Sweden Democrat MP Richard Jomshof is stepping down from his chairmanship in the parliamentary justice committee after being notified that he is “reasonably suspected” of “incitement against an ethnic group.” Jomshof’s alleged crime? Retweeting two cartoons, created by an Indian satirist and originally posted by a Pakistani atheist living in England. Jomshof has been called to an interrogation by the Special Prosecutors Office on Tuesday, September 17th.
It was in May of this year that Jomshof retweeted two cartoons posted by Imtiaz Mahmood, whose bio on X describes him as “Outspoken atheist, anti-theist, freethinker, an unapologetic and staunch heretic. I refuse NOT to mock all religions.” The cartoons, by Indian satirist Manoj Kureel, show Muslim immigrants being welcomed by Western Europeans and then violently taking over—in one case setting fire to house with the label “Europe”; in the other, pushing a European man out of a boat while keeping the women in it.
Jomshof, a staunch defender of freedom of speech, revealed the looming charges in a podcast from the publication Kvartal and explained his withdrawal from the justice committee:
I want [focus to be on] the issue at hand. The issue is Islamism and whether or not one should be allowed to criticize it. It’s about freedom of speech. … The right to criticize, even in strong terms, must exist, and that is the issue at hand here.
In a long post on X, Jomshof defended his right to republish the cartoons, saying:
Politicians must be able to openly debate important issues like these, even in strong terms and even when a topic is considered sensitive. This is the cornerstone of a healthy and well-functioning democracy. The right to use political satire is also an important part of freedom of speech.
Fellow Sweden Democrat MP Mattias Karlsson commented on the charges:
Anyone who thinks this is right should logically also believe that the cartoonists at Jyllands-Posten, the cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo, Lars Vilks, and others, as well as the newspapers that republished their works, should also have been prosecuted and imprisoned for thought crimes against Islamism.
It is a very dangerous path for freedom of speech and democracy that the judiciary has now embarked on with this action against Jomshof.
Freedom of speech expert Nils Funcke told state broadcaster SVT that it’s not a foregone conclusion that Jomshof will be convicted. While he said one of the cartoons could “objectively be described and considered as disrespect towards a people group,” he said freedom of speech has a strong position in Sweden, and that “the preference is to acquit rather than convict. … It may just as easily lead to no charges being filed and the case being dismissed.”
