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Swedish Politicians: “Islam is Definitely Compatible with Democracy!” Part II of a Series: The Islamization of Sweden by Ingrid Carlqvist

June 20, 2017   Uncategorized   No comments
  • With their goodhearted eagerness to be inclusive, not to discriminate and to defend freedom of religion, Swedish politicians are easy prey for Islamists with an anti-democratic agenda.”The presumption is that Muslims want nothing more than to adapt to a Western way of life and Western values. … the presumption is also that Islam can be tamed…” — Jimmie Åkesson, Sweden Democrats party leader.
  • “Democracy is a man-made system, meaning rule by the people for the people. Thus it is contrary to Islam, because rule is for Allaah… it is not permissible to give legislative rights to any human being…” — Sheik Muhammad Saalih al-Munajjid, in fatwa number 07166.
  • Everyone knows what happens to anyone who criticizes Islam — first, you get labeled an “Islamophobe racist,” then, like the artist Lars Vilks, you might get a fatwa of death on your head.
  • The question is where the democratic Muslims will be when Islam has gained even more influence in Sweden — will they stand up for Swedish democracy if that means openly going against the tenets of Islam?

It should not be a mystery whether Islam is compatible with democracy or not. All you have to do is look at the Islamic sources or call any imam and pretend to be impressed that Islam does not separate religion and politics.

Yet, when Gatestone Institute called Swedish politicians at all levels to ask if Islam and democracy were compatible, they gave assurances that there were no problems whatsoever with Islam’s capacity for democracy — or they hung up.

The two most common answers given were:

  1. Islam is definitely compatible with democracy!
  2. I cannot discuss this matter right now.

The question cuts through all parties; apparently no one dares to face the facts. So far, throughout history, and now in the world’s 57 Muslim countries in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), nowhere has Islam been compatible with democracy, freedom of speech, human rights and legal certainty. These Muslim states have not signed the UN’s Declaration of Human Rights, a document Swedish politicians seem to cherish. Instead, those countries have joined the Cairo Declaration, which stipulates that sharia is the only foundation for human rights. In short, human rights are all well and good so long as they do not conflict with sharia — if they do, sharia wins. In practice, this means that in the Islamic world, there are, in the Western sense, no human rights.

Then why do Swedish politicians believe they will be able to democratize Islam? Do they know something the rest of the world does not? Or, as the alternative is so terrifying, are they just pretending?

In 1985, Sweden was still a homogenous country. There was no doubt that Sweden belonged to the Swedes. We were proud of the country that our forefathers created, and the welfare state given to us by the Social Democrats. Women in veils and men in Middle Eastern clothes did not walk the streets, and Islam was still considered exotic. It was, as the analyst Ronie Berggren recently put it, “Arabian nights, or [the children’s book] Tam Sventon with his manservant, Mr. Omar, and the flying carpet. Olof Palme was still alive and Sweden thought itself a safe and functioning nation.”

But in 1985, the Swedish History Museum published an anthology, “Islam: religion, culture, society,” in which a diplomat, Dag Sebastian Ahlander, expressed concerns:

“Islamic immigration to Sweden can also lead to new conflicts within Swedish society. The Swedish perception is that there is freedom of religion in Sweden, but that perception is built on a private view of religion. To a Muslim, a large part of the rules regarding everyday activities is based on Islam; co-education of boys and girls, sex education, the view on the status of women, the demand that the slaughter of animals should be performed according to certain rituals, the demand that Friday should be a public holiday — all of these things are potential sources of conflict to Muslim immigrants in Swedish society, and they are all ultimately founded on religion.”

Sadly, the anthology fell into oblivion. All at once, while the Swedes were busy tending their gardens or repainting their summer houses, and feeling safe in the knowledge that our politicians surely were not lying to us, Islam was everywhere. The problems sketched out by Dag Sebastian Ahlander are now affecting all of us — but still the politicians refuse to address the most basic question.

In calls to politicians, Gatestone also encountered an incantation: Islam is democratic because it has to be democratic, because what will happen to Sweden otherwise?

Many politicians are, evidently, frightened to death to talk about Islam. They seem to do everything in their power to avoid giving an answer. They claim they are the wrong person to talk to; they hang up the phone — anything to skirt a discussion.

The reason may well be that no matter what they say, everyone knows what happens to anyone who criticizes Islam — first, you get labeled an “Islamophobe racist,” then, like the artist Lars Vilks, you might get a fatwa of death on your head.

Not one of the politicians or officials was able to name a single Muslim–majority country that has a decent democracy with legal certainty and freedom of speech. Not one could see any danger coming from an increasing Islamization of Sweden. Typical answers were:

“Yes, Islam is definitely compatible with democracy. At least, that is my interpretation.” — Beatrice Ask, Conservative (Moderaterna), former Minister of Justice.

“Of course if you read the words in the Quran, and the movements and schools that are leading around the world, then Islam is difficult to merge with the Swedish version of democracy. But I try to avoid talking categorically about Islam as a whole. Many people have Islam as their personal faith.” — Paula Bieler, Sweden Democrats.

“I have nothing against that. People can believe what they want in a democracy.” — Nooshi Dadgostar, Left Party (Vänsterpartiet).

“Islam as a religion is compatible with democracy, why wouldn’t it be? I don’t think there is any religion not compatible with democracy. As long as you don’t use religion to hurt each other, Christianity, Islam and Judaism are all democratic in their basic perspective.” — Jamal Mouneimne, Social Democrats (Socialdemokraterna).

“[Mehmet] Kaplan is a practicing Muslim in a democratically elected government, so of course both he and I believe Islam is compatible with democracy. He is also an anti-racist, a feminist and he stands up for human rights.” — Mikaela Kotschack, Green Party (Miljöpartiet), Press Secretary for the recently resigned Mehmet Kaplan.

“I cannot answer that I’m afraid. This calls for a longer discussion, you cannot just answer yes or no to that question. … No, the question does not make me nervous, but it demands knowledge and a longer discussion.” — Larry Söder, Christian Democrats (Kristdemokraterna).

The civil servants, who are supposed to give the politicians more insight into current political issues, seem no more knowledgeable than the politicians. Deputy Assistant Göran Ternbo, the Government Offices’ expert on democracy and human rights, was also asked if Islam is compatible with democracy:

“Eh, ah … that’s a controversial issue, it is. I don’t know. You cannot be that categorical answering one way or the other. Why are you asking these questions? It feels … where are you going with this?”

Gatestone: We just want to know what the government’s view on Islam is. Are you aware of the Islamic agenda?

Ternbo: “We have freedom of religion in Sweden.”

Gatestone: Can you say that Islam fits into democratic Sweden?

Ternbo: “Yes, if they follow our laws.”

Gatestone: But many say they want sharia?

Ternbo: “I have never heard that.”

Gatestone: Can you mention one democratic Muslim country?

Ternbo: “I do not understand where this is going. If you want to discuss Islam, I advise you to contact the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, they have experts on Islam.”

Gatestone: But the politicians are filling the country with Islam right now, how does that affect Sweden’s future?

Ternbo: “My job is to deal with completely different issues, so I cannot answer that. Right now, I’m working on the Nordic Sami Convention.”

Gatestone: You work with human rights, have the Muslim countries accepted the UN Declaration on Human Rights?

Ternbo: “Yes, they’ve accepted a number of declarations, including the Cairo Declaration.”

Gatestone: Does the Cairo Declaration view human rights the same way we do?

Ternbo: “I don’t want to continue this discussion, it feels like an interrogation. We have freedom of religion in Sweden.”

Gatestone: Is it possible to use Swedish democracy to abolish democracy?

Ternbo: “This is going too far. I have a meeting now. Goodbye.”

The Swedes are highly secularized. They have never asked to be invaded by fierce religious rules. However, the huge immigration of asylum seekers, mainly from Muslim-majority countries, has turned everything the Swedes take for granted upside down — such as the idea that people mind their religious business in private, and that you can trust what other people tell you.

Can you trust what Muslim politicians are saying? In the Nordic culture, telling the truth is a virtue. The Aesir clan of the gods in Norse mythology listed nine noble virtues: courage, love of the truth, honorable living, fidelity, discipline, hospitality, confidence, diligence and endurance. In Islam, however, love of the truth does not seem to be a prominent virtue — in some circumstances, not only is lying allowed, it is compulsory to lie if it benefits Islam.

The question of whether Islam and democracy are compatible is probably the most important one that Sweden has faced in modern times. If Islam is not compatible with democracy, while the number of Muslims in Sweden grows week by week, then Sweden as a democratic country may soon be but a memory.

