Thursday 9, 2010
Bjarte Ystebø, editor in the Christian paper Idag, speaks out against Muslims joining the Norwegian Christian Democratic Party (KrF). Christianity and Islam hold very different values, he says, and the kinship between them is greatly exaggerated.
Christianity promotes freedom, human rights and pluralism, he continues, while Islam stands for just the opposite. This, he claims, is obvious from studying all the countries in the world where Islam is the main religion, and have control over the state apparatus.
KrF most important task is to emphazise the Christian values that makes out the foundation of Norwegian society, such as family values, protection of life, property, peace, solidarity and freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Some of these values, he states, Christians share with Muslims, and if there were a Muslim party in Norway they could work together towards a mutual agenda on matters such as abortion, alcohol and family.
But when it comes to freedom of religion and speech, just as the support for democracy, Christian values collide with Islam, writes Ystebø. Therefore KrF can cooperate with Muslims, if they share these values, but ought not to include Muslims in the party. KrF needs to be, as it has been, a Christian party – he concludes.
