Swedish Justice Minister Defends Asylum Process for Christian Converts
During an interpellation debate in the parliament on November 29th, Justice Minister Morgan Johansson was asked by MP Hans Eklind about an asylum case in which a person who converted from Islam was interviewed by a Muslim officer in veil at the Migration Board. The officer subsequently denied the claim, finding his conversion to be false. Johansson was asked how the government ensures that the Swedish Migration Board fulfills its obligations to legal quality and uniform application of the law where religious views are invoked.
Johansson responded by saying "The question he is really asking is: How can I be sure that this is legal if the officer is a Muslim? Basically, this is what he is asking. My question back is: Would he ask the same question if the officer had been a Christian and if there had been a cross around his neck? Would he ask the same question if the officer had been a Jew and if there had been a Star of David around his neck?" He went on to defend the process.
Hans Eklind responded "In my interpellation I mentioned Mark. The Jesuit priest Thomas Idergard, whom I came to know many years ago, taught Mark for over six months before baptizing him. When Markus, who converted from his Shi'ite Muslim faith to the Christian, came to the Migration Board to tell us about this conversion, he met an officer who was a Sunni Muslim woman wearing a veil."
"I responded when I heard this from Thomas. This in some way testifies to a system failure of the authority if one does not understand that Markus is hampered in his account when he meets a Muslim officer. This is a reasonable statement, since it is well known in Islam that there are those who believe that those who leave the religion should be subjected to harsh punishment, at worst the death penalty."
Sources: Världen Idag and Sveriges Riksdagen