Sweden’s prime minister condemns far-right call to demolish mosques

Controversial comments made by Swedish far-right politician Jimmie Åkesson over the weekend have inflamed debate both at home and abroad.

The leader of the Sweden Democrats (SD) said on Saturday during a speech at the party’s annual congress that he wanted to destroy mosques with “anti-Swedish” messages.

“We must also start confiscating and demolishing mosques where anti-democratic, anti-Swedish, homophobic, anti-Semitic propaganda or general disinformation is spread,” he said.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, a conservative whose coalition government is supported by the SD but has no SD members, condemned the comments on Monday.

“I think this is a disrespectful way of expressing oneself, a polarising way of expressing oneself,” he told public broadcaster SVT.

“It gives a bad image of what Sweden stands for internationally,” he added.

Reactions in Sweden and abroad to Åkesson’s comments prompted the prime minister to reaffirm “the constitutional right to freedom of religion” in Sweden in a message on X (formerly Twitter).

“In Sweden we do not destroy places of worship. As a society, we must fight violent extremism, whatever its motives, but we must do so within the framework of a democratic and liberal state”.

He also called on Åkesson to reconsider and take into account the current “dangerous moment”.

Former Social Democrat prime minister, Magdalena Andersson, called on Kristersson to officially denounce the SD leader’s comments and to dismiss all SD members working in ministerial cabinets.

“This damages Sweden’s image, does not help our NATO bid and increases polarisation in our country. It does not put Sweden and the security of the Swedish people first,” she said on X.

Sweden has yet to complete its NATO accession process, pending the approval of Turkey and Hungary.

Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has called on the Nordic country to take measures to control Islamophobic acts, in particular demonstrations to burn copies of the Quran.

Åkesson’s comments this weekend have attracted the attention of the international press, particularly the Turkish media, which has been highly critical of the politician.

In response to the criticism, the far-right politician has written a column in the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet in which he claims to be “deeply tired” of references to the NATO process and urges Sweden to stop playing Erdogan’s game.

However, he has toned down his rhetoric, saying that it may not be necessary to demolish existing buildings, but that it would be enough to close mosques where extremism thrives and expel imams who preach hatred, as has been done in France.

Burning of Qurans

Sweden has seen its relations with several Middle Eastern countries strained over the summer.

The burning of Qurans sparked anti-Swedish protests in several of these countries.

At a rally authorised by the Swedish authorities in June, an Iraqi man who had fled his country for Sweden trampled on a copy of Islam’s holy book outside the capital’s largest mosque before ripping out several pages and burning them.

While the authorities gave Salwan Momika permission to protest, police later said they were investigating his actions as a possible case of ‘incitement against an ethnic group’.

Demonstrators stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad twice in July.

In 2022, Sweden was the target of a disinformation campaign claiming that Swedish social services were “kidnapping Muslim children” and placing them in Christian homes, which the authorities were forced to deny.