Muslim minister accused of 'hidden agenda'

Rasa - Sweden’s new Housing Minister Mehmet Kaplan has come under attack from a former Swedish MP after he blamed widespread Islamophobia as the main reason that young Muslims were joining militant groups in Iraq and Syria.

News ID: 1414

Date: 17 October 2014 - 11:42

RNA - "It's unforgivably naive to think that giving money to these kinds of [Muslim] organizations and mosques will work against segregation and will reach out to these youths who are being radicalized," Social Democrat politician Nalin Pekgul wrote in her piece in the Dagens Industri newspaper, the Local.se reported.

"It's exactly this kind of naivety that people like Mehmet Kaplan are counting on, and it's time for everyone who wants to oppose the radicalization to realize the damage Mehmet Kaplan and others like him can accomplish."

The attack on Kaplan, who is Sweden's new Housing Minister, started following his statements to the Turkish media in which he blamed Islamophobia as a main reason driving young Muslims to the so-called Islamic State (formerly known as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)).

The minister argued that the government should give more money to Europe's mosques in an effort to tackle the recruitment.

Going on in her blatant attack, the Social Democrat politician accused Kaplan of having a “hidden agenda” without further explaination or proof on her claims.

"For fear of being labeled as an Islamophobe, no one dares question Mehmet Kaplan and his hidden agenda," added Pekgul.

She added that with Kaplan in government, Sweden's Green Party heads Gustav Fridolin and Åsa Romson "have sent a clear signal to Sweden's Muslims that the Islamists now have the support of the Swedish establishment".

Kaplan, a 43-year-old born in Turkey, is a former spokesperson for the Muslim Council of Sweden.

He has been a member of the Green Party since 2003.

Kaplan was on board Turkish urkish Mavi Marmara which sought to break Israel’s naval blockade of the besieged Gaza Strip in 2010.

Turkish-born Kaplan is not the only Muslim minister in the Swedish recently appointed government of Stefan Löfven.

Earlier this month, Aida Hadzialic was named as the new Upper Secondary School and Adult Education Initiative in Sweden.

Muslims make up between 450,000 and 500,000 of Sweden’s nine million people, according to the US State Department report in 2011.

Sweden has opened its doors to immigrants for decades.

In 2012, some 43,900 asylum seekers arrived, a nearly 50 percent jump from 2011 and the second highest on record. Nearly half were from Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia and will get at least temporary residency. There was a total of 103,000 new immigrants.

Some 15 percent of Sweden's population is foreign born, the highest in the Nordic region.

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