With their goodhearted eagerness to be inclusive, to defend freedom of religion, and not to discriminate against any group, Swedish politicians are easy prey for Islamists with an anti-democratic agenda.

Islam has its own system of justice, built on divine law (sharia); a ban on any and all criticism of Islam, and laws regulating virtually everything in everyone’s life. Moreover, there seems to be no interest on the part of the newcomers in abandoning these traditions in favor of the traditions of the West.

The fact that all political parties apart from the Sweden Democrats (who are critical of immigration) have Muslim representatives might lead people to think that if there are Muslims working within our democratic system, they must be democrats.

Yet Swedish imams make no secret that in Islam, politics and religion are branches on the same tree. If you phone an imam, and say you are a Swede who has grown tired of the Swedish Church’s compliance on political issues, and that you have thought about converting to Islam, you might hear, as imam Ali at the Islamic Cultural Center in Lund, said, “No, you cannot take politics out of Islam, it is a part of our religion. Islam is a complete system, which people need.”

Of course, if you are critical of Islam mixing politics and religion, you will not get answers like that — the imams evidently know that such answers are not popular in Sweden — anyway, not yet.

Anyone who thinks that these candid imams might be mistaken can study the official pronouncements on the subject. In fatwa number 07166, for instance, entitled, “Ruling on democracy and elections and participating in that system,” Sheik Muhammad Saalih al-Munajjid, one of the most respected scholars in Sunni Islam, writes:

“Praise be to Allaah. Firstly: Democracy is a man-made system, meaning rule by the people for the people. Thus it is contrary to Islam, because rule is for Allaah, the Most High, the Almighty, and it is not permissible to give legislative rights to any human being, no matter who he is.”

His fatwa number 98134, “Concept of democracy in Islam,” states:

“Democracy is a system that is contrary to Islam, because it gives the power of legislation to the people or to those who represent them (such as members of Parliament). Based on that, in democracy legislative authority is given to someone other than Allah, may He be exalted; rather it is given to the people and their deputies, and what matters is not their consensus but the majority. Thus what the majority agree upon becomes laws that are binding on the nation, even if it is contrary to common sense, religious teaching or reason. In these systems legislation has been promulgated allowing abortion, same-sex marriage and usurious interest (riba); the rulings of sharee’ah have been abolished; and fornication/adultery and the drinking of alcohol are permitted. In fact this system is at war with Islam and its followers.”

In fatwa number 111898, he answers a question on whether it is permissible to participate in non-Muslim, democratic elections:

“The Muslim participants should intend thereby to serve the interests of the Muslims and ward off evil and harm from them. The Muslim participants should think it most likely that their participation will have positive effects that will benefit the Muslims in that country, such as supporting their position, conveying their requests to the decision makers and those who are in charge of the country, and protecting their religious and worldly interests. The Muslim’s participation in these elections should not lead to him neglecting his religious duties.”

In fatwa number 178354, the Sheik is asked, “What is the ruling on one who reviles the Muslims and praises the kuffaar [infidels], and even wishes to be one of them?” He replies:

“Allah, may He be exalted, has instructed His believing slaves to love one another and to take one other as friends, and He has instructed them to hate His enemies and regard them with enmity for the sake of Allah. He has stated that friendship can only be among the believers and enmity is to be between them and the kaafirs; disavowing them is one of the basic principles of their faith and is part of perfecting their religious commitment. There are very many verses, hadeeths and comments of the early generation to that effect.”

That Islam combines religion and politics, with a view to using politics to advance the religion, and further these views, which are clearly stated, appears a totally foreign concept to Swedish politicians. Perhaps this is the reason that a Turkish-born Muslim, Mehmet Kaplan, could become Minister for Housing and Urban Development, all the while rubbing shoulders with the Islamists of Turkish groups Milli Görüs and the neo-fascists of the Grey Wolves — he was convinced no one would ever question him or his agenda, as questioning him about such alliances would be considered “Islamophobic.”

When pictures of him consorting with these groups were leaked to the media, a video clip also emerged in which Kaplan compared Israel’s actions with the Palestinians to Nazi Germany’s treatment of the Jews. That remark, in 2016, crossed the line for what an Islamist may say and do in Sweden. In Sweden, it is incredibly important not to question the Holocaust. Disapproval may possibly have come as a surprise to many, who perceive Sweden’s Israel policy under Minister for Foreign Affairs Margot Wallström as extremely critical of Israel. Wallström and the government’s criticism of Israel stems mainly from a view of Israel as the stronger party in the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians, and from not recognizing that the Muslims and Arabs in the larger conflict perpetually threaten genocide against Israel and the Jews.

Mehmet Kaplan’s remark forced him to resign. Alas, anyone thinking that the Kaplan affair would lead to a discussion of the role of Islam in Swedish politics, is mistaken. Nothing in the public debate so far suggests that Swedish politicians will seriously start looking into a possible underlying agenda among Muslim politicians, such as that they might in fact be working to spread Islam in Sweden, as Sheik Muhammad Saalih al-Munajjid encourages. Such fatwas can be found in his IslamQA.info, one of the world’s most popular websites on Islam.

Mehmet Kaplan, a Turkish-born Muslim, became Sweden’s Minister for Housing and Urban Development, all the while rubbing shoulders with the Islamists of Turkish groups Milli Görüs and the neo-fascists of the Grey Wolves — he was convinced no one would ever question him or his agenda, for fear that doing so would be considered “Islamophobic.” Kaplan was only forced to resign in April after revelations that he compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to Nazi Germany’s treatment of Jews. (Image source: Wikimedia Commons/Jan Ainali)

Mehmet Kaplan had only just resigned, when, within the Green Party, the next scandal broke. Yasri Khan, chairman of Swedish Muslims for Peace and Justice (Svenska muslimer för fred och rättvisa), was also a would-be member of the Green Party executive committee. In a news report on Sweden’s TV4, viewers watched in amazement as Khan refused to shake the female reporter’s hand. Was a man who did this really a good representative for the “feminist” Green Party?

When the Green Party’s spokesman, Gustav Fridolin, tried to explain Khan’s actions and why he had been recommended for the party’s executive, he only made matters worse. On a morning television show, Fridolin said that he “did not understand that women could feel so offended by someone refusing to shake hands.” The same evening, Fridolin apologized for the apology.

The Green Party may be the easiest party in which Islamists can act as entryists. The party appears particularly fond of physical diversity and seems willing to accept just about anybody who appears to be not an ethnic Swede. Possibly the Green Party never counted on the Swedish people, including their own constituents, having a completely different view of religion, politics, gender equality and handshakes.

After these scandals, the scholar Lars Nicander of the Swedish Defense University warned in Aftonbladet that the Green Party might have been infiltrated by Islamists:

“I see a resemblance with how the Soviet Union acted during the Cold War, when it tried to infiltrate various democratic parties, and these methods are similar to what we see today, when people close to the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist party, apparently have gotten a strong foothold within the Green Party.”

A few days later, the Social Democratic politician Nalin Pekgul, a Kurdish Muslim, told the public-service Sveriges Television that she believes the Green Party is rife with Islamists: “The Green Party has for a long time become an arena for many Islamists to involve themselves in. That is the party where they have been strongest and most successful.”

She also said that while other parties have been exposed to Islamists, the Green Party has been affected the most:

“The Islamists in the Green Party are members of the party executive, they are in City Halls around the country, in the District Councils, and they have friends in the Government Offices who push their issues and make sure their organizations get lots of money.”

The key issue is what, if any, lesson Swedish politicians have learned from the Islamist revelations this spring. If Sweden is to survive as a secular democracy, then all politicians need to understand what Islam actually is. The fact that there are democratic Muslims does not mean that Islam itself is compatible with democracy. Individual Muslims may make a distinction between politics and religion, but this does not mean that Islam accepts this division. The question is where the democratic Muslims will be when Islam has gained even more influence in Sweden: Will they stand up for Swedish democracy if that means openly going against the tenets of Islam?

In 2009, the year before the Sweden Democrats party entered parliament, party leader Jimmie Åkesson published an opinion piece, headlined “The Muslims are our greatest foreign threat,” in the newspaper Aftonbladet:

“This is the reason today’s multicultural Swedish power elite is so totally blind to the dangers of Islam and Islamization. The presumption is that Muslims want nothing more than to adapt to a Western way of life and Western values, and that Islam is essentially the same as Christianity, the only difference being that Muslims have another name for God. Thus, the presumption is also that Islam can be tamed, the same way secular forces have tamed European Christianity and relegated it to the private sphere.”

