Visionpartiet — or Visionparty in English — filed the 21-page submission on late last month, raising concerns about violations of religious freedom, xenophobia, racism and anti-Muslim targeting by the SD. 

It argues that the party’s rhetoric could affect Muslims’ ability to live openly and practice their faith in Sweden.

The local party, founded in early 2023 as a pro-minority group, accuses the hard-right SD of moving beyond rhetoric ostensibly focused on combating extremism and increasingly targeting Islam, Muslim institutions and Muslims in Sweden.

The submission focuses on SD MP Richard Jomshof, whose outspoken opposition to Islam has drawn criticism in Sweden.

The report criticizes Jomshof over proposals he has previously advanced in the Riksdag, or Sweden's parliament, including measures to investigate and potentially ban foreign funding for Muslim congregations and mosques; prohibit calls to prayer from religious buildings; ban full-face Muslim veils in public places; and restrict veils and other visible religious symbols in schools and preschools.

In 2023, Jomshof faced criticism from opposition parties over social media posts targeting Islam and Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) amid wider outrage over Salwan Momika's public burning of the Quran on several occasions after receiving permission from Swedish authorities.

"When senior politicians themselves put such ambitions into words, their words must be taken seriously," Adel Sadat, Party Secretary of Visionparty, said in a statement. "We see a systematic political pattern in which more and more aspects of Muslims’ religious and institutional presence are being turned into political problems. It can no longer be assumed that ordinary Muslims are outside the scope of what is being targeted."

Muslim community leaders across Sweden have warned that discriminatory rhetoric about Islam and Muslims by political figures has contributed to a higher frequency of threats and attacks against their communities.

Citing a 2025 national study on the vulnerability of religious communities, the party said Muslim and Jewish congregations were particularly exposed to recurring violent offences and vandalism. More than one in five Muslim congregations surveyed reported graffiti vandalism at least six times in a year, while many respondents said the graffiti contained anti-Muslim or racist messages.

The submission also referred to accounts from Muslim community representatives who said they had found anti-Muslim or racist graffiti on religious buildings. One representative warned that such incidents could escalate to "arson or shots at mosques".

Visionparty argued that recurring attacks and hostile rhetoric should be understood in the context of mounting concerns over intolerance towards religious minorities in Sweden. It cited earlier UN observations on minority rights, as well as concerns raised by Muslim and Jewish communities.

In December 2025, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) urged Sweden to strengthen efforts to combat racist hate speech and hate crimes. The committee expressed concern over the prevalence of racist rhetoric, hate crimes and negative stereotypes affecting protected groups, including Muslims, and called on authorities to publicly condemn and distance themselves from racist hate speech by public figures, including politicians.

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Visionparty also called on Muslims, mosques, Muslim organizations, other minority communities and Swedish civil society to speak out and "draw a clear line".

The Sweden Democrats, a far-right, anti-immigration party with roots in Sweden’s neo-Nazi movement, are Sweden’s second-largest party in parliament. They do not hold ministerial posts but provide parliamentary support to Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s center-right government.

The submission comes less than three weeks before Sweden’s September 13 parliamentary election, in which the Sweden Democrats are seeking to enter government for the first time if the right-wing bloc retains power. The party is currently polling at about 19–20 percent, making it Sweden’s second-largest party, although support is marginally below the 20.5 percent it won in the 2022 election.

Source: The New Arab