News Compass

Saturday, April 23, 2005

Swedish Christian Preacher Insults Prophet Muhammad, Angers Muslims

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Runar Sogaard, 38, a celebrity Christian evangelist preacher in Sweden, and Norwegian by birth,stepped out of line in his sermon on March 20, provoking anger in the Muslim world, by calling Prophet Muhammad, a "confused pedophile".

In a sermon at Filadelfia church in Stockholm on March 20, Sogaard made repeated claims against Prophet Muhammad– whose Birthday Muslims worldwide celebrated Thursday – saying Prophet Muhammad was “a confused pedophile” since his wives included a girl aged nine years old, alluding to the Prophet’s wife `Aisha.

Marie Thorsensson, an official at Sogaard's church, told Reuters that the Christian preacher would not make any comment on the issue “except that the extract from his sermon is correct, but the sermon was not about Islam or Muhammad”.

A top Muslim scholar urged his fellow Swedish Muslims NOT to take the law into their own hands or commit any violent acts to avenge the repulsive remarks of the Christian cleric.

Last November , Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gosh, known for his criticism of Islam, was killed , allegedly by a Muslim extremist after he directed an anti-Islam script that trigged anger of the Muslim minority in the Netherlands.

Van Gogh made his film in collaboration with a controversial politician of Somali descent, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who is a vocal critic of women’s treatment in Islamic countries and who was also under police protection after receiving death threats.

Hassan Moussa, the head of Sweden’s council of imams said:

“Do not under any circumstances take the law into your own hands.
We beg those who threatened (Runar) Sogaard, in the name of Islam, to let Swedish law judge between him and us.Those who cast stones against us will not get stoned in return."

The Muslim imam said Sogaard's comments “injured millions of Muslims all over the world". He added, " but they must not lead to violence like the murder last year of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh who was critical of Islam.”

The Swedish Muslim community is suing Sogaard for hate crimes.

Islam has become the second official religion in Sweden after Christianity, despite the fact that the Muslim community is a relatively new one, unlike that of other European countries such as France.

Runar Devik Sogaard- Profile

Sogaard in his homepage lists his occupation as "motivator and minister" and claims, to ".. inspire and motivate people to reach their dreams and improve their lives. I travel all over the world and do what I do today. Working with my own TV-shows".

He described himself as "loyal, caring and impassioned".

His favorite travel destinations: Australia, South Africa and California.

Sogaard was born in Kongsvinger, Norway in 1967. His father was a local evangelical pastor who ran a Christian music studio in Oslo on the side.

When he was a 16-year-old, he began to lead a Christian talk show on the local radio station in his hometown in Norway. " We preached and prayed for the sick - live," he said.

The radio program became very popular as hundreds tried to reach the boy-preacher for prayer at the same time.

In 1988, Sogaard attended Christ for All Nations Bible College in Dallas, USA.

The following fall he moved back to Sweden, this time to Uppsala, where he was taken on full time at Word of Life Church as a preacher and youth leader.

He runs his own ministry.

Sogaard claimed:

"I'm constantly trying to break down the things of the Kingdom to people who have no understanding or even believe what I believe, it keeps me sharp to the real needs of people……. I see how Jesus was in the Gospels and find myself doing the things he did.
God is going to raise up warriors, in the likeness of David, who will take on the giants of this world; television, Hollywood, the media, politics, sport and enter into the promised land of the 21st Century."

He has his own clothing store in Sturegallerian, a fashionable Stockholm shopping mall.