“Ban Islam in Sweden and deport those who persist in believing in the religion”, said Pär Norling, group leader of the Sweden Democrats (SD) in Bollnäs, in an interview with national broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT).
The neo-nazi Swedish Resistance Movement (Svenska Motståndsrörelsen) marched in the central Swedish town of Bollnäs earlier this summer, after a controversial rape case had rocked the community. On Saturday they marched again and anti-racist protests were held nearby.
Swedish Democratic Norling said he disapproves of Nazism, but by and large considers it a by-product of immigration. He also agrees with the neo-nazi movement that Islam has no place in Sweden. “That can exist elsewhere but in Sweden it doesn’t fit in,” he said to Sweden’s national television SVT. When asked what ought to be done with those who still want to believe in the religion, despite it being banned, Norling responded: “Then the solution is deportation.”
This is the second time in just days that Swedish Democratic politicians have landed themselves in hot water.
On Friday, the Swedish Democrat Sven-Erik Karlsson commented on the harassment Somalian families have been suffering from teens in the town Forserum, in southern Sweden, saying that all Swedish municipalities ought to have gangs to harass refugees. After the furore that followed, Karlsson resigned his position on Saturday.
See also Inte rasist, men…, 25 August 2012