A current Islamist campaign is trying to stir up hatred against Sweden, which has, among others, put the Swedish Emergency Management Agency (MSB) on the spot. On social networks, activists and preachers spread the image of Sweden as a racist state that kidnaps Muslim children to turn them into infidels.
The spread of such rumours is not new. As terrorism expert Magnus Ranstorp commented on SVT, the issue has been simmering for a long time. Basically, there is a misunderstanding and anger about social services in Sweden taking care of children who are doing badly at home. These so-called LVU (Youth Welfare Unit) cases have for several years led to protests outside social services and threats against decision-makers in many municipalities (SVT 9/2).
The difference now is the wide international coverage. The issue is being used by Islamic activists who want to make Muslims feel victimised and thus further radicalise their followers.
According to the Doku Foundation, which investigated Islamism in Sweden and was the first to detail the hate campaign, there are private Facebook groups with tens of thousands of members in which Sweden is portrayed as a racist and fascist state at war against Islam (Doku 27/1).
Through the Arabic language, stories about the abuse of social welfare offices have spread all over the world. In the autumn, the news channel Al-Jazeera devoted a long report to the forced care of Muslim children in Sweden. Strangely, it does not seem to have provoked any major reactions in Sweden.
The situation is of course serious. In the worst case scenario, anger at the LVU law is on the verge of turning into a kind of Swedish Muhammad cartoon. In 2005, Denmark was the subject of a worldwide campaign of hate messages, boycotts and terrorist attacks after the newspaper Jyllands-Posten published caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed. Sweden has not had a similar kind of experience. And the death sentence against Lars Vilks was against him as a person, not Sweden as a nation.
Nevertheless, the ongoing hate campaigns are first and foremost a threat to social service workers. They have already been exposed, but the pressure is mounting as the anger grows. Thus, the Islamist campaign also affects Swedish municipalities.
Another group affected are Muslim representatives who try to counter the rumours in order to better develop an understanding of how Swedish society works. This may involve imams and various Arabic-language media in Sweden. It is becoming increasingly difficult and dangerous for these stakeholders, who are so important for integration, to raise their voices today.
In a broader perspective, of course, the safety of all Swedes is affected. Swedish travellers and tourists can become targets. The risk of new terrorist attacks in our country also increases.
The hate campaign against Sweden means that we must take Islamism more seriously. Islamist organisations must be prevented from gaining access to public funding. We must ask ourselves whether it is sustainable in the long term to harbour hate preachers or repatriate people who have been involved in IS. They are simply too dangerous.
Lars Vilks was alone. This time we are all vulnerable. Mariestads Tidningen