Åkesson further wrote that Islam has affected the Swedish society to a much higher degree than Swedish society has affected Islam. He listed several areas where Islam has made an impact. People who have made fun of Islam are forced to live under constant police protection; Muslim terrorist organizations are growing stronger; Muslim representatives are demanding sharia laws; taxpayer money is being spent on circumcising baby boys; public swimming pools separate men and women; demands for halal meat at supermarkets while schools should no longer serve pork, and so on.

Not even the Sweden Democrats seem to have focused on Islam’s demands for political influence. Party leader Jimmie Åkesson asked what things will look like in another few decades, when the Muslim population has increased several times over, and cities such as Malmö most likely have a Muslim majority. He concluded the article with a promise:

“The multicultural societal elites may see this future as a colorful, interesting change for a Sweden and a Europe one usually denies has ever been ‘Swedish’ or ‘European’. As a Sweden Democrat, I see this as our greatest foreign threat since World War II, and I promise to do everything in my power to reverse this trend when we go to the polls next year.”

Åkesson’s article ignited a firestorm. Members of the “establishment” swore they had never read anything so vile, and the article was reported to the Chancellor of Justice as suspected “hate speech.” However, the Chancellor at the time, Göran Lambertz, did not open an investigation into the case. He noted that the law allows for “criticism of ethnic groups or circumstances pertaining to those groups.”

“There is no doubt whatsoever that this does not cross the line for criminal behavior. You are allowed to say a lot of things that can be considered offensive and annoying and in many ways unpopular. That goes with freedom of speech.”

Seven years have passed. The Muslim population of Sweden is approaching one million (out of 9.8 million inhabitants), but even the Sweden Democrats do not mention a threat from Islam.

But whether the politicians’ unwillingness to discuss a threat stems from ignorance or fear, to answer a question by hanging up the phone is simply not good enough. It is the politicians who have filled the country with Islam, and the Swedish people have a right to know the result. Above all, they have a right to demand that the politicians know the consequences of their decisions for the Swedes, who are secular and who love their democracy.

Ingrid Carlqvist is a journalist and author based in Sweden, and a Distinguished Senior Fellow of Gatestone Institute.

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Swedish Jihadi: “Go There with a Bomb” One month of Islam in Sweden: June 2015

June 20, 2017   Uncategorized   No comments
  • “Muslims in Sweden will become more and more degraded … so instead of putting on a T-shirt and going to the most hated place for Allah just to stand there and do dawah [missionize], you should go there with a bomb instead. … Now is the time to show who the earth belongs to!!! … Save yourself from narr [hellfire] by killing a kafir.” — Mikael Skråmo, Swedish convert to Islam.
  • If the 18-year-old had been a Swedish citizen, the Security Service would not have been able to stop him from going to Syria: it is not yet illegal in Sweden to travel to join ISIS or any other terror group. They would have had to be content with seeing him off, and perhaps politely asking for an interview if and when he came back.
  • “Why are these attacks happening during Ramadan? It’s because the jihadis don’t view the violence as something unholy. If the violence is happening for God’s sake and according to the rules Islam is perceived to decree, it is in fact a holy action. To the jihadis, this type of holy violence is more meritorious in God’s eyes than fasting, prayer and charity. … In the hadith, jihad in the month of Ramadan is portrayed as giving extra glory.” — Mohamed Omar, poet and social commentator.
  • “The situation in the suburbs is a disaster for Sweden.” — Mona Sahlin, national coordinator of the struggle against violent extremists.

 

In early June, a public debate began on the oppression of women in the Muslim-dominated suburbs of Sweden.

Zeliha Dagli, who labels herself a secular feminist, wrote in an article in the newspaper Aftonbladet that she fled Turkey 30 years ago, but now wants to seek asylum “again” — in Sweden. Dagli lives in Husby, the Stockholm suburb that made headlines around the world in the summer of 2013, when it was plagued by massive immigrant riots.

Dagli says these suburbs are no longer a part of Sweden, but, rather, redolent of the Middle East. She writes that her everyday life is being more and more influenced by suburban fundamentalists:

“I want a safe haven and I want to be able to drink a glass of beer with my friends Lars, Hassan, Maria, Osman, Ayse and others. I want to go to the Senior Citizens Association and listen to jazz and dance the twist. I want to grow vegetables in the garden and wear short pants, and go to the bathhouse in a bikini. In my neighborhood, I want to escape the judgmental looks of men staring at me. I want to bring home whomever I like, but I can’t do these things today because my rights are limited and controlled in my neighborhood. These bearded ‘shadows’ frighten me.”

In a televised debate, Mona Sahlin, Sweden’s “national coordinator of the struggle against violent extremists,” was forced to admit that the situation in the suburbs is a “disaster for Sweden.” Ironically, Sahlin herself has been instrumental in laying the groundwork for contempt against Swedish culture, by saying in reply to a question about what Swedish culture is:

“I’ve been asked that a lot, but I can’t put my finger on what Swedish culture might be. I think that might be the reason many Swedes envy the immigrants. You have a culture, an identity, a history, something that binds you together. And what do we have? We have Midsummer’s Eve and ‘corny’ things like that.”[1]

On June 8, a Norwegian teenager was apprehended at Gothenburg’s Landvetter Airport by the Swedish Security Service. The young man was on his way to join ISIS; the arrest was made thanks to Norwegian authorities, who had put out a warrant for him. The remarkable thing is that if the 18-year-old had been a Swedish citizen, nobody would have been able to stop him from going: it is not yet illegal in Sweden to travel to join ISIS or any other terror group. The Security Service would have had to be content with seeing him off, and perhaps politely asking for an interview if and when he came back.

On June 10, the alternative online newspaper Fria Tider noted that an 18-year-old Somali man had been taken into custody, suspected of robbing a pawnshop in Västerås. Last summer, the same man had been arrested on suspicion of taking part in the brutal rape of a woman who had a gun shoved up her vagina. He was not, however, convicted of this rape. Ironically, in April of last year, he was honored by the police as a role model for his commitment to the “Tro, hopp och kärlek” [Faith, hope and love] Association in the Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby. The police posted photos on their website, showing him meeting the then Minister of Justice, Beatrice Ask — even though he had already been convicted of unlawful threats, drug-related offenses and driving without a license. After Fria Tider’s article, police removed the photos from their website.

On June 12, blogger Torbjörn Jerlerup revealed that a Swedish-Norwegian convert to Islam, Mikael Skråmo, is urging Muslims to commit terrorist acts in Sweden. Skråmo wrote on his Facebook page:

“Muslims in Sweden will become more and more degraded … so instead of putting on a T-shirt and going to the most hated place for Allah, just to stand there and do dawah [missionize] you should go there with a bomb instead. … Download Inspire Magazine, start making bombs from simple stuff you can buy at whatever Ica and Coop [stores], you choose. Now is the time to show who the earth belongs to!!!”

According to the journalist Per Gudmundson, this is the first time a Swedish ISIS-jihadi has promoted terror on Swedish soil. Skråmo also urged his brethren to kill the artist Lars Vilks and stressed that Islam sanctions the killing of infidels. “He who kills a kafir [infidel] will never go to the same place as he in hell. Save yourself from narr [hellfire] by killing a kafir.”

Skråmo, born in Sweden to Norwegian parents, used to be known as a preacher in radical Muslim circles. Gudmundson writes: “He used to give lectures, for example, for United Muslims of Sweden [Sveriges Förenade Muslimer], and they recently received a 300,000 kronor [about $33,000 USD] subsidy from the Authority for Youth — and civil society issues, to fight “intolerance.” United Muslims of Sweden is a part of the dawah-movement — and a radical awakening among Swedish Muslims.

 

Mikael Skråmo, a Swedish convert and ISIS jihadist, brought his family to Syria. Now he is urging Muslims in Sweden to bomb their workplaces.

Also on June 12, journalist Per Gudmundson wrote that the well-known hate preacher Kamal El-Mekki is going to visit Rinkeby Folkets Hus [a community center in a Stockholm suburb] and the Stockholm mosque. “El-Mekki,” he wrote, “is an advocate of Saudi criminal laws — such as mutilation and beheading — in the West. He is an advocate of capital punishment for those who leave Islam. He also promotes slavery in our time, and thinks that the celebration of Christmas and other non-Muslim holidays is ‘evil’.”

