Runar Søgaard

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Runar Søgaard (born June 27, 1967) is a Norwegian preacher residing in Sweden.

In May 2005 he created great uproar by saying Muhammad had been a pedophile during a sermon in the Philadelphia church in Stockholm.[1]

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 about Jesus and Siddharta, 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 Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh. Pro-Ilam columnist Jan Guillou at the Aftonbladet news paper called for calm and wrote "it would be of great harm for Sweden's Muslims if Søgaard became a martyr".[2] Guillou suggested that Søgaard is a lunatic who simply should be ignored.

Søgaard has said he is a spiritual life coach for celebrities such as Sting, Matt LeBlanc and Robert Downey Jr. All of all those celebrities has categorically denied any involvement with Søgaard and stated that they have never heard of him.

He has been married to the successful Swedish singer Carola and together they share the son Amadeus.

[edit] Trivia

Runar is a good friend of Swedish-Nigerian artist Dr. Alban, retired footballer Thomas Brolin and table tennis player Jan-Ove Waldner. They are often seen together at the Stockholm Spy bar, among other places.
In July 2005 a tennis match at the Swedish Open in Båstad was interrupted due to a party involving Runar and his friends at one of the terraces.[3]