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Sweden: Leftist former Gothenburg mayor says
‘I should have put more effort into fighting Islamism’
JUL 19, 2023 5:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER
Those who had sounded warnings in the past were “met with silence or suspected of doing the business of racist forces.”
Now Ann-Sofie Hermansson will also be tarred with smears of “racism” and “Islamophobia.” The Left sticks with what works, however dishonest and defamatory it may be.
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Ann-Sofie Hermansson: I should have put even more effort into fighting Islamism
translated from “Ann-Sofie Hermansson: Jag borde lagt ännu mer kraft på att bekämpa islamismen,” by Ann-Sofie Hermansson, Göteborgs-Posten, July 12, 2023:
There were people who would become my friends. Wise but anxious representatives of the police, social services and journalism. They had warned in the past, but were met with silence or suspected of doing the business of racist forces. In the highly readable book “Den omhuldade islamisten” published by Fri Tanke förlag, the journalist and author Magnus Sandelin writes about the years when radicalization took off in Sweden.
In the reviled Rosengård report, which came back in 2009, warnings were given of Islamist radicalization in Malmö. But the subsequent discussion was about something else entirely. “The opportunities for an incredibly urgent discussion about radicalization, when there was still time to put measures in place to slow down bad developments, were lost.” Instead, a lot of journalists, decision makers and opinion leaders devoted their time and energy to denying the problems.
Terrorist researcher Magnus Ranstorp believes that Sweden, like Norway, should have already legislated in 2012-2013 to deal with the problem of jihadist travel, but that the issue was too sensitive at the time. In 2014, things turned around. When three hundred Swedes, Gothenburg was overrepresented, had traveled to IS and similar groups, it was no longer possible to deny the problem.
A story emerges about a missionary Salafism in Sweden in the early 2010s, which financially and ideologically supports IS and other terrorist groups, as well as a recruiting Salafism that sends young people to fight abroad. And money was not in short supply. In Säpo’s annual report 2021, it is stated that hundreds of millions of kroner of public funds have gone to organizations with connections to violent extremist environments.
Social secretary Bettan Byvald in Angered addresses a new phenomenon. It is about activists who apply for positions where they can exercise power over children and young people. “It doesn’t have to be religious activism, but it can also be criminal clans working strategically. That they work their way into our administrations, above all as teachers, leisure leaders and civil servants but also politicians in our committees. We should not think that we are exempt from this.”
It is such things that in the long run undermine our democracy and damage our society. When, in the words of the philosopher Karl Popper, we become so tolerant that we are not prepared to defend the tolerant society against the attacks of the intolerant.
I have never regretted taking the fight to the fight against radicalization in Gothenburg. It was, and is, the anxiety to speak plainly about extremism which is our worst enemy. On the contrary, I should have pushed the issue harder.
Putting the Muslim genie back in the bottle will prove to be much harder than letting it out. And much harder than it might have been 10 years ago.
Iraq boots out Swedish ambassador after Qur'an desecrated in Stockholm
Demonstrator stepped on and kicked Muslim holy book near the Iraqi Embassy
in Swedish capital
The Associated Press · Posted: Jul 19, 2023 7:06 PM PDT |
Protesters scale a wall at the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad on Thursday. (Ahmed Saad/Reuters)
Iraq's prime minister ordered the expulsion of the Swedish ambassador from Iraq and the withdrawal of the Iraqi chargé d'affaires from Sweden on Thursday as a man desecrated of a copy of the Qur'an in Stockholm with permission from Swedish authorities.
The diplomatic blowup came hours after protesters angered by the planned burning of a copy of the Islamic holy book stormed the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad early Thursday, breaking into the compound and lighting a small fire.
Online videos showed demonstrators at the diplomatic post waving flags and signs showing the influential Iraqi Shia cleric and political leader Muqtada al-Sadr before a planned burning of the Islamic holy book Thursday in Stockholm by an Iraqi asylum-seeker who burned a copy of the Qur'an in a previous demonstration last month.
trying to break down a front door. (Ali Jabar/The Associated Press)
Following the incident, the Swedish Embassy announced that it had closed to visitors without specifying when it would reopen.