Three days later, Rinkeby Folkets Hus announced that they had cancelled the meeting with El-Mekki: “In accordance with our policy, we have decided that the preacher Kamal El-Mekki, who was scheduled to attend a meeting at Folkets Hus, is no longer welcome, due to expressing undemocratic views. He has also expressed contempt against women and homosexuals. To lend our facilities to Kamal El-Mekki would be a breach against our policy regarding all men being equal.”

On June 15, Mona Walter was also stopped from speaking at Rinkeby Folkets Hus. Walter, a native of Somalia and a convert to Christianity, was scheduled to speak on democracy and freedom of religion. She lives under constant threat for having left Islam, and for travelling around Sweden talking about Islam. Unlike the Islamist Kamal El-Mekki, who was cancelled after Mona Walter, she has never spread hate or undemocratic views. Exactly why she wasn’t allowed to speak at Rinkeby Folkets Hus is unclear. Walter herself said that she was sure it was due to Muslims in the area signing petitions against her. In an interview with Christian paper Dagen, she said:

“I’ve wanted to come to Rinkeby for a long time, to talk to my fellow Somalis, about freedom of religion, about the fact that there are Christian Somalis and that their numbers are increasing, and about Jesus working miracles. Many of the Somali converts from Islam are threatened, and in some cases beaten, so they keep their conversions on Christianity to themselves. But I want to tell them that we have freedom of religion and freedom of speech in Sweden, and it’s important to tell it like it is – that not all Somalis are Muslims.”

Mona Walter has not given up on Rinkeby. She is determined, she says, to go there one day, “with Bible in one hand and the Quran in the other, and say that you Somalis have freedom of choice to believe anything you like. I have chosen Jesus, and so can you.”

On June 17, Sweden’s government presented its fast-tracked investigation into how terrorist travel can be made illegal. The members suggested that travelling to commit, or conspiring to commit, terrorist acts should be punishable by up to two years in prison. Financing terrorist activities should also be made illegal. “There is no excuse for these people [ISIS fighters],” said Morgan Johansson, the Minister of Justice, at the press conference. “They can’t say afterwards that they didn’t know what it was all about. They go with their eyes open.”

The changes in the law are now up for review and may come into force around April 1, 2016. Ironically, no suggestion has yet been put forth to criminalize the act of fighting for a terror organization. The government has started a separate inquiry, expected to conclude in June of next year, into this matter.

On June 21, the Israeli human rights organization Shurat HaDin-Israel Law Center demanded that the Swedish bank, SE-Banken, stop offering its services to the Free Gaza Movement and “Ship to Gaza,” both of which provide ships to try to break the legal Israeli naval blockade, established to prevent weapons, intended to kill Israelis, from being smuggled into the Hamas-controlled Gaza strip. For the last few years, Shurat HaDin has been successful, on behalf of the victims’ families, in suing terrorists who have murdered many people. Shurat HaDin found that SE-Banken had a mortgage on the fishing trawler Marianne av Göteborg, named after Marianne Skoog, who passed away in May 2014 and was said to have been a veteran within the Swedish “solidarity movement with Palestine.” Shurat HaDin wrote:

“You are placed on formal notice that Mr. Charles Bertel Andreasson, to whom SEB provided a mortgage to finance the purchase of the Marianne Av Goteborg intends to attempt to breach the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) coastal blockade of the Gaza Strip and enter into a violent confrontation with the Israeli armed forces. He has publicly announced he is seeking to smuggle contraband to the terrorist Hamas controlled enclave in violation of international law.”

But the letter to SEB CEO Annika Falkengren does not seem to have had any effect. The trawler cast off and headed for the Gaza Strip; it was boarded by the Israeli navy, and all aboard were deported to Sweden. According to the passengers on Marianne, the trawler was in international waters when it was boarded. Sweden therefore filed an official protest against Israel. When the Gaza-bound travellers came back to Sweden on July 6, the Swedish media greeted them as heroes. But sailor Charlie Andreasson has now lost all his licenses and certificates.

On June 22, several alternative media sites commemorated five years since Jennifer Lindström’s suicide. On June 6, 2008, 15-year-old Jennifer was subjected to a brutal gang rape, during which several immigrant boys dragged her off to a wooded area. The police found DNA evidence, but the suspects did not have prior criminal records, so police decided not to arrest them. When the inquiry was dropped after a year, Jennifer tried to commit suicide by slashing her wrists. She was saved that time, but two years after the gang rape, she killed herself by jumping in front of a train. A year later, a suspect was apprehended after he had attacked and beaten two girls. His DNA revealed that he had also been one of Jennifer’s rapists. Another youth was also later arrested. The sentences were lenient: Abdirahaman Abdullahi Yusuf, a Somali, was sentenced to five months in juvenile detention, and Granit Nito Rashica served six months in prison.

On June 26, Swedish Public Radio [Sveriges Radio] interviewed Magnus Sandelin, a journalist and author of the book Jihad-svenskarna i de islamistiska terrornätverken [“Jihadi Swedes in the Islamist Terrorist Networks”]. The book details the power struggle going on in Eskilstuna for the city’s mosques. Muslim groups have tried to take over the city’s biggest mosque, run by convert Leif Karlsson, also known as Abd al Haqq Kielan. Karlsson is considered by many to be not radical enough in his struggle to Islamize Sweden, thus, more fervent believers have tried to outmaneuver him through bribes and negative campaigns.

Sandelin says it has been hard discussing these problems in Sweden. One reason is that all criticism of immigrants’ culture and religion is thought to favor the Sweden Democrats Party (Sverigedemokraterna). Critics also runs the risk of being labeled racists, and having their lives threatened. Sandelin has had several death threats, just for pointing out some of the problems.

On June 27, the day after the world was shocked by three bloody global Islamist terror acts that took at least 200 lives, the church bells rang in the grand 12th century church of St. Petri in Malmö. They were not ringing to commemorate the victims of Islamist terror, but rather to support Islam. Officially, the bells tolled “in solidarity for the city’s diversity,” and in protest against the Pegida movement, which had held a meeting nearby criticizing Islam.

In a press release from the church, Vicar Anders Ekhem said he invited Rabbi Rebecca Lillian and Imam Salahuddin Barakat from the Islamic Academy. The goal of the gathering was said to be “to unite for an open and democratic society against antisemitism and Islamophobia”.

Immediately after the Pegida meeting, artist Dan Park was reported to the police for breaching hate speech laws. He had held up a banner equating Islam with fascism. Park has been convicted of the same crime before, in connection with an exhibition at a Malmö art gallery.

Also on June 27, the daily tabloid Aftonbladet revealed that their reporters had connected with ISIS recruiters on Facebook. A woman calling herself Umm G is recruiting girls to join the ISIS jihadists in Syria. One of the girls lured into going is 15-year-old “Anna.” Three weeks before Aftonbladet met her, she said goodbye to her mother, supposedly to go to school, but instead took a train to Copenhagen Airport in Denmark, where she boarded a plane bound for Istanbul. No one in her family had any idea where she was going, they told the paper, even though “Anna” had started using full-cover clothing and had even shown ISIS videos to the family. Nobody in the family could imagine she would really go, not even when social services showed up in response to an anonymous tip that “Anna” might try to run away to Syria.

She had formed a connection with an 18-year-old man, who told her about life in Syria, describing it as a paradise of money and wealth, where women are free because of how they dress — full niqab face-covering, long black robes and black gloves.

“He said it’s good down there, it’s not war everywhere. It’s freedom to cover your face,” Anna told Aftonbladet.

A friend notified the police, so the 15-year-old girl could be stopped by Turkish police at Istanbul Airport. She was put on a plane back to Copenhagen, where her family came and got her. The International Prosecutor’s Office in Malmö has opened an investigation concerning human trafficking.

On June 28, poet and social commentator Mohamed Omar warned about the danger of the Salafists, now beheading people in Europe. Mohamed Omar, who has a Swedish mother and an Iranian father, has a colorful past. As a 16-year-old, he converted to Islam, then debuted as a poet. He won cultural awards and became editor of Minaret magazine. In 2009, he suddenly declared himself an Islamist, praised Iran and explained on Swedish Public Television that “the great threat against society are the Zionists.”

