Stockholm Mosque hit with Nazi graffiti

Unknown vandals spray-painted swastikas on the facade of a central Stockholm mosque on Friday night, mosque officials said.

Unknown vandals spray-painted swastikas on the facade of a central Stockholm mosque on Friday night, mosque officials said.

The Nazi graffiti can be seen scrawled across the front doors of the Sodermalm mosque in light blue paint in photos the mosque posted to Facebook.

The mosque’s imam, Mahmoud Khalfi, said that the vandalism was extensive.

“It was on the entire facade, including the back and along the stairs to the subway,” Khalfi told SVT.

According to the imam, the mosque was targeted by vandals 22 times during 2017. The mosque has been hit with Nazi-specific vandalism twice before, with the first incident occurring in 2014.

“Yet again, Stockholm Mosque has been vandalized,” the Facebook post read. “Here is what visitors were greeted with this morning.”

Khalfi told SVT that the mosque has repeatedly requested permission to install security cameras but that the request has been denied over privacy concerns. He said he is willing to work with authorities to find a solution.

“We are flexible, we will accept all of the demands to limit privacy intrusions,” he said.

Sweden has seen a surge in neo-Nazi activity in recent years including a number of headline-grabbing demonstrations by Nazi supporters in Swedish cities including Stockholm and repeated demos in Gothenburg.