Sweden sees foreign countries playing role in recent riots

By JAN M. OLSEN
Associated Press

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Sweden’s justice minister says the government suspects that actors from abroad incited violent riots in several Swedish cities. The riots started Thursday after a Danish far-right provocateur who has burned copies of the Quran announced plans for meetings in Sweden. In a newspaper interview published Wednesday, Justice Minister Morgan Johansson referred to online claims that surfaced earlier this year about Swedish social service agencies allegedly kidnapping Muslim children. Johansson told the Aftonbladet paper there were “many signs” that misinformation about Sweden “is set by some of these actors in the Middle East.”  A Swedish agency said the kidnapping allegations could be traced to an Arabic-language site whose creator expressed support for the Islamic State group.