An imam in Malmo, Sweden who during a sermon called Jews “the offspring of monkeys and pigs” has been charged with incitement to hatred by Swedish authorities.
According to Swedish news outlet STV, imam Basem Mahmoud said during an October 2020 sermon at Malmo’s al-Sahaba mosque: “Everyone hears and sees exactly what the West takes for granted, what their masters the Jews, the descendants of monkeys and pigs, the enemies of Islam and Muslims, dictate to them.”
The sermon was subsequently uploaded to Mahmoud’s Youtube channel, where it was discovered by Swedish media.
When questioned by the police, Mahmoud denied the charges, claiming he was only quoting from the Koran and that the statement in question “applies only to some Jews [who] existed once.”
Malmo, a city where one third of the population is from Muslim countries, is home to several hundred Jews and has dozens of antisemitic incidents annually.
In late 2019, the city allocated $2 million to initiatives to protect its Jewish community from antisemitism and antisemitic attacks.