‘Social Democracy, yes. No to Islamophobia!’ – demonstration last week in support of Omar Mustafa
Omar Mustafa has spoken out about his disappointment in the Social Democrat party, saying he felt let down by the leadership after being ousted from the party’s governing board just a week after his appointment.
“My involvement in different Muslim civil society organizations was seen as a burden and they asked me to give up my position,” Mustafa told newspaper Svenska Dagbladet (SvD).
Mustafa, who chairs Sweden’s Islamic Association (Islamiska förbundet), resigned from all his duties with the party after mounting criticism centring on the Islamic Association’s links to individuals with known anti-Semitic and homophobic views.
Asked if there was a particular incident that made him agree to quit the Social Democrats, Sweden’s left-of-centre opposition party, Mustafa replied that the leadership had sent a clear signal that the party lacked confidence in him.
“There was neither will nor ability to handle the media hunt against me even though they know very well that I have done nothing wrong and that the media hunt turned Islamophobic in character,” Mustafa wrote in the email interview with SvD.
He declined to clarify who “they” are but said it felt like “one, without reflecting properly, gave into Islamophobic forces within and outside the party”.
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