Scores of red paper hearts hang on the entrance to the mosque in Uppsala. Hundreds of demonstrators are standing outside, and all of them shouting "Rör inte min Moské!" - or don't touch my mosque! Thirty different civil rights groups called for protests in Sweden, for the protection of the country's mosques, and against the suspected arsonists, who are generally assumed to have come from Sweden's violent neo-Nazi milieu.

Three arson attacks in just eight days, xenophobic graffiti on the door: It's no coincidence, believes Sweden's Minister for Public Administration, Ardalan Shekarabi. "This is now a matter for the police," he says. "But we are seeing a very clear upsurge in Islamophobic propaganda. We have to be just as clear about taking a stand." Everyone in Sweden should feel safe, he said.

Mobilization of the neo-Nazi scene

But Muslims certainly don't feel safe everywhere in Sweden anymore. On New Year's Day an as-yet-unidentified perpetrator threw a Molotov cocktail at the mosque in Uppsala. Four days earlier someone set fire to a prayer room in Eslöv. And on Christmas Day a mosque in Eskilstuna was firebombed, endangering the lives of 70 people, five of whom were taken to hospital with smoke intoxication. Investigations are ongoing.

Daniel Poohl, the publisher of the annual EXPO report on right-wing extremist violence in Sweden, recorded more than a dozen such attacks in the past year alone. Poohl says this year's report shows that the neo-Nazi groups are now more active than ever before. "We can only draw one conclusion from this," he says. "It's the biggest mobilization of the Swedish neo-Nazi scene since World War Two."

Fewer, more active organizations

This sounds very alarming, but Poohl knows what he's talking about. Once a year the journalist collates all the statistics and activities relating to Sweden's right-wing extremist milieu. He argues that with the far-right Sweden Democrats political party enjoying the respectability of seats in parliament, arsonists in the country have grown considerably bolder. But Sweden's neo-Nazis are always hard to gauge. "We have fewer organizations today, but they are much more active," he says, before adding that the biggest risk for society is an increase in violence.

Mohammed Charraki, spokesman of the Islamic Association in Sweden, confirms that fear is starting to spread. But he thinks that it's not that everything has gotten worse; it's just that the problem is more visible than it used to be. Long-term sociological studies in Sweden do indeed show that xenophobia has not increased in the country as a whole. The far-right violence is coming from a few small groups, but these are very extreme.

Ardalan Shekarabi points to all the hearts and messages of solidarity on the mosque door in Uppsala. That, he says, is the right answer. Freedom of religion is such an important part of our society, he says, and the people know that. "That's why there's this tremendous solidarity and support," he says.

"Don't touch my mosque!" is the demonstrators' demand. The Swedish police plan to step up protection of mosques all over the country - but as yet there's still no trace of the arsonists.