Sweden stops using the term “Islamophobia” because it considers that it protects Islam from legitimate criticism.
The Swedish government believes that “Islamophobia” silences critical Muslims, reformists and women who oppose religious submission. Sweden wants to take this change in language to Brussels and the UN.
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According to reports Express, Sweden has decided to stop using the term “Islamophobia” in the government's official communications. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Maria Malmer Stenergard, has argued in Parliament that The concept is “problematic” because it can mix two realities that the State must distinguish.hatred of Muslims and legitimate criticism of Islam, Sharia or Islamism as a political ideology.
Stenergard drew a fundamental distinction: the State must protect victims of discrimination, hate crimes or actual hostility., but it does not have to protect “religion in itself”. In a liberal democracy, he recalled, religious freedom works in two directions: the right to practise a religion and the right to reject, question or criticise it.
Criticising Islam is not hating Muslims.
The change in language is no small matter. The Swedish government considers that The term “Islamophobia” has ended up functioning as a political shield for Islamist circles., especially those linked to Muslim Brotherhood, because it allows any criticism of Sharia law, parallel societies, religious control over women or Islamic fundamentalism to be automatically turned into an accusation of racism or hatred.
This concern does not arise from nowhere: a French report from 2025 on the Muslim Brotherhood and political Islam. He pointed to Sweden as one of the European countries where the brotherhood would have a significant presence., favoured by external funding, multiculturalist policies and connections with local political structures. After that report, Sweden acknowledged the Islamist infiltration of its institutions. and announced an investigation and the creation of a plan to stop the phenomenon.
The Islamists protest: they lose a label that served as a shield.
The reaction from Islamist circles and various Muslim organisations has not been long in coming. They present the Swedish change as a possible trivialisation of hatred towards Muslims., But the root of the complaint runs much deeper: if the term “Islamophobia” ceases to function as an official category, it also loses its power as an automatic accusation against any voice that questions Islamism, Sharia law, the compulsory veil, religious segregation or community pressure.
This is precisely the point that Sweden wants to put on the table. The government does not deny that there may be hostility, discrimination or violence against Muslims, but rHe fears that this reality will be used to entrench a religion or a political ideology. The difference is fundamental: one thing is to pursue hatred against specific individuals, and quite another is to turn Islam, the Muslim Brotherhood or political Islam into spaces that are off-limits to public criticism.
The decision has provoked immediate political reactions in Sweden. The Democrats of Sweden, who provide parliamentary support to the government, have hailed the change as a victory against a concept they consider fabricated and used to condition public debate. The MEP Charlie Weimers He has argued that other European countries should follow the same path. Also Faw Azzat, of Global Alliance for Petroleum, a Swedish organisation working against violence and oppression on grounds of honour, has endorsed the decision and defined the term “Islamophobia” as a “semantic trick” that equates religious criticism with racism against people.
“Islamophobia” is the weapon used against reformists, ex-Muslims and dissident women.
According to supporters of the Swedish decision, one of the most important points of the debate is that the label “Islamophobe” is not only applied to Europeans critical of Islamism. It also falls on liberal Muslims, reformists, ex-Muslims, activists against forced marriages and women who reject religious submission.. It is precisely these voices that most annoy Islamism, because they shatter the narrative that any criticism of Sharia law, fundamentalism or community control stems from ’Western hatred.“.
Muslim voices and left-wing sectors have warned that abandoning the term could downplay the real hostility towards Muslims. This is the open political battle: Critics of the change accuse the government of downplaying discrimination., while supporters of the measure argue that the problem is not combating hatred, but preventing Islamists and those linked to the Muslim Brotherhood from using this word to block any debate about Sharia law, parallel societies, the imposition of the veil, community pressure or political Islam.
Sweden wants Europe to stop shielding Islam from criticism.
Stockholm does not want to limit the change to its internal language. The Swedish government wants to take the debate to the European Union and the United Nations, two institutions that have been using the term “Islamophobia” in documents, campaigns and official statements for years. The Swedish initiative, therefore, is not just a semantic correction: It is a direct challenge to the international framework that has turned this word into a political category..
The fundamental question is whether Europe should protect Muslim citizens from genuine hatred or, under this legitimate protection, end up shielding Islam, Sharia law and Islamism from public criticism. Sweden wants to take this distinction to Brussels and the UN: prosecuting discrimination against individuals, yes; making a religion or a politico-religious project untouchable, no.
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