Swedish Muslims seek separate laws

Sveriges muslimska förbund, or the Swedish Muslim Association, (SMuF), the largest Muslim organisation in Sweden, with 70,000 members that represent the nearly 470,000 Muslim immigrants living in the country, sent a letter to the Swedish parliament demanding it to launch a separate legislation for Muslims.

Muslims, who form nearly 4% of the population of Sweden, live in the major city areas as Stockholm (South and North–West of the city), Gothenburg (North, East and South of the city) and Malmoe (City centre, South and East of the city). There are also a few active Muslim communities in the mid-size cities (population of 30.000 to 90.000) of Sweden.

There is no dominant ethnic group, but the largest communities are from Iran, Turkey and Bosnia. There are also significant numbers of Iraqis, Palestinians and Albanians.

In its letter to Parliament parties, SmuF demanded that divorces between Muslims be approved by a Muslim Imam, and that Imams be allowed to give Muslim students who go to public schools separate lessons in Islam and in their native languages.

It also requested that Muslim boys and girls have separate swimming and gym lessons.

But Swedish minister for Integration and Equality, Jens Orback, rejected the Muslim demands for separate laws.

“In Sweden we are all equal before the law. In Sweden we have fought for a long time to achieve gender-neutral laws, and to propose that certain groups should not be treated like others is completely unacceptable,” Orback said.

“I think it is very problematic and unfortunate that people who have been in Sweden for so long are making proposals like these, that are so opposed to our intentions, when we are fighting for women’s rights and the right to divorce.”

But Ebtisam Aldebe, a female candidate of the Centerpartiet, the Centre Party, which belongs to the Allians för Sverige, a coalition of four center-right parties that hope to oust the Social-Democrats from power next Autumn, expressed her support to SmuF’s proposal, saying that men should be inherit more than women, as this is what the Qur’an, the Muslims holy book, says.