Swedish far-right leader reported to police for ‘anti-Islam comment’

A Swedish member of parliament reported a far-right leader to the police on Friday for alleged incitement to hatred over a comment related to the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris.

In a Facebook comment to an article on the killings at the French satirical weekly’s office Wednesday, the party secretary of the Sweden Democrats Bjoern Soeder wrote “‘The religion of peace’ shows its face.”

“He has linked practising Muslims to a terrorist act, it’s extremely offensive,” Veronica Palm, from the ruling Social Democratic party told TV4 news.

“This statement is offensive to a group of people and I want to see if it comes under laws against inciting racial hatred,” said Palm.

Soeder is also a deputy speaker of the Swedish parliament where his anti-immigration party doubled its support to 13 percent in a September election -- making it Sweden’s third political party.

The Sweden Democrats, with roots in the country’s most radical extreme right, entered parliament in 2010 with the ambition of curbing the Nordic country’s generous policy on immigration and refugees.

Soeder came under fire from Sweden’s Jewish community in December when he told a Swedish daily that Jews could not be considered Swedish unless they abandoned their religious identity.

The Sweden Democrats have condemned the Paris massacre in a statement, calling it “an attack on all of Europe and on the values of democracy and freedom of speech.”