Several ministers have been critical of Stegrud's comment on X after an SVT debate on Sweden's cultural canon between Culture Minister Parisa Liljestrand (The Moderate Party) and Social Democrats' top politician Lawen Redar.
Now Dousa is also reacting.
"I'm not usually emotionally affected by individual tweets or political statements. But this comment by Stegrud felt", he writes in a text on DN's culture pages.
Dousa has a mother with roots in the Czech Republic and Germany. His father is from Turkey. Dousa himself has grown up in immigrant-dense Järva in Stockholm.
"Be pushed out"
"It was like being pushed out of something I myself, and relatives before me, have worked hard to belong to", Dousa writes about Stegrud's comment.
Stegrud wrote on X on Tuesday that it was "telling" that "a Swedish-born Kurd and a Persian" debated the cultural canon on SVT.
Dousa writes that he is not usually emotionally affected by individual tweets, but this time the "fuse blew".
The Minister for Development Cooperation felt that it doesn't matter how hard you try, you'll never quite cross the finish line.
"The open Swedishness no longer seems open", Dousa writes.
Open Swedishness?
He is referring to the fact that the Sweden Democrats advocate for "open Swedishness", i.e. that everyone who adapts to Swedish norms and values can become Swedish. Dousa is also reacting to the fact that the leader of the Sweden Democrats, Jimmie Åkesson, said that Sweden is the country that "my ancestors built and made into the place that gave me a safe and harmonious upbringing".
"It was like I asked myself: what about me? Who only has two generations back - hardly ancestors" Dousa writes.
He concludes the article with:
"There is only one country I love and every day strive for. I have no other country. Don't push me out of it."
On Instagram, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (The Moderate Party) gives his support and writes: "Worth reading by Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Benjamin Dousa - on open Swedishness".
