- Runar Søgaard
Runar Devik Søgaard (born
27 June 1967 inKongsvinger ,Hedmark ,Norway ) is a Norwegian leadership trainer, life-coach and a motivational speaker.From1990 to2000 Søgaard was married to the successful Swedish singerCarola Häggkvist . Together they have a son, Amadeus, born in1998 .Muhammad sermon controversy
In
May 2005 he created great uproar during a sermon in the Philadelphia church inStockholm , by saying thatMuhammad had been apedophile - see alsocriticism of Muhammad#Aisha . [http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/nyheter/story/0,2789,633287,00.html]This led to widespread condemnation and protests, similar to those of the
Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy . During the same sermon he also made disparaging remarks aboutJesus andSiddharta , though non of these remarks received the same attention.Søgaard received death threats from radical
Islamists , and some people feared he would face the same fate as Dutchfilmmaker Theo van Gogh. Pro-Islam columnistJan Guillou at theAftonbladet news paper called for calm and wrote "it would be of great harm for Sweden's Muslims if Søgaard became a martyr". [http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/nyheter/story/0,2789,638947,00.html] Guillou suggested that Søgaard is a lunatic who simply should be ignored.Trivia
*Runar is a good friend of Swedish-
Nigeria n artistDr. Alban , retired footballerThomas Brolin and table tennis playerJan-Ove Waldner . They are often seen together at theStockholm Spy bar, among other places.External links
* [http://www.runar.org Runar Søgaard] , official website
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
