Eddie Råbock (born Jonas Mohamed Omar; 7 June 1976) is a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

essayist, poet and literary critic of Swedish-Iranian origin. Råbock is the author of three collections of poetry. He was the editor of the

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

journal ''Minaret'' from 2006 to 2008.

Career and controversial turns

Råbock had a very promising and popular career at first, as a well-liked progressive writer and poet. He was a progressive Muslim who opposed

islamism Islamism (also often called political Islam or Islamic fundamentalism) is a political ideology which posits that modern states and regions should be reconstituted in constitutional, economic and judicial terms, in accordance with what is ...

. Then in 2009, as a reaction to, and becoming emotionally upset about, Israeli strikes against the Gaza Strip he began describing himself as a "radical Muslim" and supporter of the

Shia Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his S ...

Islamist movements

Hamas Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Bri ...

and

Hezbollah Hezbollah (; ar, حزب الله ', , also transliterated Hizbullah or Hizballah, among others) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, led by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah since 1992. Hezbollah's parami ...

, seeing the late

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

ian leader

Ruhollah Khomeini Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Khomeini, Imam Khomeini ( , ; ; 17 May 1900 – 3 June 1989) was an Iranian political and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. He was the founder of ...

as a role model for Islamist resistance movements. He organized an anti-Israeli protest at Sergels torg in Stockholm on September 20, 2009 at Al'Quds day in which leading figures from the

neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...

organization Nordisk Ungdom attended and both Arabic, Iranian and Swedish attendees did

Hitler salute The Nazi salute, also known as the Hitler salute (german: link=no, Hitlergruß, , Hitler greeting, ; also called by the Nazi Party , 'German greeting', ), or the ''Sieg Heil'' salute, is a gesture that was used as a greeting in Nazi Germany. Th ...

s. He also befriended and interviewed Ahmed Rami, owner of the webpage and former radio show

Radio Islam Radio Islam was a Swedish Islamic radio channel, now a website. The EU's racism monitoring organization has called it "one of the most radical right-wing antisemitic homepages on the net". Mission The Radio Islam website states that it "is work ...

, who was convicted for hate speech against Jews in Sweden, and who denies the Holocaust openly. Rami's anti-semitic books was distributed by the neo-Nazi party Nationalsocialistisk Front. Råbock's statements during this period includes both homophobic rhetoric and racist statements. In an article in the newspaper ''Folket i Bild/Kulturfront'', on July 17, 2012, he withdrew from his Islamist standpoint and retracted his antisemitic statements, saying "I ask for forgiveness for having promoted antisemitic ideas"."Jag ber om ursäkt för att ha torgfört antisemitiska idéer"
/ref> In the publication "En opieätares bekännelser" (''Confessions of an opium-eater'', referencing to Marx's famous quote about religions), he explains and develops his thoughts about his return to "tolerance and secularism". He was for a while associated with the

Communist Party (Sweden) The Communist Party ( sv, Kommunistiska partiet, K) is a Marxist–Leninist political party in Sweden started in 1970. From 1970 to 1977, it was known as the Communist League Marxist–Leninists (Revolutionaries) (, KFML(r)) and from 1977 to 200 ...

, but in 2017 he announced that he, as politically anti-islamic nowadays, will vote for the anti-islamic right

Sweden Democrats The Sweden Democrats ( sv , Sverigedemokraterna ; SD ) is a nationalist and right-wing populist political party in Sweden. As of 2022, it is the largest member of Sweden's right-wing governing bloc to which it provides confidence and supply, a ...

(SD) in elections. He has continued to support SD since then. In 2017, he changed his name by deed poll to Eddie Råbock.

References

External links

Eddie Råbock's blog
1976 births Living people Swedish poets Swedish male writers Swedish male poets {{Sweden-poet-stub