What is the SDP to do when a product of their pet project likes an anti-Semite who approves of the Holocaust?
The Sweden Democrats eject them.
Swedish party under fire for ‘anti-Semitic links’
Member of party’s governing body criticized for meeting with Egyptian extremists.
BERLIN – The Social Democratic party of Sweden – the country’s largest political party – has been accused of failing to confront anti-Semitism within the party’s ranks.
Omar Mustafa, chairman of the Islamic Association in Sweden who was recently elected to the governing board of the Social Democratic party, was on Monday the subject of an expose in the Swedish anti-racist magazine Expo for questionable ties to documented anti-Semites.
On Facebook, Mustafa “liked” the page of Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian theologian who has called for suicide bombings against Israelis.
In a recorded speech in 2009 on YouTube, Qaradawi justified the Holocaust, saying, “Throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the [Jews] people who would punish them for their corruption. The last punishment was carried out by Hitler.”
Mustafa also elicited criticism when he invited the Egyptians Salah Sultan and Ragheb al-Serjany to a conference in Sweden.
“These people have been openly anti- Semitic. Both have spread anti-Semitic propaganda,” Willy Silberstein of the Swedish Committee Against Anti-Semitism told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday from Stockholm.
“Salah Sultan claimed on the television channel Al Jazeera that the Jews during Passover committed ritual murder of Christians by using blood in unleavened bread.”
Silberstein added that Serjany asserted that Jews control the international media.
In his discussions with Mustafa, said Silberstein, the Social Democrat said he would invite the Egyptians again as long as they do not say any anti-Semitic things when they are in Sweden.
Silberstein objected to this way of thinking, arguing Serjany and Sultan are given credibility solely by being invited.
Multiple Post emails to the Social Democratic party headquarters for a response to Mustafa’s appointment, including the party’s head, Stefan Löfven, were not returned.
But on Twitter, Social Democratic MP Veronica Palm welcomed Mustafa to the board of governors, writing, “Congrats, [you] joined me in Stockholm representatives in the [Social] Democratic party.”
Silberstein called on the Social Democratic leader to speak up against Mustafa’s connections to anti-Semites.
“When someone like [Mustafa] is elected to lead the biggest political party in Sweden, it allows anti-Semitism to make a step forward,” he said. “Anti-Semitism is a problem in Sweden.”