Last year, Omar once again changed his stance and wrote a couple of books on why he since left Islamism. Omar is still a Muslim, but now he warns about the Salafists in particular, whom he feels have gained too much influence in Sweden. In an article on the debate website Det goda samhället [“The good society”], Omar wrote:

“But why are these attacks happening during Ramadan? A month of fasting, prayer and stillness? It’s because the jihadis don’t view the violence as something unholy. If the violence is happening for God’s sake and according to the rules Islam is perceived to decree, it is in fact a holy action. To the jihadis, this type of holy violence is more meritorious in God’s eyes than fasting, prayer and charity. They rely on the hadith, statements supposedly uttered by the prophet Muhammad himself, that praise jihad and make it a religious duty. In the hadith, jihad in the month of Ramadan is portrayed as giving extra glory.”

On June 29, the foundation Tryggare Sverige [“Safer Sweden”] reported that only one in five rape cases in Sweden are “resolved” by the police and judiciary, meaning that most rapists are either not arrested, not prosecuted, or not convicted. During the last five years, some 31,600 rapes or attempted rapes have been reported to the police. Of these, 6,235, or about 20% percent, have been “resolved.” Peter Strandell, of Tryggare Sverige, says that no one knows what to do about this problem — disastrous in a country with the second-highest number of reported rapes in the world.

“There are no surveys indicating what should be done,” Strandell says. “Instead, we’re in a deadlocked discussion about education and resources. That may be right. But as long as we don’t know the requisites, we don’t know what we need to do.”

Tryggare Sverige now demands vigorous efforts to increase the clearance rate, and suggests that the government should set up an expert team to review how the police and the prosecutors work.

[1] Interview, Euroturk magazine, 2002

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Swedish Imam to Muslims: “Do Not Befriend the Unbelievers”

June 20, 2017   Uncategorized   No comments

  • He forced the 24-year-old woman to get in his car at gunpoint. He took her to his apartment, where he raped her and bragged about how he had killed ten people. He also explained that since he was a Swedish citizen, he was now free to rape because he could not be deported.

  • “He of course realizes he is risking a very long prison sentence in the end, and should do whatever he can to avoid it, like get in a car and travel through Europe. That’s a pretty safe bet, considering the open borders.” — District Attorney discussing an accused murderer, released pending trial.

  • When asked if there might be terrorists and war criminals that have already been granted asylum in Sweden, Immigration Service Director General Mikael Ribbenvik said: “Yes, that is unfortunately the case.”

  • The obvious risk that they might commit terrorist acts, killing hundreds of Swedes, apparently makes no difference.

On July 1, the Swedish daily Gefle Dagblad revealed that an imam from the northern city of Gävle was the man behind the now-closed website, www.muslim.se, which stated, among other things, that homosexuality is punishable by death. The imam, Abo Raab, is a prominent figure in the Swedish Imam Association, which has received over 400,000 kronor (more than $47,000) from the government to “combat Islamophobia and racism in society.” When its officials applied for the money, the association claimed to want to create a professional website containing “factual and pertinent information about Islam” and “to build bridges between Muslims and non-Muslims.” But no bridges were built. The website, which was shut down in January for unknown reasons, listed the following as forbidden for Swedish Muslims:

  • Being homosexual, punishable by death.
  • Befriending non-believers and liking them.
  • Joining the communities of the non-believers, joining their political parties, increasing their numbers, adopting their nationalities (except when absolutely necessary), joining their armies or helping them develop weapons.
  • Imitating their clothing, appearance, speech etc., because this indicates a love for the person or people imitated.

On July 9, the Supreme Court of Sweden ruled that 41-year-old Muslim Ekrem Bregaj will be deported to his home country of Serbia. Mr. Bregaj was sentenced, in his absence, for a crime he committed in 2006: firing his gun in the air. Bregaj, a denizen of the small southern village of Skurup in Sweden, opposed extradition because he claimed that as a Muslim he was at risk of being “discriminated against” in Serbia. An extradition, he claimed, would be a violation of his human rights. The court was not convinced, and ruled that he be kept in custody until the deportation could be executed.

On July 9, the Administrative Court of Härnösand decided that a 39-year-old Somali man will be reimbursed for the plane tickets he bought for his ten children to travel from Ethiopia to Sweden. The man came to Sweden in 2009 and remains “dependent long-term on economic aid,” according to the court ruling. When the Immigration Service turned down the request for the airfare for his ten children, the Somali took out a loan and demanded that Social Services reimburse him. When they too said no, he appealed to the Administrative Court, which has now ruled that the Swedish taxpayers should pay for the plane tickets. In all, the bill amounts to 45,000 kronor (about $5,300). The government has since appealed the ruling:

“More and more applications for financial aid keep coming in all over the country. In the investigation pertaining to XX’s [the man’s name] request regarding economic assistance for travel costs, we contacted several other counties around the country. Through these contacts, we learned that similar applications are rejected because it is not considered reasonable for the county to pay for travel and reunions with relatives from other countries. We see a need for an up-to-date precedential verdict, taking into account the current immigration conditions and how reunions with families/children happen today.”

On July 10, alternative media reported that Samiyah M. Warsame, an administrator at the Immigration Service, likes and celebrates “Swedish” jihadis. Her job is to say yes or no to asylum applications (asylum, for obvious reasons, should probably not be granted to Islamists). All the while, she has been writing on Facebook about Swedish jihadis from Örebro: “Oh, masha Allah, how beautiful.”

The Swedish civil service and local authorities are apparently trying their best these days tohire as many people of non-Swedish descent as possible. They say it every time they seek new employees. They do this, they say, because they want to create diversity and “mirror society.”

These people do not always act in accordance with Swedish bureaucratic tradition, which consists of being very formal, and not, for instance, letting friends and relatives get better treatment. This break with tradition became obvious in 2013, when police arrested two men at the Malmö office of the Immigration Service, suspected of having sold residence permits. The men were convicted, and sentenced in May 2015.

Talal Abdelrahman, a Palestinian, was sentenced to three years in prison, while the other man, a 47-year-old from the Ivory Coast, was acquitted due to some uncertainties concerning dates. Abdelrahman is believed to have made at least half a million kronor ($59,000) from his illegal activities. Amer Ahmed Iskandar, who ran a restaurant in Malmö that was a well-known meeting place for immigrants seeking false papers, was sentenced to 18 months in prison. The verdicts show how employees at the Immigration Service sometimes seem to set rules aside for people living in ethnically parallel societies in Sweden. The convicted ringleader hasappealed the verdict.

On July 14, the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter wrote that during the first six months of 2015, Sweden’s Immigration Service reported 130 asylum seekers to the Security Service because they were considered a threat to national security. This number is greater than the figure for all of 2014.

When asked if there might be terrorists and war criminals that have already been granted asylum in Sweden, Immigration Services Director General Mikael Ribbenvik said: “Yes, that is unfortunately the case. We evolve our methods, but nothing is foolproof, of course. There are examples of war criminals being discovered after the fact.”

As more and more jihadis and war criminals come to Sweden, the number of people exposed as such, but who cannot be deported, increases — because they risk death or torture in their home countries. So far this year, 41 asylum seekers have been granted temporary residency status for that reason; last year that number was 20. Most of them are not in custody and can move freely in society; some will never be deported.

The obvious risk that they might commit terrorist acts, killing hundreds of Swedes, apparently makes no difference. “We do not send people to their deaths,” says Mikael Ribbenvik.

On July 14, three doctors and a former chief of police in Gothenburg presented a study inLäkartidningen, the magazine of Swedish physicians’ union. The study looks at the increasing number of gunshot wounds treated at Swedish hospitals — something that used to be quite a rare occurrence in Sweden but is now a routine part of emergency medicine:

“Caring for these patients puts high demands on the experience and competence of everyone involved. Typically, difficult decisions must be made under immense time constraints. The flow and need for admittance of trauma patients greatly affect how the emergency care is organized. Surveying incidence, injury characteristics, administration and costs is of vital importance to face these new challenges when it comes to allocating resources and developing trauma care.”

Between January 1, 2013 and June 30, 2014, 58 people were shot in Gothenburg. Fifty-seven were men; their median age was 26. Most injuries were in their arms and legs. Ten of the patients died. The total care time for the 47 admitted patients who survived was 316 days, putting the net health care cost at 6.2 million kronor ($730,000).

Since the study was concluded, criminal gangs have continued shooting at each other in Gothenburg (map). There were twelve shootings during the first five months of this year. Five young men died, and 16 people were wounded.

On July 14, a 22-year-old Somali man was prosecuted for a brutal rape in Uppsala earlier this summer. The man found his victim, a woman in her twenties, on the street at 5 a.m. He wrestled her to the ground, sat on her, held her arms down and said: “Do you want to live or die?” He repeated the question several times during the rape. Afterward, he fled the scene, but thanks to the victim’s description was apprehended a few hours later. At the time of his arrest, he had her cell phone on him. The 22-year-old has previous convictions for making unlawful threats, assault, battery and sexual molestation. However, that did not stop him from writing on Facebook that he thinks people who damage society should be deported from Sweden.

