Name Mahmoud Aldebe | ||
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Mahmoud Jamil al-Debe (Arabic: محمود جميل الدبعي, born 10 August 1954) is the chairman of the Muslim Association of Sweden (Swedish: Sveriges muslimska förbund). He was previously vice chairman of the Muslim Council of Sweden (Swedish: Sveriges muslimska råd), an umbrella organization with the Muslim Association of Sweden as one of its members.
Aldebe was born in Jordan and immigrated to Sweden in the late 1970s together with his wife Ebtisam Aldebe. His wife was a candidate for the Centre Party in the 2006 Swedish parliament elections, but didn't receive enough votes to get a seat.
Controversies
In 2003, Aldebe wrote a letter of appeal to then Swedish Minister for Justice Thomas Bodström, requesting a new trial for the brothers Rezkar and Dakhaz Atroshi, who were sentenced to life in prison for assisting in the murder of 19-year-old Pela Atroshi in Iraqi Kurdistan in 1999. The murder was described by the court as an example of honor killing. In the letter, which Aldebe wrote on behalf of and as vice chairman of the Muslim Council of Sweden, Aldebe claimed that the brothers were innocent and that the verdict was the result of a "conspiracy" involving leading politicians, the police and the media.
In an article published in Expressen on 3 October 2005, Swedish Imam and Muslim convert Abd al Haqq Kielan wrote that Aldebe had approached him and said to him that he was "a Jew who has converted to Islam to destroy for the Muslims" and that he had also called him "Shayṭān" (Satan). Kielan further accused Aldebe of using undemocratic methods such as "threats, slander and reprisal" against critics. In the Swedish Television (Sveriges Television) documentary "The battle for the muslims" (Slaget om muslimerna) Aldebe is accused to being an islamist, intent on giving Islam an official political role in Sweden.