The Swedish Prime Minister is Adamant

I didn’t think there would be any more news this weekend on Lars Vilks and his Rondellhundar, but our Swedish correspondent LN has since left us a comment with his summary and translation of an interview on Swedish state radio. It’s been edited slightly for clarity and is presented below.

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The Swedish Prime Minister is adamant.

The Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt was interviewed today by Inger Arenander of the “Swedish State Public Service Radio” P1. About 30% was about the Modoggies. Here follows a very condensed version of this third:

She started by establishing the fact that there have been new protests against the publication in Swedish media of a picture of the prophet Mo as a Rondell-doggie, the latest being from Afghanistan.

Fredrik Reinfeldt said that he takes the protests seriously, but that he wants to stress two things:

I think that the balance must lie between just this, efforts to indicate our will to live side by side — an attempt is made to use this as some sort of assertion that this would not be the case — and at the same time of course mark the boundary line we have in Sweden, that it is not the political leaders that make any publication decisions. With our freedom of speech, with our democracy, and our way of functioning, it is quite other persons who make those decisions.

How is it that it was so long before the government reacted?
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It did not seem to us that we have loitered for several days. I have been available. Last Wednesday I was in Uppsala together with most of Sweden’s on-the-spot gathered media representatives. I have just visited Croatia and there, at a press conference in Zagreb, I was questioned by the TT News Agency. I do not feel that I have done anything but reply to the question when the question came. There was no reason to do it without the question being asked!

Of course there is a risk one must be aware of when entering this discussion, and that is to erroneously send a signal that political Sweden has anything to do with a case like this — when our answer is that we do not have.

It was strange to notice that Fredrik Reinfeldt four or five times gave way to wishful thinking when he spoke about “a wish to live side by side”, and to do this even in “mutual or reciprocal respect”. He cannot have a very good sounding of the opinions among ordinary people of Swedish background.


Previous posts on this topic:

The Swedes Narrowly Avert Their Own Motoon Crisis
Modoggie #2
The Prophet as an Obedient Retriever
That Doggone Mohammed
Swedish Muslims Will Exhibit the Modoggies
Lars Vilks Dogged by Death Threats
Modoggies Make it into the Swedish MSM, But…
Oh, No! It’s Happening Again!
Sweden Gets Sent to the Woodshed
An Ironic Rondellhund
Now We Know Who’s Behind the Modoggies
Swedish Muslims Form Anti-Free Speech Committee
Pakistan Objects to the Modoggies
The OIC is Barking Now
A New Modoggie Protest in Örebro
Swedish Flags are Burning
The Cavalry of Neo-Colonialism
Weekend Modoggie Roundup