The criticism is directed at the first charge, where Paludan himself believes that he has expressed himself critically about Islam and thus stayed within the limits of freedom of speech.
The Malmö District Court has interpreted the statements differently and considers that Paludan turned to Muslims when he, for example, said "Islam is good at killing".
In another example, the court, in accordance with the prosecutor, has interpreted "Islam as a religion cannot possibly like Western democracy and freedom of speech" as "Muslims do not like Western democracy and freedom of speech".
"Too far-reaching"
I think the district court has interpreted this too far-reaching and beyond what is reasonable. He is expressing himself about Islam as a whole and is not targeting any specific ethnic group, but the court is interpreting it as if he is doing so indirectly, says Funcke.
In combination with the fact that Quran burnings have been used as an aggravating circumstance, he believes that the verdict is in line with blasphemy laws.
I sincerely hope that this will be appealed and that the court of appeal will correct the first charge. If it stands, we have in principle introduced a form of blasphemy legislation in Sweden.
It will become impossible to express oneself about Islam as an ideology in the strong way that he has done.
Directed contempt
Regarding the second charge, which concerns Paludan's statements about Arabs and Africans, Funcke has no objections to a guilty verdict.
There's no question about it. There's directed contempt towards specific, explicitly stated ethnic groups or people of a certain origin.
Paludan made the statements at two separate gatherings in Malmö in 2022. At one of the gatherings, he burned a Quran after wrapping it in bacon. He was also convicted of defamation in connection with one of the gatherings. The sentence is set to four months in prison.
Paludan has already announced that he will appeal the verdict.
