Swedish synagogue attacked with firebombs

Police arrive after a synagogue was attacked in a failed arson attempt in Gothenburg, Sweden, late December 9, 2017
(Image credit: Adam Ihse/Getty Images)

A synagogue in the city of Gothenburg, Sweden, was attacked with firebombs late Saturday evening while a youth event was happening inside. No one was injured, and the building was not damaged. Swedish authorities have arrested three people in connection to the attack, and eyewitnesses report the flaming objects were thrown by a group of about a dozen young men.

The attack has been linked in news reports to Friday protests in Malmo, Sweden, in which critics of President Trump's decision to acknowledge Jerusalem as Israel's capital shouted anti-Semitic slogans. "I'm terribly upset over the attack on a synagogue in Goteborg yesterday and calls for violence against Jews at a demonstration in Malmo," Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said Sunday. "There is no place for anti-Semitism in our Swedish society. The perpetrators will be held accountable."

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.