Recently in Sweden Category

Where there are Muslims, there is Islam. Where there is Islam, there is Sharia. Where there is Sharia, there is anti-Semitism. In Sweden, there are a lot of Muslims. Die Welt is absolutely right about the way the Swedes turn their politically correct eye away from how their immigration policy is leading to increasing Nazi-style anti-Semitism. I have written extensively about Sweden recently: "The Free Press Societies: Interview with Swedish Chairman Ingrid Carlqvist and International Chairman Lars Hedegaard", "Sweden: Launching the Swedish Free Press Society under police protection", "Swedish specialty: Pink pixellation of dark-skinned criminals and pixellated anonymization of wanted criminals", "Sweden: Violent Muslims halt mail delivery in Malmø" and "Sweden: Government will spend $620,000 on protecting Jews".

Translated from German, Welt Online, February 2: (Rosengård is Malmös biggest "Sharia colony" - more precise word than "parallel society", isn't it?): Sweden: Malmö represses its new anti-Semitism:

Anti-Semitism in the third-largest city in Sweden is increasing, especially among Muslim immigrants. But whoever dares to criticize this fact is compared with the mass murderer Breivik.

When the 15-year-old Samir Ardiwan Malmo was buried in southern Sweden last month, hundreds of people followed the coffin in a procession through the city center, in a public manifestation of grief at the violence.

Ardiwan was shot in the district Rosengård, an area just minutes away from downtown, which is considered the worst ghetto in Scandinavia. The police has not found neither the killers nor any motive, but the murder is one of two within a short time in the city. This has led to an intense debate in Sweden about violence and crime.

Malmö is Sweden's third largest city, full of creativity and energy, with an intense nightlife. But it has also become more dangerous for its residents. Serious types of crimes are sometimes more frequent in Malmö than in Stockholm (Sweden's capital), particularly when it comes to robberies.

People in Malmö are also more concerned about crime than people in Stockholm, and not only for their own safety. Already in 2009, 30 percent of residents in Stockholm had said they were afraid that their loved ones could become victims of crime -- in Malmö, it was 45 percent.

Increase in hate crimes against Jews

A few days after the funeral of Ardiwans, another much smaller procession marched through the streets of Malmö: the so-called Kippa-walk, organized by the Jewish community. After the Sabbath service on Saturday morning, the community members met and went through the city -- with kippas on their heads and visible stars of David on their jackets.

The Jews in Malmö want to show that they cannot be intimidated, despite the increase in crimes that were committed out of hatred against Jews in the recent years.

The American Simon Wiesenthal Center sent a delegation to Malmö last year, after it became aware that Jewish families were leaving the town because of the increasing anti-Semitism. Founded by the Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal, the Center has issued a travel warning, warning Jews against visiting the south of Sweden, telling them to exercise "extreme vigilance".

Anti-Semitism comes from Muslim immigrants

Representatives of the Jewish community in Malmö declare that hatred does not primarily come from right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis, but from immigrants from Muslim countries. It is a kind of anti-Semitism that followed them to Malmö - and this is why it is obviously difficult for Swedish politicians and journalists to express an opinion.

In this respect, the debate in Sweden is different from those in neighboring countries such as Norway or Denmark. In Sweden, questions about integration remains unanswered, since people want to remain politically correct. This is how it was before the mass murder in Oslo on 22 July, and it has remained so even after that.

The 'discussion' is often bizarre. Sweden's largest newspaper Aftonbladet recently compared critics of political correctness in the debate on integration with the mass murderer of Oslo: The critics had made Behring Breivik's idea of ​​a conspiracy of political correctness their own. Aftonbladet's article was a low point in the Swedish debate.

Integration policy of the City has failed

Individually, the recent murders in Malmö and the attacks on the city's Jews have nothing to do with each other. Both show clearly that the level of culture in the Sweden's third largest city has decreased. They are also a sign that the integration policy has failed in the city.

But while the Malmö residents are greatly concerned, politicians and journalists often lack words. Populists have benefited from this silence. The Sweden Democrats (SD), a party with roots in the Swedish neo-Nazi movement [This is a false claim -- RS], gained 10.4 percent of votes, making it the third largest party in Malmö.

In areas such as Rosengård, where the 15-year-old Ardiwan was shot, the situation is alarming. The district, whose name means "rose garden", where the apartment buildings are surrounded by green areas and soccer fields, was once a monument of the Swedish welfare state. It has become a symbol of the ghetto.

Now, the fire brigade and ambulances do not drive into Rosengård without police escorts, as employees were regularly subjected to violence and stone-throwing. Recently, I attended a Jewish funeral in the area. The men were warned when they left the cemetery to take off their skullcaps. "Do not forget that we are in Rosengård" was the simple explanation.

