Swedish Public Radio Interviews Mohammed Omar

Last Saturday I posted a translation by our Swedish correspondent CB of an op-ed by the former “moderate” Muslim Omar Mohammed, who described how the events in Gaza had turned him from a normal Muslim into a radical Islamist.

Today Omar Mohammed was interviewed on Swedish radio, and below is CB’s summary of the program:

I just heard an interview with Mohammed Omar on Swedish public radio. He was questioned by a reporter about his article in Expressen and his conversion into an Islamist. The reporter asked him the question that has been on many people’s minds: Why, if you’re angry with the Israeli actions in Gaza, is it necessary to become an Islamist?

In brief, his answer was that Hamas and Islamism is the choice of the Muslim world, at least in the Middle East, and as a true democrat he could hardly do otherwise than support the popular choice. It was not his place to sit here in safe Sweden and as a colonialist tell people what to do and believe.

Asked about Hamas’ track record of suicide-bombings and other not-so-nice methods, he responded by saying that Hamas is the only force that can liberate Palestine.

As usual, since the interview was in the MSM, the reporter didn’t ask about what “Palestine” meant. All pre-1948 or just pre-1967?

And as the interview continued, listeners got the impression that it was the 1967 borders that we’re talking about. He said it was necessary to support Hamas, since they were the only ones able to prevent Israel from annihilating the Palestinians. More exactly, it should be translated “making extinct”.

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The reporter tried to press him on some of his praise of Khomeini, and Omar claimed that Khomeini was a great man for establishing the only independent Islamic state in the Middle East, and that was the big reason for his praise. He spent some time accusing the US of toppling the Mosaddeq government, as evidence of the malign US policy and utter unwillingness on the part of America to allow democracy in Middle East.

Omar dodged questions about the treatment of homosexuals by claiming that one could not really know what’s happening and that the Iranian government claims that homosexuals don’t get executed, and that was enough for him. He repeatedly refused to discuss legal issues in Iran, since he was not an expert on that.

Finally he claimed, to the reporter’s exasperation, that Iran was equally as good a democracy as the USA… since the United States is to blame for millions who are suffering in Iraq.