On July 15, a 30-year-old Kurdish man from Iraq was prosecuted for the attempted murder of a 40-year-old woman in Stockholm. The man wanted residency status; to that end, he tried to force the woman to marry him. When she refused, he stabbed her eight times in the face and chest. The knife attack took place on a walkway in a residential area. The woman sustained life-threatening injuries.

On July 16, two Kurdish men, aged 21 and 30, were convicted of being involved in an explosion in Nyköping on March 2. Two people were killed. Police believe the men packing a half-kilogram (1.1 pounds) of explosive material into a metal box when it suddenly went off. It is not known what the bomb was to be used for, but the district court concluded that the device “had no other meaningful use other than to cause people harm.” An explosives expert who testified during the trial said he had never before seen such a device, and that the very powerful bomb could have killed or injured people up to 600 meters (650 yards) away.

One of the two convicted men is not a Swedish citizen; and despite this being his eighth conviction for a violent crime in Sweden, he will not be deported to his native Iran. He was sentenced to two years in prison, and his partner in crime to one year and ten months.

On July 17, the Swedish Security Service (Säpo) revealed to date, between 30 and 40 women have traveled from Sweden to Syria to join the Islamic State (ISIS). In an e-mail to the Dagens Eko public radio news program, Säpo wrote that this is a “serious and disturbing turn of events,” adding that, “there are no verified reports that these women are actively taking part in combat or training for combat.”

Peder Hyllengren of the National Defense College told Dagens Eko that ISIS has a rather large group of sympathizing women in Sweden. “There are at least ten times as many who sympathize, compared to how many have gone,” says Hyllengren. “It’s about building the caliphate, becoming wives and birthing a new generation of jihadis. They become housewives, but many are very active in spreading the propaganda.”

On July 18, the local daily Östra Småland wrote that a group of Christian asylum seekers in the city of Kalmar, after being harassed and threatened by Muslims, had been forced to move from the Immigration Service housing where they were staying. The Muslims demanded that they stop wearing crosses and other Christian symbols, and did not allow them to use joint facilities, such as the kitchen, when Muslims were in there.

Mikael Lönngren, the local Immigration Service manager, told the paper that it was the Christians themselves who decided to move. The Immigration Service does not divide people into groups based on religion or ethnicity, which means that people from different sides of a conflict may end up living together. The reason is said to be a housing shortage. “We presume that those who flee to find a safe haven in our country will follow the laws of the land once they get here,” said Lönngren.

Asylum seekers in the Swedish city of Kalmar, where Christian refugees were forced to move out of public housing after being harassed and threatened by Muslims.

On July 23, in Gothenburg, the Security Service and the National Task Force apprehended two men suspected of terrorism and murder in Syria, and a third man was charged in absentia. It is the first time such a serious crime is being tried in accordance with the terrorism law. The three suspects are Swedish citizens — Yasser Sadek, 26 (wanted by Interpol), Iraqi-born Hassan al-Mandlawi, 32, and Ethiopian-born Al Amin Sultan, 30. A week later, the Court of Appeals released al-Mandlawi, also known as “Mark Abu Osama al-Suwaidi,” pending trial.

According to the court, there is little risk of al-Mandlawi obstructing the investigation, because he is in a wheelchair and has difficulty speaking. The district attorney was “surprised” by the release and told daily Dagens Nyheter that even though the man had been stripped of his passport, he may obviously still leave the country: “He of course realizes he is risking a very long prison sentence in the end, and should do whatever he can to avoid it, like get in a car and travel through Europe. That’s a pretty safe bet, considering the open borders. Also, there’s always the option of getting a fake passport, then you’re gone for good,” said district attorney Ronnie Jacobsson.

It recently came to light that the father of al-Mandlawi, the handicapped ISIS terrorist, also has a criminal past. As soon as he got his Swedish passport in 2003, he raped a 24-year-old woman — as revenge for her helping two of his daughters escape the “honor culture” he had forced upon them. He forced the woman to get in his car at gunpoint. He took her to his apartment, where he raped her and bragged about how he had killed ten people. He also explained that since he was a Swedish citizen, he was now free to rape because he could not be deported. The man was sentenced to a modest 3.5 years in prison for rape and unlawful threats.

Al-Mandlawi’s father also reportedly doused his wife in lighter fluid and struck a match. One of his daughters was granted “protected identity” to escape her father.

On July 23, the daily Sydsvenskan reported that Malmö is the city with the greatest frequency of bombings in all of Scandinavia. Göran Månsson, head of the bomb squad in Malmö, talked about this far-from-flattering record for Sweden’s third-largest city. Eighteen explosions have taken place so far in 2015. “Hand grenades are used in about fifty percent of the blasts that occur,” says Göran Månsson. “That wasn’t the case before. It’s frightening and very serious and also poses a great threat to the general public. Once a grenade is thrown, it is uncontrollable.”

Also on July 23, the daily Göteborgs-Posten reported that “Sweden is no longer as attractive an asylum country.” The Immigration Service, which usually inflates their forecasts, are now predicting a small decline in the number of asylum seekers in 2015 — from 80,000 to 74,000. One reason is said to be Sweden’s long waiting periods compared to Germany, which has a fast track, as well as the poor integration practices in Sweden. “It’s hard to get housing and jobs, and that affects people’s choice of destination,” said Immigration Service Director General Anders Danielsson.

Another reason is that it has become more difficult to move north through Europe. France, for example, has implemented border controls on the Italian border. Switzerland is considering doing the same, and Hungary is building a fence along its border with Serbia.

When it comes to the group referred to as “unaccompanied refugee children,” the Immigration Service is increasing its forecast from 8,000 to 12,000 arrivals. That estimate leaves Sweden continually in the number one spot in the EU when it comes to taking in so-called unaccompanied refugee children.

On July 29, a small Pride Parade marched through some of Stockholm’s Muslim-dominated suburbs. There was heavy media coverage, even by foreign media. The British newspaper,The Independent, for example, wrote an article headlined “Sweden right-wingers plan LGBT march through Stockholm’s Muslim-majority neighbourhoods.”

The Swedish mainstream media was quick to condemn the initiative, as was the National Coalition for Lesbian, Gay Bisexual, and Transgender Rights (RFSL). There was talk of “pinkwashing,” to promote friendliness to sexual preference rights, and also of the parade being an attempt to “provoke” Muslims. Apparently challenging Islam’s view of homosexuals as pariahs deserving the death penalty was not acceptable to members of the RFSL. They are evidently content just with arranging Pride Parades in central Stockholm, where no one questions homosexual rights anymore.

The Järva Pride Parade was conducted without incident, even if some Muslims in the area shouted “Allahu Akbar” [“Allah is Greater”] and “We are Muslims, what are you doing here, faggots?” However, the so-called “anti-racists” who had gone to the neighborhood to protest against the allegedly “provoking” parade were assaulted and beaten by masked assailants.

On July 30, the daily Dagens Nyheter revealed that almost 25% of foreign-born applicants to the Swedish armed forces are unable to pass the enrollment test. The extremely slimmed down Swedish military badly wants soldiers with foreign language and cultural skills, but qualified applicants are hard to come by.

According to a survey conducted at the Defense College of Karlstad, where, in 2013, applications to the military basic training were evaluated, 7.3% of Swedish-born men and 8.1% of Swedish-born women failed the test, compared to 24.2% of foreign-born men and 24.7% of foreign-born women.

The questions in the test, covering technical ability, spatial ability, verbal ability and logic, have been the same since the 1990s, when compulsory military service was still a reality in Sweden, and they are adapted to an 18-year-old, male population. The military will now investigate if the foreign-born applicants’ problems are due to… discrimination.

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Swedes’ Homes May Be Confiscated to Accommodate Asylum Seekers

June 20, 2017   Uncategorized   No comments

One month of Islam and Multiculturalism in Sweden: August 2015

by Ingrid Carlqvist

  • In 1992, the “Threat and Risk Assessment Commission” established that the government should have the option to seize property, especially summer homes, from the Swedish people in a time of crisis.

  • Despite Sayadi’s commission of three rapes and his sexual molestation of young girls, as well as his systematic criminal activity, he received only a four-year prison sentence, and will not have to face deportation.

