A Friday of 2013, the 26th of April was the first time that the Friday prayer (Azan), as well as any prayer at all was called out from a Mosque in Sweden. As the Azan was called, a thousand of local residents and dozens of journalists had gathered. “A historical day. My tears of happiness are running” said Erol Gavgaviougly after the 40-year long wait since he moved to Sweden.
The presence of Islamic congregations dates in fact back longer than that. Mohammad Fazlhashemi, professor in Theology and Philosophy at Uppsala University, confirms that the first Islamic congregation was founded in Sweden in 1948 by Tartars fleeing the Soviet Union.
Of Sweden, a country allegedly treasuring human rights, freedom of speech and diversity as components essential to inclusive forms of democracy, one would certainly expect the permission to have arrived earlier. One would also expect more citizens to raise their voices for the right to exercise religion publicly and collectively, as enshrined in Article 18 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The funds to cover the loudspeakers and other equipment needed to make this historical moment come true have been collected by members of the congregation in the suburb Fittja, south of Stockholm, over the course of a year. Moreover, a long democratic procedure precedes the decision to let the prayer be sung every Friday for 3-5 minutes during a one-year probation period. The final permission needed was granted by the police, who saw no compelling state or public order interest justifying denial of Azaan to be sung from the loudspeakers of the minaret.
Local politicians received around 100 letters and emails of complaint from individuals and civil society initiatives. A host of arguments were employed as to why the Azaan and Islam should not have a place in the Swedish public sphere. The points of concern ranged from social conservative ones, holding Islam as a foreign, unwanted element in Swedish society, to rights based arguments framing the public call of Azaan as a violation of religious freedom.
The latter argument was framed according to the following logic: the call to come and pray constitutes religious propaganda and exposes citizens to infringements of their right not be exposed to such messages. This arguably misses the point that church bells also are used as a call to religious assembly and as conveyers of Christianity
The spokespeople of the Fittja congregation were careful to stress that they are both Swedish and Muslims. This concern notably manifests itself in the interior design of the mosque: birch tree in one of the arches to symbolize a part of Sweden. With or without the birch-tree ornamentation, one would like this particular mosque, as well as all other mosques on Swedish soil, and its attenders to be viewed as part of Swedish society, culture and religious heritage.
Unfortunately, Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia, is not spared from the worrying winds of increased religious and multiethnic intolerance, primarily directed towards Islam and Muslims. It is high time to speed up inter-religious as well as secular collaboration for tolerance, understanding, respect, solidarity and equality before the law.
Miranda Myrberg, Nationalism Studies,
Sweden
The article was originally published at the blog of CEU's Nationalism Studies blog:
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