Catastrophic unemployment among migrants

In the district Seved the situation is similar. The majority of the population are immigrants, and less than half of adults have a job. Youth gangs control parts of the region, and drugs are openly traded. Now the employees of the Swedish Postal Service refuse to deliver letters in Seved - the threats and violence are making it too dangerous.

Official Sweden reacts in a way that is typical when it comes to questions concerning the failed integration: District Mayor Anders Malmquist said he was satisfied with the situation - they pay unemployed youths from the area to deliver the letters. In this way young adults can get insight into work as postmen.

Unemployment in Seved and Rosengård has reached catastrophic proportions. Most of the immigrants in Sweden have found shelter on humanitarian grounds, and it takes seven years on average before they find a job. For some groups, the numbers are even more dramatic: Only 35 percent of Somalis have found a job after living ten years in Sweden.

Thanks to tax cuts and deregulation of the Swedish civil government, there were created 200,000 new jobs. However, 450,000 full-time jobs are still needed, and another 100,000 immigrants receive a residence permit in Sweden each year.

Local media conceal the problems of anti-Semitism

In strongly segregated Stockholm, the problems of integration are not as visible for the members of the upper and middle classes as they are in Malmö. Whoever wants to visit an area that is characterized by unemployment and crime must take the subway to the periphery of the city. The political circles of the capital are currently talking with special contempt about provincial southern Sweden, which talks constantly about the problems of failed integration.

Frederick Sieradzki is a Jew from Malmö and one of the initiators of the kippa-walk. After a small protest march through the city, he was talking about how the local media ignores violence and threats against Jews in Malmö. "You do not write that it is Muslims who are behind it. I just think it has to do with the fact that the Jewish community is so much smaller than the Muslim," says Sieradzki.

"It's only a minority of Muslims who threaten us, but still you need to talk about it."His latest kippa-walk gathered about 20 people. Among them was only one non-Jew, a Swedish journalist who wanted to show his solidarity.

The Free Press Society was started in Denmark in 2004 by Lars Hedegaard, who is still chairman. Hedegaard is now 69 and last I saw him -= at a Christmas dinner in December 2011 -= he was as energetic, sharp and humorous as ever, a gun powder owl, as we say in Danish. On January 31, 2012, the Swedish branch was launched -- read about it here: "Sweden: Launching the Swedish Free Press Society under police protection".

On February 2, the Swedish newspaper The South Swedish printed an essay "In good company", in which the writer states that the Swedish Free Press Society "with good conscience can dissolve itself at the next meeting" -- since free speech is unchallenged.

On the same day, the famous Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten (the one with the Muhammad drawings) reported about the Swedish launch in the article "Free words in safe surroundings" (not online). The fact that the Swedish police knew about the venue even though it was not announced anywhere shows that the police are very aware of the problems:

In Malmö the Free Press Society's newborn Swedish sister organization was launched -- under massive police protection. The goal is to have a critical public debate on immigration, feminism and other controversial topics that are covered with politically correct consensus and pressure against freedom of expression.

How the Swedish police got to know about the evening's event is not known. For it was not advertised anywhere. Not even on the Internet. So there are no obstructive troublemakers on this cold January evening. But about 120 interested men and women of all ages have found their way to the inaugural meeting of the Swedish Tryckfrihetssällskap in Malmo on Tuesday evening, and they seemed safe, considering the 10-15 policemen. ...

At both ends of the foreseeable side street Skolgatan police cars patrol at night long. And on all floors in the municipal building where the venue takes place, several uniformed policemen are protecting the meeting and the participants.

The Free Press Society is dedicated to protecting free speech. They mainly work to remove laws that limit free speech and to fight what they see as the greatest threat to freedom of speech: Islam.

I recently posted an article that described the degree of political correctness in the Swedish media and the amount of troubles with Muslims in Sweden - "Swedish specialty: Pink pixellation of dark-skinned criminals and pixellated anonymization of wanted criminals".

(Picture courtesy of Snaphanen.dk)

A Swedish branch of the Free Press Society has long been needed. Translated from The South Swedish, January 31: "There Exists a Mental Stalinism in our Country":

Malmö. Inspired by the Free Press Society of Denmark, the Swedish Free Press Society held its first meeting in Malmo on January 31, 2012.

Immigration and Swedish journalists were on the firing line. Speakers included Lars Hedegaard, who has been convicted by a Danish court for his verbal attacks against Muslims.

"There is a mental Stalinism in our country. A politically correct terrorism destroying our country." This statement by journalist Gunnar Sandelin summed up the feelings of many visitors at the Swedish Free Press Society's first meeting, in the Youth Center in Malmö on Tuesday evening.