  • Husein wants a Swedish passport so he can go back to Somalia, the country he claims to have escaped from — to “visit his mom and establish business contacts.”

  • “The situation affects everyone who lives and stays in our little county. The climate has grown tougher, many people feel scared and unsafe and with that comes the risk of increased xenophobia, antagonism and exclusion.” — From a letter to the government from Örkelljunga County leaders. The county swiftly received criticism from the mainstream media, and the Immigration Service let it be known that they have no intention of helping Örkelljunga.

August 3: Ahmad El-Moghrabi, 21, who has no driver’s license, was indicted for driving like a madman through the city of Malmö in February, and nearly killing a mother and baby. On February 11, he drove a luxury Mercedes at high speed, with some other Arab men as passengers, one of whom is a well-known extremist, when the police tried to pull the car over. Instead of stopping, El-Moghrabi sped away at about 150 km/h on the busy inner city street of Amiralsgatan, where the speed limit is 40 km/h.

The police chase ended when El-Moghrabi hit some parked cars. Three people were injured, and the mother and baby sustained life-threatening injuries after being crushed between the cars.

El-Moghrabi fled the scene, but was apprehended later. He has been charged with gross negligence, grievous bodily harm, fleeing the scene of an accident, and driving without a license. His own explanation to the rampage was that he did not want to be caught by the police, as his license had been revoked.

August 3: It was reported that 2000 third-world immigrants are seeking asylum in Sweden — each week. The largest groups were Syrians, then Afghans, stateless people, Eritreans and Somalis. The Immigration Service now reports that there are close to 50,000 asylum seekers living in various housing and rental facilities, and more are on their way to a country that already suffers from a major housing shortage.

The question is: Where will they live? More and more people are now worrying that the government will confiscate the homes of Swedes and give them to asylum seekers. In 1992, the “Threat and Risk Assessment Commission” (Hot- och riskutredningen) established that the government should have the option to seize property, especially summer homes, from the Swedish people in a time of crisis. In early September, editorial columnist Anna Dahlberg ofExpressen, one of Sweden’s largest dailies, urged Swedes to “make way” and “hand over the keys to their apartments to those in greater need.”

August 3: Another shooting took place in the violence-stricken city of Malmö. No one was hurt this time, but the police found empty shell casings on Rasmusgatan Street in the Seved area, one of Malmö’s “no go-zones,” where a majority of the inhabitants are of foreign descent. The area is known for its open drug trade, and over the last few years, a large number of shootings and grenade attacks have occurred there. (On June 12, a hand grenade was thrown, and four people were wounded.) In an attempt to bring down the crime rate, local authorities gave the police permission on August 12 to place four cameras in the area to film events around the clock.

August 5: The Stockholm police department caused an uproar with a shocking story about everyday life in immigrant-heavy suburbs such as Tensta-Rinkeby, Hjulsta, Kista and Husby. Youth gangs regularly attack police by using lasers to blind them, and throwing rocks and firebombs. Criminal gangs resolve conflicts by shooting at each other in public places, risking the lives of innocent people who may be in their way. Police officer Nikolina Bucht wrote in acolumn in the daily Svenska Dagbladet that it is time to “take back the area from the criminals and protect all the respectable people who have their neighborhoods destroyed, their cars set on fire and feel unsafe.” She wrote:

“Last week my colleagues got a call about a sudden cardiac arrest in Rinkeby. … When they arrive at the scene, they are met by about ten young people who are provoked by their mere presence, turn aggressive and mask their faces. The police are forced to focus on the rock throwing instead of going up to the apartment and starting CPR. He had to wait for several minutes extra before he got help, time that could have saved his life. This was not an isolated event.”

August 7: A Somali refugee, Mohamed Husein, complained he has not yet received a Swedish citizenship. Somalis must wait three years longer than others for citizenship, as they cannot prove their identity. Husein wants a Swedish passport so he can go back to the country he claims to have escaped from — to “visit his mom and establish business contacts.”

August 10: It was reported that a 15-year-old pregnant girl, who six weeks prior traveled with her boyfriend to Syria, had been captured by the Islamic State (ISIS). How the girl managed to travel without a passport or identification papers remains a mystery. Swedish media made no effort to sort out why she would object to living with ISIS. Her boyfriend is reported to have joined an al-Qaeda-affiliated group.

August 11: The law journal Dagens Juridik reported that a 19-year-old girl was taken into custody, in accordance with the LVU law (“Care of Young Persons Special Provisions Act”), after her family threatened to subject her to honor violence. Social service workers on the island of Gotland applied for “administered care” after the girl, in spite of threats, had escaped from the shelter where she was living and moved back with her family. The court stated that the investigation showed that the girl’s desire to return is rooted in her upbringing, which has taught her that the honor of the family is more important than her individual rights. She may also feel guilt, because she thinks she is dishonoring the family by not being with them. According to the court, the girl’s behavior should be considered socially disruptive under the definition of the LVU law, and therefore, she needs to be protected.

August 14: Two men, 21 and 26 years of age, were remanded, suspected of two of the many recent hand grenade attacks in Malmö. At the same time, another 26-year-old was remanded for attempted murder and possession of an illegal weapon, both of which occurred in Rasmusgatan, in Malmö’s “no-go” Seved neighborhood.

Early that morning, police also discovered two hand grenades in Adelgatan, in central Malmö. One had exploded, and the other one failed to work. A large area was barricaded and several buildings had to be evacuated. The police suspected the incident could be linked to a car bomb that had detonated in Malmö two days earlier. Malmö has experienced the most bomb attacks of all Scandinavian cities: this year alone, 20 bombings have taken place.

August 12: A 43-year-old Iranian citizen, Ramin Sayadi, was sentenced to four years in prison for three rapes and two counts of sexual molestation of young girls. Sayadi also sold the girls large quantities of prescription narcotics such as Tramadol, Ritalin and Subutex. The police investigation showed that he had close to 1,000 customers. When the girls became addicted to the drugs, he took advantage of them sexually. The police believe there are many more victims who have not come forward. Detective inspector Jan-Åke Stendahl told daily Göteborgs-Postenthat the man had over 200 contacts listed in his mobile phone, and a majority of the numbers belonged to young girls. Sayadi was caught in May of last year, walking around Gothenburg’s central station trawling for customers.

Despite his systematic criminal activity, he received only a four-year prison sentence, and will not have to face deportation.

August 14: A so-called unaccompanied refugee child was prosecuted on rape charges. The act took place on the night of January 10, in a youth home in Västerbotten in northern Sweden. The suspect is a native of Afghanistan and claims to be 17 years old. The police believe he raped the woman when she was in a drunken stupor, and therefore in what the law calls a “particularly vulnerable situation.”

August 17: The police issued an international arrest warrant for a Congolese citizen, Loran Guy Mogi, 23, wanted for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Therese Eriksson, 23, of Vårgårda. Eriksson had been found dead four days earlier in Mogi’s apartment, but he had fled the scene. She was killed by blows to the head and body. After a week on the run, Loran Guy Mogi was apprehended at a refugee facility in the German city of Hannover. He has since beenremanded pending trial. According to the prosecutor, Robert Beckard, Mogi has pled not guilty to the murder charge, but admits that he beat Eriksson and may thus have caused her death.

August 18: The media website Avpixlat wrote that an Algerian man, who has not lived in Sweden for six years, is entitled to financial aid to cover doctor’s visits and the cost of his medicine. The man came to Sweden in the 1990s, but never worked or paid taxes there. Six years ago, he returned to Algeria, but in April of this year, he suddenly appeared in Sweden again to seek emergency health care. He underwent two surgeries at taxpayer expense, and considered himself entitled to financial aid for the cost of his medicine and several doctor’s visits. The municipality of Gothenburg had ruled against the request, but an administrative court now ruled that since the man has no income or assets, he is entitled to aid.

August 18: Five representatives of the Church of Sweden wrote, in an op-ed in the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter, that the church should also be open to Muslims. The article astonished and angered Christians. Stefan Gustavsson, secretary general of the Swedish Evangelical Alliance, pointed out that Islam, Judaism and Christianity promote three radically different versions of what happened to Jesus:

  • Islam: Jesus did not die.
  • Judaism: Jesus died but was not resurrected.
  • Christianity: Jesus died and was resurrected.

These different versions cannot all be true, Gustavsson points out, and urges the Church of Sweden to awake from their Sleeping Beauty-slumber and start taking big questions seriously:

“The religion relativism that is now widespread throughout the Church of Sweden is not just an intellectual dead end, it is an insult to the Christians of Iraq and Syria who face forced conversion and who are willing to give their lives for their faith in Jesus Christ.”

