Elderly Man Dragged Into Court, Prosecuted for Daring Criticize Islam
“Islam is a religion of peace” – President George W. Bush, 2001.
President Bush may consider Islam as a religion of peace, just don’t ever criticize Islam.
At least not in Sweden, anyhow.
According to JihadWatch, an elderly Swede has been brought up on chrages of committing one of those free speech-crushing “hate crimes” against Islam. And simply for what it’s worth, there are numerous cases of Muslims fraudulently accusing non-Muslims of committing so-called “hate crimes.”
According to JihadWatch, 71-year-old Denny Abrahamsson is facing a two-year sentence in prison for publicly opining that Islam is a “fascist ideology.”
Citing the Swedish news site Samhällsnytt, JihadWatch provides translation to English for the entire piece. One particular quote from Abrahamsson rings true on both sides of the Atlantic:
“I’m noticing that the liberals use censorship a lot more when they are unable to win debates,” Denny tells Samhällsnytt when they reached out to him via phone.”
More to the heart of the matter, the Swedish newspaper reported, “The 71-year-old read the Quran and wanted to share his perspective of Islam. Now he’s being interrogated by the Swedish police and has to answer general questions regarding his stance towards Muslims. In the end, he will potentially be sentenced to up to two years of prison time.”
While the right to openly question and/or criticize any religion, political party or government is protected for Americans by the United States Constitution, Swedes have no such legal protection.
It should also be noted that Denny Abrahamsson was as a young man, a member of the Swedish Communist Party, the KPML, “but has since not been active in any political parties.” Suffice it to say, he’s far from a raving right-winger.
As it turns out, Abrahamsson’s legal troubles began when he started commenting on the Facebook-group “Stand up for Peter Springare.” According to the U.K. Daily Mail, Springare is a Swedish police detective who sparked a national controversy by accusing his superiors and government officials of hiding the backgrounds of criminal suspects from Islamic countries.
When his name surfaced in connection with that incendiary issue, Abrahamsson was reported to the police for hate speech.
As quoted, Abrahamsson stated, “The reason as to why I began writing these comments is because I see a danger in Islam, and I see that people are so lost. I want to wake people up, but it is hard. A few years ago, I also thought of Islam as any other ordinary religion out there, but ever since I read the Quran, I was shocked by the hatred that exists within it, the misogyny, the hatred towards the infidels.”
Perhaps echoing the thoughts of many of his countrymen, he said, “The more Islam takes over, the more we compromise. Islam is a totalitarian ideology; with it comes dictatorship. So what I’m trying to say is, our democratic system is in danger.”
Sadly for the accused, “The person who reacted to Abrahamsson’s comments notified the police and attached many of his comments in his report.”
Further illustrating the inherent legal weakness in enforcing hate crime laws, “Abrahamsson says that the comments in question can’t be seen as hate speech, because they criticize a religion, not a group of people: ‘I don’t hate any people. What I hate is an ideology, Islam. You are free to criticize fascism and Nazism, but not Islam? Why does Islam have a protected status?’”
Grasping at some semblance of legitimacy, the district prosecutor, Tove Kullberg, however, has a different take on the situation. “She says that the comments were illegal, but she can’t specify what it is in the comments that has crossed the line according to the law: ‘I have made the judgment that the comments as they are, are hate speech, not any specific words. Then the district court will have to try him.’”
Recognizing the obvious, the 71-year-old flatly stated, “It would be disgusting and horrible to go to prison because you express your opinions.”
Sweden isn’t the only European nation to criminalize thought. An Irish patriotic Facebook site has found itself on the receiving end of the ire of an immigration advocacy group, accusing the Irish pride site of “racism” against Islam, as reported by the Irish site TheJournal.ie.
As the candidacy of Donald Trump demonstrated — and the first year of the Trump administration proved — any American official who wants to put the brakes on immigration from Islamic, terror prone countries can expect to be called a racist or worse by the Western media.
This is a battle that isn’t confined to Sweden at all.
But as Trump keeps showing, it can be won.
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