[5] According to Jonas Otterbeck, a Swedish historian of religion, attitudes towards Islam and Muslims today have improved but "the level of prejudice was and is still high.
In the early 16th century, popular ontological discourse in Sweden regarding Islam was largely negative, portraying the religion as fatalistic, fanatic, violent, cruel, and aggressive.
[3] A popular painting from the same century depicts Saint Christopher carrying Jesus as a child on his shoulder, saving him from water in which the Pope and Muhammad drown.
King Karl XII made exceptions to the aforementioned citizenship laws in 1718, allowing Muslim and Jewish migrants from the Ottoman Empire the right to perform their religion.
Archbishop Nathan Söderblom, teacher and mentor of several of the leading Swedish Orientalist scholars, was highly critical of the faith.
[14] At the end of the 1980s, extremist xenophobic groups began targeting Muslims as a severe societal problem and causing the recession in Sweden's economy.
"[18] A Swedish NGO named EXPO stated in 2015 that both school staff and teaching materials are deficient in avoiding discrimination and stereotypes.
"[21] Research by Lena Sawyer[22] and Masoud Kamali[23] in 2006 found that school curriculums frequently pushed a "clash of civilizations" narrative between Swedish society and the Muslim world.
"[24] Research by Ylva Brune in 2006[25] and Mohammad Fazlhashemi in 2007[26] concluded that immigrants and Muslims in particular face representations as the ‘other’ and are described with stereotypes often connected to violent behavior.
[28] According to Swedish writer J. Lester Feder, anti-immigration sentiments in Sweden are often tied in with the idea of counterjihad and a fear that the "nation [will] collapse beneath the weight of Muslim immigration.
[37][38] In April 2022, a Danish far-right party Stram Kurs planned a demonstration, which included burning of the Islamic holy book, the Qur’an.
Saudi Arabia criticized the act, calling it the “deliberate abuse of the holy Quran by some extremists in Sweden, and provocation and incitement against Muslims".