The church pastor takes a stand on statements made by the Swedish Migration Board

The employee's supervisor, the church pastor, tells SVT that the employee's statements are unfortunate.

- What I think is that part of what my employees say, it doesn't sound good. There is nothing that the Swedish Church in general or we as individual pastors can stand behind. We have no reason to prevent people from going to the media, freedom of speech is a constitutionally protected right and we should guard that, says the church shepherd.

What the employee says about that all refugees who are Arabs live with a culture of honor, is it a view shared within the Swedish Church?

- It is a very generalizing response, which can be perceived as xenophobic. We guard all people of equal value and freedom of speech and freedom of speech, what happened in connection with the interview is unfortunate.

Can you say such things and continue as an employee of the Swedish Church?

- We believe that, we have full confidence in our employees. I have seen the employee in their work and they have the greatest care if the people they work with.

The church pastor has spoken to the co-worker who has said that they are sorry that the action was perceived as trying to stop the interview and that the action depends on the interviewee's consideration.

Following SVT's publication, there will now be a training on freedom of speech for all employees in the current pastorate during the week.

In view of the employee's integrity and in order not to identify him, SVT has chosen not to publish the name of the pastor or the name of the relevant pastorate. In the clip above, we have therefore let another person read the Church Shepherd's quote. The pictures in the clip have nothing to do with the current pastorate.