Supporters Cover Swastikas at Mosque With Flowers

After vandals deface doors, 'quiet majority' speaks up in Sweden
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 7, 2014 5:26 PM CST
Supporters Cover Swastikas at Mosque With Flowers
A photo of the flowers pasted over swastikas on the doors of a Swedish mosque.   (Twitter/Omar Mustafa)

A vandal or vandals defaced the doors of a mosque in Stockholm with swastikas, but the move seems to have backfired. Anonymous members of the community then covered the swastikas with bouquets of flowers and left a note to the Muslim congregation: "For every hate crime there is a flower," it read. "An attack on you is an attack on Sweden! We stand together!" The leader of the Swedish Islamic Association tells the Local that the gesture moved and inspired him. "We know that a majority of people in Sweden are against hate and racism," he says. "But the majority is also very quiet. What was surprising this time was that the majority actually acted, in solidarity, support, and love." (More uplifting news stories.)

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