Sheikh d. Yusuf al-Qaradawi, may God have mercy on him, was fully aware of the situation of Muslims in Sweden. He never called for trade sanctions, on the contrary, he appreciated the humanitarian efforts made by the Swedish state to provide relief to thousands of Muslim refugees and immigrants, from Palestine in the sixties until now, Bosnia in the nineties, and Iraq in the eighties. Then, from Syria, in 2014 and 2015, Sweden received more than 170,000 immigrants and granted them asylum, free housing, education, and material aid, all with government funding, from the tax money paid by the Swedish citizen.
As for the ugly phenomenon called “Islamophobia”, it is spread in several countries across the world, east and west. For example, the Chinese government detained a million Uyghur Muslims in camps it called "rehabilitation", where they executed an unknown number of them.
In Myanmar, Rohingya Muslims suffer as a result of racial discrimination and persecution, and the number of victims of the war in Syria may exceed half a million, including thousands of innocent people who were martyred under Russian bombs. As for Sweden, it received Muslim refugees from all these oppressed communities, without distinction or preference.
When I sat with His Eminence Sheikh Al-Qaradawi in Doha in 2013 AD, he gifted me an important book entitled “Features of Muslim Society.” In it, His Eminence Sheikh analyzes the different social systems and notes that capitalism sanctifies the freedom of the individual, while communism sanctifies the state (p. 238).
We can describe the Swedish society's ideological basis as similar to the Mu'tazila - that is, we occupy a political position between two positions - we do not accept the extremism of the right or the left - but the democratic system allows political parties of this kind.
When a misguided, corrupt person takes advantage of the freedom guaranteed to him by the Swedish constitution (and he is not a citizen), this is abuse and an act hated by public opinion. Of course, the Swedish government strongly condemned the burning of a copy of the Qur'an, considering it a violation of the sanctity of the Holy Qur'an and an attack on Muslim citizens. Yes, in addition to that, the Ministry of Justice is now looking into the possibility of amending the rules for public gatherings and tightening the application of laws that prohibit hate speech and hostility.
Contrary to what the wrong image reflects, the Swedish people respect the sanctity of life and the dignity of every creature.
I would like to conclude by citing this inspiring verse from the Holy Quran: “Had Allah willed, He would have made you one nation [united in religion], but [He intended] to test you in what He has given you; so race to [all that is] good. To Allah is your return all together, and He will [then] inform you concerning that over which you used to differ.” (Al-Ma’idah: 48).
