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Swedish Muslims Upset by Cartoon Ruling
By Ahmad Maher, IOL Staff
CAIRO — Swedish Muslims were disappointed Saturday, September 22, at a ruling by Justice Chancellor Goeran Lambertz, who said the anti-Prophet Muhammad cartoon published in a local newspaper did not constitute incitement to racial hatred.
"Of course we reject the ruling, but we can't help but respect it," Stockholm-based Chaka Benmakhlouf, President of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe, told IslamOnline.net over the phone.
Benmakhlouf said the powerful Jewish lobby in Sweden had lost a similar case in the past after suing the Stockholm Mosque for alleged anti-Semitism.
"Jewish leaders translated some Islamic books which they said contained anti-Jews materials and forwarded them to Chancellor Lambertz, who overturned the lawsuit on free speech grounds," added Benmakhlouf, who holds Swedish citizenship.
Three Swedish Muslim organizations had asked Lambertz — the only official in Sweden entitled to indict in cases concerning freedom of the press — to press charges of incitement to racial hatred against the newspaper Nerikes Allehanda and its editor-in-chief Ulf Johansson.
The newspaper published in August a cartoon that depicted Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) as a dog, citing freedom of speech.
Lambertz noted Thursday, September 20, that for the charge to stick, it needed to be proven that "contempt" was expressed.
"Neither the leader nor the sketch, which has a satirical tone, expresses contempt against any ethnic group," the judge said in a statement.
"The justice chancellor will therefore not pursue the matter."
Know-Islam Conf.
The Swedish Muslim leader revealed plans to hold a conference to acquaint Swedes with Islam.
"We are organizing a know-Islam conference in coordination with the Swedish government, which won plaudits for its positive handling of the cartoon crisis," Benmakhlouf said.
"The conference will bring together a galaxy of intellectuals, politicians and clerics to draft a common charter that calls for respecting all religions," he noted.
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt was quick to nip the crisis in the bud. He did not hesitate to condemn the offensive cartoon and met Swedish Muslim leaders, who hailed the talks as constructive.
Benmakhlouf said many Swedes, though they are not religious, have disapproved of the cartoon and expressed solidarity with Muslims.
"They saw the cartoon offensive, immoral and repugnant," he said.
Benmakhlouf said Swedish Muslims, estimated at 500,000 of the country's nine million population, are resolved not to blow the crisis out of proportion.
"They refused to be provoked into violent action like burning consulates or flags as happened in the aftermath of the Danish cartoon crisis," he said.
The cartoon provoked peaceful protests by Muslims in the town of Oerebro, west of Stockholm, where the paper is based.
Swedish Muslims also refused to internationalize the crisis, arguing that it was an internal affair.
In September 2005, Denmark's mass-circulation daily Jyllands-Posten printed 12 cartoons including portrayals of a man the newspaper called Prophet Muhammad, wearing a bomb-shaped turban and another showing him as a knife-wielding nomad flanked by shrouded women.
The insulting cartoons triggered a firestorm of protests across the Muslim world and strained Muslim-West ties.
The Danish government's adamancy to condemn the cartoons sparked a Muslim boycott of Danish products worldwide, costing the country's leading companies like Arla billions of dollars in a couple of months