Combined Church and Mosque Becomes Election Issue

In a year, it will be time for the next parliamentary election, but already in a few weeks, it will be time for the church election, and the Sweden Democrats in Nacka want the plans for God’s house, an interreligious project, to become an election issue.

The plans for God’s house, which will include Fisksätra church and Fisksätra mosque, have been in place for several years, but the first spade has not yet been taken. The purpose of the project is to combat xenophobia by providing an opportunity for people with different religious traditions to meet and to demonstrate religion as a united force in the local community.

God’s House will be built in Fisksätra square, in the middle of the community and close to everyone’s daily life. With opportunities for meetings that both enrich and challenge, or moments of silence and recovery in the midst of everyday life.

The project is a collaboration between the Muslim Association in Nacka, Nacka parish (the Church of Sweden), and the Catholic Diocese of Stockholm.

“We usually see 2003 as the birthday of interfaith dialogue, as we from the Muslim, Catholic, and Swedish parish held a joint service,” said Carl Dahlbäck, parish priest in Nacka parish, to Kyrkans tidning in 2018.

According to the plans, Fisksätra church from 1974 will be connected with a newly built mosque, and between them, a glass-enclosed square, Peace Square, will be built. The fundraising for the construction has been ongoing since 2015, and the total cost is estimated to be 59 million SEK, of which the cost for the mosque amounts to 47 million SEK and the indoor square twelve million SEK. By the fall of 2020, they had raised 950,000 SEK.

Election Issue

Prior to the church election next month, SD Nacka wants to make God’s house an election issue. Already last year, Lars Alexandersson (SD), elected to the church council, together with Marie-Louise Warnström from the Civic Alternative and vice-chair of the church council in Nacka parish, wrote a joint motion. The goal of this was to arrange a meeting to discuss the purpose, objectives, mandate, and limits for Nacka parish’s participation in God’s house.

“The motion came after I requested at the church council in 2024 to ask questions to the parish priest about the parish’s cooperation with the Muslims. But the request was denied as questions must be submitted in writing. So we wrote a motion,” said Lars Alexandersson to Nacka Värmdö Posten in March.

At the same time, Alexandersson and Warnström made it clear that they view the parish’s dialogue with other religions positively but “since Islamism (political Islam) is an ideology and advocates a different social order where Sharia is superior to Swedish law, we can never accept Islamism.” Therefore, they want a discussion in the church council on how deep the cooperation can be and where the limit lies.

Does Not Want a Meeting

Parish priest Carl Dahlbäck also sits on the church council and believes that the request for a meeting should be rejected. The reason is that increased knowledge and dialogue about interreligious dialogue is already fulfilled in the training program that will be conducted in 2026.

However, according to Alexandersson and Warnström, the matter has not been handled correctly or democratically according to the principles of the Church of Sweden.

“We will not accept that a course is promised in a mosque in 2026 instead of answering our questions. We will continue to pursue the matter, probably to the diocese,” the duo made clear.

“Prejudices”

When the motion was considered in the church council, the decision was that the council in the summer should reject the request for a meeting on God’s house.

In SD’s election campaign for the church election, they advocate a halt to the planned construction. By building a mosque, one justifies Islam and everything it stands for, says Alexandersson, who also points out that Islam has Islamism in its baggage, which aims to change Swedish society.

According to Carl Dahlbäck, the whole issue breathes prejudices, and he assures that the goal is still to build the mosque.

Proud of the Project

In a debate article in March, a group of local politicians in Nacka wrote that “a large majority of the elected representatives in the parish support and are proud of the work in God’s house”.

We are happy and proud of the work in God’s house and look forward to being part of developing it in a world that more than ever needs collaborations for peace.

The ruling majority includes the Social Democrats, the Center Party, Free Liberals in the Church of Sweden (FiSK), the Left in the Church of Sweden (ViSK), and Green Christians (GK) with a total of 24 out of 35 seats in the church council.

One-Sided Activism

Fredrik Jörgensen, SD Nacka, is a candidate for the church council and is involved in the issue. He tells Samnytt that it is a kind of one-sided activism.

“God’s House is presented as dialogue, but in practice, it becomes one-sided activism. Jewish voices are completely absent, the term ‘religious racism’ is used selectively, and the seminars are dominated by left-wing organizations like Expo,” he tells Samnytt.

“We in SD Nacka want an open debate about these shortcomings – the people of Nacka deserve transparency and honesty.”

Jörgensen also points to the financing and wonders why the church gives a generous discount for the land purchase in this particular case.

Furthermore, he questions why there is no opinion poll on what the people of Nacka or the parish members themselves want.

“The whole project is driven by Carl Dahlbäck as a kind of slap in the face to SD. No desire for dialogue. Just attacks from Expo,” he says.

One-Sided Stories

In an upcoming debate article, Jörgensen concludes that behind the beautiful facade, something completely different is hidden – if you examine the project more closely, you are met not by dialogue but by one-sided stories of the oppression of Muslims and political attacks on the Sweden Democrats.

At the seminar in Fisksätra church earlier in August, Expo was given twice as much speaking time as the priest, the rabbi, and the imam – time they used to attack the Sweden Democrats. Is this what is called dialogue, Jörgensen wonders.

The director of Fisksätra church, Erik Linde, has said that more seminars would be good. This is something SD Nacka agrees with – provided that they must be real debates, not one-sided panel discussions where critical voices are shut out.

If God’s House is serious about standing up for openness and dialogue, they should be able to meet SD in a straightforward and honest discussion, Jörgensen believes.