Public display of ISIS flag is legal in Sweden, prosecutor rules

The flag has been banned from public display in both the Netherlands and Germany.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
A member of a militia kneels as he celebrates victory next to a wall painted with the black flag commonly used by ISIS militants (photo credit: REUTERS)
A member of a militia kneels as he celebrates victory next to a wall painted with the black flag commonly used by ISIS militants
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Flying the Islamic State's black-and-white flag has been ruled legal in Sweden by a prosecutor in the country, Swedish news portal thelocal.se reported Sunday.
The prosecutor, Gisela Sjövall announced that she would not prosecute a 23-year-old man who posted the flag on his Facebook page in June, because the flag does not constitute hate speech. Police had launched a hate speech investigation into the man.
Sjövall told local Swedish media that the flag expresses contempt for "all others" and does not represent hatred for a specific ethnic group, as the swastika does for Jews, and therefore, at this point, it does not represent hate speech.
“If there had been anything in the text [posted alongside the flag] with more specific formulations about certain groups, for example homosexuals, the ruling could have been different,” Sjövall was quoted as saying.
The flag has been banned from public display in both the Netherlands and Germany.