Runar Søgaard is a Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 leadership trainer, life-coach and a motivational speaker.

In May 2004 he created some reaction during a speech in Stockholm

Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

, by saying that Muhammad

Muhammad

Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...

 had been a pedophile - see also criticism of Muhammad#Aisha.http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/nyheter/story/0,2789,633287,00.html This led to some condemnation and protests, unlike to those of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy

Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy

The Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy began after 12 editorial cartoons, most of which depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad, were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30 September 2005...

. During the same sermon he also made disparaging remarks about Jesus

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

 and Siddharta

Gautama Buddha

Siddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian...

, though non of these remarks received the same attention. Søgaard received threats from radical Islamists, and some people feared he would face the same fate as Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 filmmaker Theo van Gogh

Theo van Gogh (film director)

Theodoor "Theo" van Gogh was a Dutch film director, film producer, columnist, author and actor.Van Gogh worked with the Somali-born writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali to produce the film Submission, which criticized the treatment of women in Islam and aroused controversy among Muslims...

. Pro-Islam columnist Jan Guillou

Jan Guillou

Jan Oskar Sverre Lucien Henri Guillou is a Swedish author and journalist. Among his books are a series of spy fiction novels about a spy named Carl Hamilton, and a trilogy of historical fiction novels about a Knight Templar, Arn Magnusson...

 at the Aftonbladet

Aftonbladet

Aftonbladet is a Swedish tabloid founded by Lars Johan Hierta in 1830 during the modernization of Sweden. It is one of the larger daily newspapers in the Nordic countries. Aftonbladet is owned by the Swedish Trade Union Confederation and Norwegian media group Schibsted, and its editorial page...

 news paper called for calm and wrote "it would be of great harm for Sweden's Muslims if Søgaard was harmed".http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/nyheter/story/0,2789,638947,00.html

From 1990 to 2000 Søgaard was married to the successful Swedish singer Carola Häggkvist

Carola Häggkvist

Carola Maria Häggkvist , better known as simply Carola, is a Swedish singer and occasional songwriter. She has been among Sweden's most popular performers since the early 1980s, and has released albums ranging from pop and disco to hymns and folk music...

. Together they have a son, Amadeus, born in 1998. Søgaard is a good friend of Swedish-Nigeria

Nigeria

Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

n artist Dr. Alban

Dr. Alban

Alban Uzoma Nwapa , known by his stage name Dr. Alban, is a Nigerian, Sweden-based musician and producer with his own record label dr-records. His music can best be described as a Eurodance/hip-hop reggae with a dancehall style. He is most famous for his worldwide 1992 hit "It's My...

, retired footballer Thomas Brolin and table tennis player Jan-Ove Waldner

Jan-Ove Waldner

Jan-Ove Waldner is a Swedish table tennis player. He is known as "the Mozart of table tennis" and is a legend in his native Sweden as well as in China. In China he is known as 老瓦 Lao Wa - "Old Wa" or 常青树 Chang Qing Shu - "Evergreen"...

. They are often seen together in Stockholm

Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

.

External links

• Runar Søgaard, official website