"Come and listen to what you may never see, hear or read about in the Swedish media!," it said on the invitation.

Tonight's topic: immigration.

One hundred pre-registered visitors were told by the founder of the Swedish branch, Malmö journalist Ingrid Carlqvist, that the Society will take up 'all the subjects that are taboo.'

Four speakers were invited, all journalists: Danish Lars Hedegaard and Mikael Jalving, Norwegian Hans Rustad, and Swedish Gunnar Sandelin. They all had a similar message: Swedish journalists are cowards and the problems with immigration are swept under the carpet.

Since the Free Press Society started in 2004 in Denmark, it has become known for its harsh criticism of Islam and Muslims. The chairman, 69-year-old Lars Hedegaard, was convicted in May last year for breaking the Danish racism paragraph, the equivalent of the Swedish law on incitement to racial hatred.

"When Swedish girls are raped, mass raped [by Muslims], there is nothing wrong with it seen from an Islamic perspective. It is their right," said Hedegaard in an interview that 2009 has been published on the site snaphanen.dk. ...

In Malmö last night Lars Hedegaard just said that Islam is the most dangerous threat to the West, and that many Muslims are "not satisfied until their religion rules over all others."

"We must be able to discuss such things freely. Therefore, the Free Press Society is important," Hedegaard said, and wished his Swedish colleague Ingrid Carlqvist good luck.

Many Swedish Democrats were in the audience, among them the Regional Council Jens Leandersson, Ted Ekeroth and Hans-Olof Andersson, chairman of SD Lund.

A large amount of police officers patrolled the neighbourhood around the Youth Centre. Even more appeared when the artist Lars Vilks (known for his drawing of Muhammed as a dog) turned up with his entourage of agents from Säpo, the Swedish secret police.

According to Al Jazeerah Malmö, Sweden "will be the first Scandinavian City with a Muslim majority". Twenty-two bomb explosions in three years (August 2008 to June 2011) and a long row of killings in broad daylight are typical signs of Muslim presence: Malmö is becoming Scandinavia's Baghdad.

Sweden is terrified by a long row of murders committed in broad daylight. In most cases, both the killer and the victim are Muslims. The murders should thus be seen as public executions, often happening according to the sharia's honour codes. In connection with a recent murder (the sixth in two months), Malmö's mayor stated that "The killings are a result of the parallel world that has emerged in Malmö, where some people take the right to judge that another human being deserves death."

Examples of the politically correct madness that lures the Swedes into voting for Muslim immigration:

A newspaper recently pixellated dark-skinned criminals pink, to erase their dark skin colour:

A couple of years ago a newspaper publish pixellated pictures of criminals -- so that nobody was able to recognize the people that the police were looking for help to find:

Thanks to the award-winning blog Uriasposten.net for the pictures and documentation (here and here).

Malmø in Sweden is famous for its many Muslims, killings and bombs (at least 22 bombs in the last three years). Malmø has become a Scandinavian Baghdad, and an expanding, uncontrollable and violent Sharia zone.

In the "youth neighbourhood" (Muslim ghetto) Sevedkvarteret, Seved Quarter, being a postman is now too dangerous. Being a non-Islamic authority and wearing symbols (signs, uniform) representing other non-Islamic authorities is dangerous in such places. Being a postman in Sevedkvarteret is now a "Muslim-only" job: "Crime stops postmen in Malmo area," translated from Politiken, January 16:

Threats and violence have now forced the Swedish postal service to give up delivering letters in a part of Malmø.

Postmen simply stay away from Sevedkvarteret (Seved Quarter). Instead, local residents in the area are hired to ensure that letters and packages reach the recipients.

This comes after several problems in the district, which led to postmen being equipped with attack alarms.

After a failed robbery, Packet Post has been escorted into the area by guards from the security company G4S, and has left packages in a kiosk where recipients had to pick up their mail.

Initially, the locals will be in charge of distribution for six months. The service is therefore seeking two individuals from Seved Quarter who will assume the managerial position.

The Post Office's decision to avoid Seved town comes at a time when Malmø is struggling with a wave of brutal crimes.

Within the last few months, six people have been killed in Malmø in a series of murders that has highlighted the problems that the city has, among them gang crime and relatively easy access to weapons.

The killings have led the Swedish Police Board to aid the Malmø police in investigating the killings. Band Officers from many police districts are now deployed in the city to fight the lawlessness.

According to the newspaper Expressen, 30 additional homicide investigators have been sent to the city, which has also been reinforced with 30 extra street cops.

Simultaneously, a special task force, Focus Malmø, is now attempting to put pressure upon the 70 senior gang members, who, according to the authorities are governing the criminal community in the city.

