The Swedish government’s Islamophobic actions have once again come to the forefront with the decision to deport an imam and cut funding to a Muslim congregation. Minister for Social Affairs Jakob Forssmed (KD) has justified these measures by citing unsubstantiated claims from the Security Service that Iran allegedly used the mosque for “intelligence and other security-threatening activities against Sweden and individuals in the Iranian diaspora.”

Forssmed escalated the rhetoric by calling the situation “extremely serious” in a post on X. On Thursday, January 30, Swedish authorities decided to deport the imam, who is now being held in a Migration Agency detention center, awaiting expulsion—an action that appears to be part of a broader pattern of targeting Muslim religious leaders.

The minister also confirmed that the Agency for Support to Faith Communities (SST), working in tandem with the Security Service, will ensure that no financial support reaches the congregation. Forssmed invoked Sweden’s so-called “democracy requirement” for faith communities, a regulation increasingly weaponized against Muslim institutions.

“State funds should not go to activities that contradict fundamental democratic values. Period,” Forssmed declared on X—despite the lack of any formal investigation against the imam, as acknowledged by the Security Service itself.

This move is the latest in Sweden’s growing trend of marginalizing Muslim communities under the guise of national security, further deepening concerns about institutional Islamophobia in the country.

Source: Sweden Herald

Newt Gingrich ignited a firestorm on Thursday when he said the U.S. should test Muslims to see if they believe in Sharia law. The remarks came in the wake of the terror attack in Nice, France.

President Barack Obama on Friday issued a thinly veiled rebuke of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s call for the U.S. to test every person with a Muslim background to see if they believe in Sharia law and deport those who do.

“In the wake of last night’s attacks, we’ve heard more suggestions that all Muslims in America be targeted, tested for their beliefs, some deported or jailed,” Obama said in remarks from the White House. “And the very suggestion is repugnant and an affront to everything that we stand for as Americans.”

Obama’s implicit critique of Gingrich was a part of broader point he made Friday in response to the Nice attack, which he called “sickening.” …”And those impulses, when we do not speak out against them and build institutions to protect people from those impulses, they can take over. They can be unleashed, so all of us have responsibilities, not just a few.”… “It sounds like he may need to consult his copy of the pocket Constitution as well,” Earnest said at a White House press briefing, adding that “proposals like that, rhetoric like that, is un-American by its very definition.”

Gingrich’s original comments came on Thursday night during an interview on Fox News, hours after a truck rampaged through a Bastille Day celebration in Nice.

“Let me be as blunt and direct as I can be: Western civilization is in a war. We should frankly test every person here who is of a Muslim background, and if they believe in Sharia, they should be deported,” Gingrich said in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “Sharia is incompatible with Western civilization. Modern Muslims who have given up Sharia, glad to have them as citizens. Perfectly happy to have them next door.”

Gingrich defended those comments Friday during an appearance on Facebook Live but acknowledged that “deportation is impossible” with American citizens.

Source: CNN