[car_analogy]

You are correct. They did not technically lie. Just clever wordplay to tilt the blame on one party.

[eesmith]

If you've only read the first line or so then you've missed where part of the blame is placed on the Swedish government, making at least two parties.

[car_analogy]

I do appreciate the humor of blaming everyone but the people actually setting cars on fire.

[eesmith]

It's still not the same as implying the rioters are 'just victims of his "hate crime".'

1) nothing argues that the people rioting are victims

We can look at the US where it's illegal to force a child in public school to stand and pledge allegiance to the flag. (Another free speech issue.)

Yet, some teachers still to this day punish, harass, bully, and even assault students who don't do so. (Eg, https://denver.cbslocal.com/2018/02/02/teacher-assaulting-st... )

Yet I've not heard people - even supporters of anti-flag-burning laws - argue that teachers should be seen as "just victims" of the act.

2) even if they are, we can see the quotes by Posner-Körösi "who heads the Jewish community in Sweden" as believing it's a hate crime, but that Jews would deal with it a different way:

> “I think it was wrong to allow this Danish-Swedish Nazi to demonstrate. Burning holy books like the Koran – or the Torah for that matter – is a hate crime.” ...

> Posner-Körösi, Sweden’s Jewish community leader, says that “if people were burning the Torah in the streets, the Jewish community would be very upset. But we wouldn’t deal with it in the same way as we’re seeing across Sweden now.”