Loonwatch draws our attention to a controversy in Iceland over a proposal to build a mosque in the capital city of Reykjavík. A former mayor of Reykjavík, Ólafur F. Magnússon, has been expressing his outrage over the city council’s decision to grant planning permission.

“Muslims are spreading around the world and we have to keep them at bay,” Magnússon declared last week on a radio talk show. He added: “Islam is a religion that has a strategy of eliminating other religions and spreading all over the world. The experience of Scandinavia shows that Muslims don’t integrate into society. This has become a huge problem, for example in Malmö.”

He also attacked the left over its attitude Islam: “It is quite amazing that a lot of local feminists should be so in favour of Muslims in Iceland. It is built into the faith that women are oppressed.”

Magnússon followed this up with an article for the daily paper Morgunblaðið, in which he wrote: “It is worrying that Muslims here don’t seem to have any difficulties financing the project, receiving aid from Muslim organizations abroad. Those organizations might want to increase the influence of Islam in Iceland, as well as in other countries.”

Instead of a mosque, Magnússon suggested a temple of the Nordic gods should be built on the site: “Such a cultural gem would bring joy to the majority of the city’s residents, as well as other Icelanders, and wouldn’t be as out of place as a mosque would.”

But don’t get the idea that Magnússon is a bigot. “This has nothing to do with racism,” he assures us, “this is required to protect women from violence and defend the nation and its culture.”

There is no official figure for the Muslim population of Iceland, but it is estimated to be no more than a thousand people, out of a total population of 315,000.