But the Church of Sweden persists, and on August 30, it invited imam Mohammad Muslim Eneborg to take part in high mass. Before he converted, the imam was named Åke Daniel Eneborg and he was a left-wing activist.

August 24: Former member of parliament Thoralf Alfsson (Sweden Democrats) wrote on his blog that the Immigration Service had hired no fewer than 1,200 people during the last year. Earlier, in August 2014, the Immigration Service had about 5,000 employees; in August 2015 that figure was 6,200. This means that the wage costs have increased by 50 million kronor (about $5.9 million) a month. In all, the Immigration Service’s staff now cost Swedish taxpayers 250 million kronor ($29.6 million USD) a month, or 3 billion kroner ($360 million) a year.

Aside from skyrocketing costs, Alfsson questions why so many people of foreign descent find employment with the Immigration Service. He writes: “I can’t but wonder what kind of screening process the Immigration Service have in regard to the people they hire. Could there be employees with residency status in Sweden who use a fake identity? Are there ISIS-sympathizers among the employees?” And there are.

Social commentator and author Merit Wager, who frequently publishes anonymous posts from Immigration Service employees, wrote in an August 21 blog post that authorities now no longer take rejected asylum seekers into custody, due to attacks from left-wing extremists. That is why the IKEA-murderer, who had received a deportation order, was not in custody, a failure that led to the death of two innocent people in the heart of the Swedish idyll. One Immigration Service employee said:

“Years ago, the Immigration Service was often heavily criticized by various left-wing groups who wanted to ‘protect’ the asylum seekers who had been found lacking in reasons for protection and targeted for deportation. Sometimes there were big demonstrations and now and again Immigration Service buildings were vandalized. Today these actions have ceased almost completely. The reason is very simple – the Immigration Service has hired the activists. They are now officials at the authority! I’ve met several people who are quite open about their backgrounds in these activist groups. The reason the Immigration Service hires them is that they state on their CVs exactly what the government wants to hear – that they have a ‘burning engagement in human rights issues.'”

August 24: A police van was attacked with a hand grenade in the Stockholm suburb of Tumba. Four policemen were in the vehicle at the time. If it had not been for the fact that the vehicle was armored, the incident could have ended in a bloodbath. The attack began when several people threw rocks at police officers, and a fire was set at the local police station. Moments later, the hand grenade was thrown and landed about five feet from the police van. No one was injured, but the vehicle sustained 105 holes from shrapnel. Despite intense police efforts, the perpetrators of this attempted murder have not yet been apprehended.

A police van is riddled with shrapnel (left) from a hand grenade attack in Stockholm on August 24. The four policemen in the vehicle at the time could have been killed if the van had not been armored. At right, the Malmö police bomb squad disarms a hand grenade found in Landskrona, on September 22.

August 25: Local politicians in small southern county of Örkelljunga (population 10,000) wrote a desperate letter to the government; its signatories begged for help in solving the problems brought by the wave of asylum seekers. The Immigration Service has opened housing in Örkelljunga for about 250 asylum seekers in apartments, a former motel, and a number of private family residences — including housing for unaccompanied refugee children. An additional 100 units may open up in the Åsljungagården Hotel.

The local politicians wrote in their letter that crime rates have risen and that the police have been called on a number of occasions. Rape, assault, battery and shoplifting are mentioned, as is the temporary closing of the Centrumhuset youth center. At the largest housing facility, an old motel, there are 90 adults and children. The mix of various ethnic groups is said to have led to riots, threats and hunger strikes. The letter states:

“The situation affects everyone who lives and stays in our little county. The climate has grown tougher; many people feel scared and unsafe and with that comes the risk of increased xenophobia, antagonism and exclusion.”

The county swiftly received criticism from the mainstream media, and August 27 the Immigration Service let it be known that they have no intention of helping Örkelljunga. Immigration Service Press Officer Fredrik Bengtsson, quoted in the daily Helsingborgs Dagblad, was especially angry about the county’s criticism concerning different groups being placed together:

“If one thinks along the lines of placing asylum seekers any other way, you’re on a slippery slope. Separate housing for Christians and Muslims is not something we have in society. We have freedom of religion, and that applies to housing as well. You have to stop for a moment and think about it, because that’s not how we do things in society.”

August 26: Swedes heard the news that politicians in the nation’s three largest cities want to offer courses in “self-care and sexual matters” to gypsy women beggars. Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö are applying for 8.7 million kronor (just over $1 million USD) from the European Social Fund, for the project, and hope to reach 250 women. Twice a week they will attend class and get food, free health checkups and free hygiene- and sanitary articles and condoms. They will also receive compensation for “loss of work income.” Local politicians from opposition parties in Stockholm criticized the project strongly.

August 28: “Afrikas Horn,” an immigrants’ organization, reports another “Swedish” ISIS-warriorkilled in battle. The man was in his thirties and originally from Somalia, but lived in the immigrant-heavy area of Vivalla in Örebro. The man was apparently one of three who have repeatedly traveled to join ISIS, but were twice intercepted in Turkey and sent back to Sweden. The man is the fourth resident of Örebro who has died as an ISIS terrorist. The chairman of Afrikas Horn tells the local paper Nerikes Allehanda that “the family is in mourning.”

August 28: Ali Khoddami, once an asylum seeker to Sweden, was sentenced to prison for defrauding an elderly woman. Khoddami worked in home care services and tricked Inga Lill, a 90-year-old woman suffering from dementia, out of millions of kronor. By pretending to be the woman’s friend, Khoddami was able to take over her bank accounts and move into her house, along with his family. He used her savings of two million kronor (about $240,000 USD) for luxury items, as well as several cars. Khoddami also managed to persuade Lill to sign over her house — her childhood home built by her father — to him. The house is apparently worth five million kronor ($590,000 USD). It was only after Khoddami put Lill, who has no living relatives, in a nursing home that the fraud was uncovered. The District Court sentenced Khoddami to 2.5 years in prison and fined him 7 million kronor ($830,000) plus interest and damages.

August 28: There were reports that people-smugglers have, over a short period of time,dumped 100 asylum seekers in the Gothenburg area. Pernilla Wallin, unit manager of the application unit at the Immigration Service for the Western Region, told Swedish Public Television that she never thought the situation would escalate like this and that the circumstances are “exceptional.” The Immigration Service is now desperately looking for “external contractors who want to bid on temporary housing for asylum seekers.”

Ingrid Carlqvist, a noted journalist based in Sweden, is a Distinguished Fellow at Gatestone Institute.

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Sweden’s Prime Minister Says Palestinian Knife Attacks are not ‘Terror’

June 20, 2017   Uncategorized   No comments

Incredibly, just a day after Prime Minister Netanyahu complained to Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Lofven over ignorant remarks made by the foreign minister, Lofven claimed that Palestinian stabbing attacks do not constitute “terror.”  

Swedish government officials are apparently unable to refrain from offensive remarks against Israel, as Prime Minister Stefan Lofven issued yet another offensive statement against Israelis, claiming that Palestinian knife attacks against Israelis did not constitute terrorism.

“No, it is not classified as [terrorism],” Lofven said in an interview to the Swedish news agencyTT on Monday, Israel’s Haaretz reported.

“There is an international classification regarding what constitutes or does not constitute [terror]. As far as I know, the [knife attacks in Israel] are not defined as terror,” he continued to fumble.

 
Later in the day, apparently realizing what he had said, Lofven contacted TT again to clarify his message, saying that he was misunderstood, as was the Swedish line of defense in past cases of anti-Israel statements.

“I meant that it was unclear if the knife attacks are organized by a group classified as a terrorist organization,” Lofven told the agency. “Nonetheless, the attacks themselves do constitute terror.”

Lofven made his remarks just a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called him to protest recent remarks made by Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom that the cause of global Islamic terror was Israel’s mistreatment of the Palestinians, and accusations she made later that Israel was carrying out “extrajudicial executions” of supposedly innocent Palestinians, who were in fact terrorists killed while committing terror attacks.

On Monday, Netanyahu again assailed Wallsrom for her ignorant comments.

“There isn’t one moral standard for Israel and one for the rest of the world,” Netanyahu said during  a Likud party weekly meeting.

Israel has been plagued for the last three months by almost daily Palestinian terror attacks, most of them stabbings, which have claimed the lives of 21 victims and wounded over 215.

By: United with Israel Staff

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