Sweden “Finally” Scraps the Concept of ‘Islamophobia’

Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said on Friday that her government will no longer use the term ‘Islamophobia,’ describing the concept as “problematic”—not least because it “brings to mind the irrational fears of individuals.”

The announcement was music to the ears of the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats, whose MEP Charlie Weimers on Monday said “Islamists exploit ‘Islamophobia’ to advance their agenda and secure EU funding.”

Weimers celebrated that the government was “FINALLY scrapping the made-up concept” for good, as well as the fact it is pushing Brussels and United Nations officials to do the same.

Malmer Stenergard last week told parliamentarians that “we are pushing for the term ‘Islamophobia’ to be replaced with what is called ‘anti-Muslim racism’ or ‘anti-Muslim hatred’ in English”—that is, across international institutions. Officials will gather in Brussels in part to discuss this in the third week of May.

Sweden has similarly been leading the way in Europe in combatting the threat of Islamist infiltration posed by the Muslim Brotherhood—thanks especially to pressure exerted by Weimers and his team.

Faw Azzat, who is an ambassador for GAPF, Sweden’s organisation against honour-related violence and oppression, also praised Malmer Stenergard’s scrapping of the term ‘Islamophobia,’ describing this as “a word that Islamists themselves created to equate criticism of a religion with racism against people. A semantic trick disguised as ‘antiracism.’”

Her speech on the scrapping of the term followed a parliamentary question submitted by Sweden Democrats MP Richard Jomshof. He criticised politicians and journalists for having “chosen to swallow the Islamist bait, “adding that “the term is also used to attack liberal Muslims who, for example, fight for women’s rights and seek democratic reforms.”