Press Release
The Government's Poor Acting Shows the True Islamophobic Face of the Swedish State

To this day, the Quran is still frequently burned in the streets of Sweden. The government announces that threats to Sweden have increased, and the security police have raised the terror threat level from 3 to 4. The government is trying to control the situation by inviting Muslim representatives, holding talks with other states and sending messages to the country's Muslims. The Prime Minister took part in SVT's Agenda program at the weekend to comment on the threat level following the Quran burnings and announced that anyone who does not accept "criticism of Islam" is in the wrong country. The Deputy Prime Minister also commented on the situation in her summer speech where she said that an interpretation of Islam that does not accept Quran burning has no place in Sweden and in which she also urged Muslims to "turn the other cheek".

The Swedish state, under various governments, has tried to break down Muslims in the hope of assimilating them and eradicating their Islamic identity. Everything from kidnapping children, shutting down Muslim schools, banning the wearing of veils and honor-based oppression to burnings of the Quran are various expressions of this.

The government insists that it is legal to burn the Quran but at the same time tries to send a message to the outside world that Sweden is not an Islamophobic country. This is the same government that cooperates with the Sweden Democrats, who constantly incite against Islam, the Prophet, the Quran and Muslims. The Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, called Richard Jomshof's disgusting attack on the Prophet Mohammad (saw), in which he calls the prophet a robber, warlord and mass murderer, "criticism of Islam" in Agenda on Sunday evening. In the same segment, he had a message for Muslims: "those who cannot accept it are living in the wrong country".

Deputy Prime Minister Ebba Busch also had a similar message to Muslims in her summer speech, urging Muslims to turn the other cheek and that the version of Islam that cannot accept Quran burnings has no place in Sweden.

Their message is clear; secular Islam is welcome in Sweden and Muslims who renounce their Islamic values are welcome while those who choose to hold on to Islam are "Islamists" who have no place in Sweden. It is clear that allowing Quran burnings is to normalize and force Muslims to accept mockery of their faith and force them to hold freedom of speech over Islam. The Swedish government is undeniably an Islamophobic government and pursues an Islamophobic policy.

What the government, led by the Prime Minister and his deputies, fails to understand is that our values are not for sale as theirs are. Muslims have never and will never abandon Islamic values as Western politicians do when they undermine their own democratic principles in the war against Islam. Western governments, the standard-bearers of freedom, including Sweden's, engage in a tyranny of opinion that seeks to criminalize certain views that stray outside the framework of secularism. It is not in the nature of Muslims to fall to their knees or turn the other cheek in the face of adversity. For over a century, Muslims have been subjected to all forms of oppression and even today, Muslims stand tall and hold dear every detail of Islam. Islam, unlike Christianity and Judaism, has refused to turn the other cheek in the face of the violent advance of secularism to depoliticize and secularize it. This is the real reason behind the war against Islam.

In this context, Carl B. Hamilton, former Member of the Parliament from the third governing party, said that the boundary is drawn if the attacks were against Jews.

The War on Islam wants to wipe out Islam but they know they are too weak to succeed. Therefore, they try instead to secularize Islam and erase its political elements such as Khilafah (Caliphate), Jihad and Sharia.

The government's hopeless attempt to broadcast an Islam-friendly image to the world is doomed to failure because Muslims can see right through their hypocrisy. Muslim representatives who accept the invitation from the government are only doing the government's bidding. The government does not invite Muslim representatives to hear their views or solve the problem, they only do so to exploit them in order to deceive the world that they do not have a problem with Muslims and only have a problem with extreme Muslims. These hopeless attempts no longer fool anyone, and the Muslims can see right through it. The secret behind the patience and tenacity of Muslims is our strong belief in the invincible values of Islam and above all our firm belief in Allah (swt) and that He gives victory to His faithful servants, that victory is certainly within reach now that the capitalist ideology has dug its own grave.

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir
in Sweden