Mosques in Sweden giving illegal advice to women and coercing them

Thursday, 17 May 2012
Six out of ten mosques in Sweden are reported to have been found giving illegal advice to those seeking help, according to an investigative journalistic move carried out by Swedish television. But Swedish Islamic representatives strongly reject the advice found to have been given and call for assistance to train those giving the advices so as overcome the problems.

Two women claimed that one woman's husband abused her, had married another woman and that she no longer wanted to have sex with her husband. How would his wife react to this?
With a hidden camera and phone recording documented Swedish television the reaction of mosque's response.

Six out of ten responded that the woman had no right to deny her husband sex. Also many tried to dissuade the police. Nine out of ten said that polygamy is okay under certain circumstances.

When the journalist, Janne Josefsson openly interviewed the mosques imams of the mosques, their answers were quite different. Until now the tinted image of an Islamic model of community governance had been hidden and hardly been in any official agenda.

Imam Mahmoud Khalfi, President of the Swedish Imam Council, is saying what is known before: “Our official story is that we believe in and the message we convey. Then there are individuals who can make mistakes.”
He strongly condemns the statements shown in the program.
“You can not defend violence against women in any way, either from the Swedish law or based on Islamic values. Force, violence, oppression and fear does not sits very well with what marriage is all about,” said Omar Mustafa to the Swedish television.

They (the men of the element) confirm the caricature of Muslims. It is deeply regrettable that they live up to all the prejudices that have been shown by Islamophobia, according to Mohammad Fazlhashemi, professor and author.

He, like many others who talked to Swedish news agency, TT, is of the opinion that Swedish imam need training to overcome the problems. Today imams who have been trained are often educated in their home countries. Second, imams and counsellors, lack both the religious and legal education, according to Imam Mahmoud Khalfi, who wants society to pushes in resources for the teaching of civics and law.

The Minister responsible, Stefan Attefall (Christian Democrats), also believes he is being educated. The board for state aid to religious groups have already been assigned to deepen discussions on democracy promotion efforts in the sector.

Attefall think it's a dilemma that many imams are trained in countries where women's views are not acceptable. It means that there should be a link between this way of religious interpretation and the poor treatment of women. This is absolutely not accepted in Sweden.

The minister does not believe that there should be any public education. He feels that the Muslim communities have to create programs which the state can support, “as we do with other communities”.
By Scancomark.se Team

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