Ulf Erik Knudsen (born 20 December 1964) is a Norwegian politician representing the Progress Party. He has been a Member of Parliament from

Buskerud Buskerud () is a Counties of Norway, county and a current electoral district in Norway, bordering Akershus, Oslo, Innlandet, Vestland, Telemark and Vestfold. The region extends from the Oslofjord and Drammensfjorden in the southeast to Hardanger ...

since 1997.

Political views

In 2006, Knudsen proposed a full stop of immigration to Drammen for fifteen years, being worried about the city getting divided into

ghetto A ghetto is a part of a city in which members of a minority group are concentrated, especially as a result of political, social, legal, religious, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished than other ...

s. He then also wished to take a settlement against "extreme

Islamists Islamism is a range of Religion, religious and Politics, political ideological movements that believe that Islam should influence political systems. Its proponents believe Islam is innately political, and that Islam as a political system is su ...

", who he claimed was infiltrating the Norwegian society. He has also been critical of "elitist culture", and has proposed to withdraw the public economical support for

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

s who do not have a broad popular market of demand for their work. He has also been worried about the public economical support for "immigrant culture", of which he also want to withdraw completely. Knudsen has expressed support for the death penalty.

Facebook

In January 2010, Knudsen was reported to use the Muhammad cartoon drawn by

Kurt Westergaard Kurt Westergaard (born Kurt Vestergaard; 13 July 1935 – 14 July 2021) was a Danish cartoonist. In 2005 he drew a cartoon of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, wearing a bomb in his turban as a part of the ''Jyllands-Posten'' Muhammad cartoons, whic ...

as his profile picture on ''

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

''. He said that this was "done in sympathy with one who is threatened by forces who want to limit

freedom of speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been r ...

". In February 2010, Knudsen was reported to have joined a ''Facebook'' group called "We who demand a non-Muslim

taxi A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a Driving, driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of thei ...

driver". This incident was a response to a demonstration by Muslim taxi drivers, who on 6 February had laid down their work, again in response to the publication of a Muhammad cartoon by the newspaper ''

Dagbladet () is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally it was considered the main liberal newspaper of Norway, with a ...

'' Knudsen said that this demonstration was an expression of not respecting freedom of speech.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Knudsen, Ulf Erik 1964 births Living people Progress Party (Norway) politicians Norwegian Christians Members of the Storting 2001–2005 Members of the Storting 1997–2001 Members of the Storting 2005–2009 Members of the Storting 2009–2013