Swedish electoral authorities have refused to register the Muslim-led “Jasin” party from taking part in next year’s Swedish election after radical Islamists had tried to take it over.
The Muslim party announced last week it would field candidates in next year’s Swedish national election and sought to register as an official Swedish political party.
The agency refused after not receiving the proper paperwork – but that might be the least of the party’s problems as it tries to cope with its more radical members, Swedish newspaper Varlden Idag reports.
Spokesman Mehdi Hosseini said: “We have had some problems in our party. Radicals tried to take over.” When asked if there were Muslims within his party who would like to see Sweden subject to Shariah law, he replied that there were.
“Our goal is to make the situation of people in Sweden better, not to introduce Shariah law,” he said.
After the rejection, Hosseini claimed the party would change to be more inclusive of Swedes from any background, rather than just Muslims and immigrants. “In the past, we wrote that we would be a party for ‘everyone from the eastern world’, now we want to be a party for everyone in Sweden,” he said noting that the name would not change.
“The founders of the party are Muslims, I can not deny that, but we shall be a secular party. If the Swedes want a different name on the party then we can vote on it,” he added.
Dutch Migrant Party projected to gain three seats for first time — LIVEWIRE; https://t.co/ndtAPROmTF pic.twitter.com/9R9b8Z9mpX
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) March 15, 2017
The party is the latest attempt by Muslims to form their own political parties in Europe. In the Netherlands, the Turkish-Muslim party “Denk” won three seats in the national elections earlier this year gaining 2.1 per cent of the vote.
In Austria, Turkish-led migrant party, the New Movement for the Future (NBZ), claims to be fielding candidates in next month’s parliamentary elections.
So far, the polls in Austria have shown a steep rise in support for the anti-Islamisation Freedom Party (FPÖ) and its leader Heinz-Christian Strache who vowed to ban Islamism earlier this year.
Austria, IMAS poll
ÖVP-EPP: 33% ↑
FPÖ-ENF: 24% ↓
SPÖ-S&D: 23% ↓
GREEN-G/EFA: 8% ↓
NEOS-ALDE: 4% ↓
PILZ-*: 4% ↑#nrw17 #btw17— Europe Elects (@EuropeElects) September 17, 2017
The frontrunner in the election, Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) leader Sebastian Kurz, has also taken several Islam-critical stances including pushing for the banning of the full face Islamic veil which was banned earlier this year.
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