raises terrorist alert level after Koran burnings

autotldr Bot , 11 months ago

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STOCKHOLM, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Sweden’s national security service raised its terrorist alert to the second highest level on Thursday and warned that the threat of attack could persist for a long time after burnings and other acts against the Koran outraged Muslims.

Denmark and Sweden have tightened border controls in fear of revenge attacks after anti-Islam activists damaged several copies of the Muslim holy book in recent months.

She said the attack threat posed by “violent Islamist actors” has increased in the past year but that the hiking of the alert level was not down to any knowledge of a specific plan.

Britain and the United States have warned nationals against going to Sweden due to possible terrorist attacks amid protests there and in neighbouring Denmark over the Koran burnings.

But many Muslims view desecrating the Koran, which they consider to be the literal word of God, as a grave offence worthy of severe punishment.

Sweden’s biggest terrorist attack in recent history occurred in 2017, when an Uzbek immigrant who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State mowed down pedestrians on a busy Stockholm street with a truck, killing five people.

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