A Muslim organisation in the Swedish city of Växjö have complained to local police after claiming to have found posters in an area of the city that caricatures the Muslim prophet, Mohammed.
Members of the Växjö Muslim Foundation made reports to the local police saying that they had discovered several posters depicting and insulting the prophet Mohammed in the Araby area of the city in Nydalavägen, Hjalmar Petris road and the Ulriksberg promenade, Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Radio reports.
Police spokesman Robert Loeffel labelled the posters as being offensive to the local Muslim community but did not divulge what was actually portrayed on the posters themselves. The police did say that they were considering the posters as a crime, describing it as hate against an ethnic group.
The Växjö Muslim Foundation came into prominence last year after they demanded the city grant them the right to publically broadcast the Islamic call to prayer on loudspeakers every Friday. “We are just wanting Sweden to allow Muslims in Växjö to feel even more at home. The Islamic community should be proud of their culture, and not feel like they have to hide,” Imam Ismail Abu Helal said at the time.
Earlier this year, the foundation made another announcement that they would be seeking foreign funding from countries like Saudi Arabia in order to construct a new mega-mosque in the city. “When we celebrate that Ramadan is over and in connection with the trip to Mecca there can be up to 2,000 people who come to the mosque, then we have had to use the old Folkets park or be outdoors,” Abu Helal complained.
The foundation is also not the first Muslims to be upset over depictions of the Islamic prophet, some of which have led to deadly terror attacks such as the attack on the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in January of 2015 that saw 12 people killed by radical Islamic terrorists.
Prior to the Charlie Hebdo massacre, Danish cartoonists found themselves also under threat of violence following the publishing of cartoons of Mohammed in 2005. Ten years after the publishing of the cartoons, Kurt Westergaard, who was forced to live under police protection due to threats against his life, said that despite the danger he had no regrets.