It has stormed around the chairman of the justice committee Richard Jomshof (SD) after his controversial statement about Islam and the prophet Muhammad on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. In one of the posts, Jomshof calls the prophet Muhammad, among other things, “mass murderer” and “slave trader”.
After the statement, a united opposition has called for his resignation. The Social Democrats, the Left Party, the Center Party and the Green Party consider it unsustainable that Jomshof remains chairman of the justice committee.
– His actions endanger Sweden’s security, said Ardalan Shekarabi (S).
Responding to criticism
Now the SD leader chooses to comment on his statements for the first time in traditional media. He believes that the security threat to Sweden has existed for “very many years” and the criticism that his post has provoked is “unwarranted”.
– That an individual Member of Parliament tweets something of course means nothing, says Jomshof to TV4 Nyheterna, and continues:
– The only thing I have done is to defend our freedom of expression and I intend to continue to do so.
Dismisses the Prime Minister’s criticism
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has criticized Jomshof’s statements and urged him to think about how he expresses himself in the tense security situation in Sweden.
– I think that all people in Sweden, including Jomshof, should think about how to express themselves. Everything that is legal to say is not appropriate to say, not least in a situation where there are serious security threats directed at Sweden, said the prime minister during a press conference about the security situation.
But Richard Jomshof disagrees with the criticism.
– If we had had the discussion in a sane way, it would have stayed on Twitter of course. We must be able to have opinions, strong ones too. It is one of the foundations of democracy, he says.
Jomshof also does not consider his statements about Islam to affect cooperation with the government.
– We are not part of the government. We are a collaborative party. I think the collaboration worked very well, but then there are individual issues where we disagree. That’s how it always is. We can’t agree on everything.
The security mode
Despite the Prime Minister’s calls in the deteriorating security situation and the increased terrorist threat level against Sweden, Richards Jomshof has no plans to stop his critical statements about Islam.
– There is nothing in what I say that is wrong. There is no one who can point out factual errors in what I say. I find that interesting, because what I say is true.
– The alternative is that we allow ourselves to be silenced, he adds.