During the summer and autumn of 2015, Gefle Dagblad published a review of the mosque in Gävle. Among other things, the newspaper examined Imam Abo Raad's links to Salafism, a very conservative direction within Islam.
Among other things, the imam received criticism for a post he made on Facebook, urging people to support warring Sunnis "with your money, yourselves and your tongues." called the Shiite leadership in Iraq the route.
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The post was written in conjunction with the Islamic State conquering along with the Sunni militia, Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, and the post has been interpreted as the Imam expressing support for the Islamic State.
But he himself tells SVT News Uppsala that he did not want to encourage people at all to support the Islamic State.
- The support I talked about was support for aid organizations that are within the scope of the law. The organizations that take care of orphans and help those in need. It is about good forces from Swedish aid organizations.
Do not want to shut Muslims outOne of the perhaps most important questions to be answered is how the Imam - who is a popular lecturer in several cities around Sweden - looks at Salafism, the very conservative and literary direction of Islam. The Imam gets the question several times. However, there will be no clear answer to the question. The Imam is clear that he is distancing himself from violence and terrorism, and that he does not want to define himself as a salafist. But at the same time, he does not want to distance himself from the controversial approach.
- I do not want to go into the subject when it comes to descriptions of various Islamic branches. But people can say what they want. I do not belong to any branch, says Abo Raad.
But I still think that many people wonder, many Muslims in Gävle and around Sweden, when you are an imam here and responsible for this activity. Can you distance yourself from Salafism?
- I don't care what people say. I listen to what Allah says.