Cutting ties
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said in a statement after meeting with security officials that Iraqi authorities will prosecute those responsible for the arson, as well as refer "negligent security officials" for investigation.
However, the statement also said that the Iraqi government had informed its Swedish counterpart on Wednesday that Iraq would cut off diplomatic relations should the Qur'an burning go forward. Hours later, Sudani announced the ordered expulsion of the Swedish ambassador.
The announcement came after two men held an anti-Islam protest on a lawn about 100 metres from the Iraqi Embassy in Stockholm. One of them, identified by Swedish media as Salwan Momika, an Iraqi of Christian origin who lives in Sweden as a self-identified atheist, stepped on and kicked the Qur'an, but didn't set it on fire.
Momika also stepped on and kicked an Iraqi flag and photographs of Sadr and of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Protestor Salwan Momika appears outside the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm, Thursday, July 20, 2023, where he plans to burn a copy of the Qur'an and the Iraqi flag. (Oscar Olsson/TT/The Associated Press)
About 50 people including journalists and a handful of counter-demonstrators who chanted religious slogans watched the demonstration from behind police barricades as plainclothes and uniformed officers stood by.
Following the protest and Sudani's announcement, the head of Iraq's Media and Communications Commission announced it had suspended the licence of Swedish communications company Ericsson to operate in Iraq.
Before the planned protest in Stockholm dozens of men climbed over the fence at the complex containing the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad, Video footage showed men trying to break down a door, setting a fire and standing, some shirtless in the summer heat, inside what appeared to be a room at the embassy, an alarm audible in the background.
Others later performed predawn prayers outside of the embassy.
Diplomatic staff safe
As dawn broke, police and other security officials gathered at the embassy as firefighters tried to douse the flames from the ladder of a fire truck. Some demonstrators still stood at the site, holding placards showing al-Sadr's face, apparently left alone by police.
The Swedish Foreign Ministry said in a statement that its staff were safe.
"We condemn all attacks on diplomats and staff from international organizations," the ministry said. "Attacks on embassies and diplomats constitute a serious violation of the Vienna Convention. Iraqi authorities have the responsibility to protect diplomatic missions and diplomatic staff."
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström called the attacks "completely unacceptable" in a statement, and said the ministry would summon Iraq's chargé d'affaires in Stockholm, slamming Iraqi authorities for "seriously failing" in their responsibility to protect the embassy and its personnel.
The Finnish embassy in Baghdad is adjacent to the Swedish embassy, in an area enclosed by blast walls. Finland's ambassador to Iraq, Matti Lassila, told the Finnish public broadcaster YLE that the staff of the Swedish and Finnish embassies were proactively evacuated Wednesday and were uninjured.
Iraq's Foreign Ministry also issued a statement condemning the attack and promising to hold the perpetrators accountable, without explaining how it allowed the breach to happen or identifying who carried out the assault.
Stockholm police spokesman Mats Eriksson confirmed that police had granted permission for a demonstration involving two people outside the Iraqi Embassy in Stockholm on Thursday.
The right to hold public demonstrations is strong in Sweden and protected by the constitution. Blasphemy laws were abandoned in the 1970s. Police generally give permission based on whether they believe a public gathering can be held without major disruptions or risks to public safety.
However, for Muslims, the burning of the Qur'an represents a blasphemous desecration of their religion's holy text. Qur'an burnings in the past have sparked protests across the Muslim world, some turning violent. In Afghanistan, the Taliban have suspended all the activities of Swedish organizations in the country in response to the recent Qur'an burning.
Last month, man identified by local media and on his social media as Momika burned a Qur'an outside a Stockholm mosque during the major Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, triggering widespread condemnation in the Islamic world.
A similar protest by a far-right activist was held outside Turkey's Embassy earlier this year, complicating Sweden's efforts to convince Turkey to let it join NATO.
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