This report is skeletal in its level of detail. One will recall that according to this report and others in September, men "of Somali and Iraqi" origin were arrested, and a mosque raided, after an art center in Göteborg had to be evacuated of 400 people and the event, which Lars Vilks had said he might attend, had to be cancelled.

"Three charged in Sweden with conspiring to kill cartoonist," from Reuters, December 6:

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Three people have been charged with plotting to murder a Swedish cartoonist whose depiction of the Prophet Mohammad stirred Muslim outrage around the world, the Swedish Prosecution Authority said Tuesday.

Whose prophet?

Lars Vilks has been the subject of several death threats since his drawings were published in 2005. A Pennsylvania woman known as "Jihad Jane" pleaded guilty earlier this year to plotting to kill Vilks.

"The three people now charged at the Gothenburg District Court are suspected of conspiring to murder in September 2011 in Gothenburg," the prosecutor said in a statement.

The three are expected to appear in court later in December.

Avpixlat.info is a new Swedish-language pro-freedom website. In this video, I welcome it to the front lines and tweak a Swedish "journalist" who was prematurely celebrating the demise of freedom in Sweden.

Earlier this year, Hollywood cancelled making a movie in Sweden about Jews, because they estimated that "Sweden [is] a VERY unsafe place for the Jewish community due to the large and increasingly hostile community of Muslims.” During the 2nd World War, Sweden was a safe haven for Jews. Now Jews have to flee Sweden because of Muslim immigrants' hateful and violent anti-Semitism.

Finally, the Swedish government takes action. Not by limiting immigration of Islamic supremacists, but by spending a (ridiculously small) amount of money on the "protection of Jews":

From the Swedish government's official homepage:

Four million kroner (620,000 USD) for security of Jewish minority

Press release, September 5th 2011
Department of Work

The Government will spend four million kroner in 2012 on increasing the security and decreasing the vulnerability of the Jewish minority. Research shows that even though tolerance is increasing in society, anti-Semitic views have not decreased to the same extent. The Jewish minority is the subject of anti-Semitic hate crimes and harassment. Even children are harassed in everyday life. Many Jews in Sweden are afraid of openly showing that they belong to the Jewish minority.

Curiously, terrorism charges against those who were arrested "were later changed to preparing murder [,] and the prosecutor said it related only to one individual." It is not entirely clear from the wording of that sentence whether the defendants were believed to be targeting only one person, or if only one of the three is to face the most severe charges.

However, one will recall that earlier reports focused on Muhammad cartoonist Lars Vilks as a possible target, and an arts center was evacuated on the night of an event Vilks had at one point stated that he would attend.

"Swedish security police raid mosque in Goteborg," from the Associated Press, September 18:

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Sweden's security police raided the administrative office of a mosque in the country's second largest city , the force said on Sunday. Security police spokeswoman Sirpa Franzen said Thursday's raid against the Bellevue Mosque in Goteborg was prompted by prosecutor Agnetha Hilding Qvarnstrom, who heads the investigation against three men arrested on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

Mosque officials weren't immediately available for comments.

Franzen declined to say if the raid was connected to the arrests and wouldn't give more details. The force only confirmed the operation, following a report in a GT tabloid.

The men, of Somali and Iraqi origin, were arrested as around 400 people were evacuated from an arts center and were initially suspected of plotting a terrorist attack. However, the charges were later changed to preparing murder and the prosecutor said it related only to one individual....

Surely we'll be told this has all been taken out of context, though the death penalty for apostasy from Islam comes from Muhammad's own orders (Sahih Bukhari 9.84.57). Surely we'll be told that has been taken out of context as well, though we're not the believing Muslims who have continue to act on those orders and to command others to do so. We just call attention to reports of it.

Funny how that keeps happening. "Converts must die: imam to Swedish radio," from The Local, September 15:

Swedish public service broadcaster Sveriges Radio (SR) has been reported for hate speech after featuring a programme in which a Somali imam called for all converts from Islam to be killed.

The programme in question was a panel discussion and was broadcast live by SR International's Somali service.

The police report was filed by Erik Johansson, at the Swedish Evangelical Mission (Evangeliska Fosterlands-Stiftelsen - EFS), after friends told him of the imam's words underlining every Muslim's responsibility to kill anyone who leaves Islam.

"I received a call from my Somali friends who had heard the programme. I don't speak the language myself and when they explained to me, I concluded that this wasn't a message which should be on an SR channel," Erik Johansson told The Local on Thursday.

Johansson also contacted Sveriges Radio in order to register his dismay that the item was left available on their website for more than two weeks. Soon after his telephone call the programme was removed from the website.

In a comment to the Christian website Dagen on Tuesday, SR International head Ingemar Löfgren said that he decided to pull the transcript from SR's website pending receipt of an official translation, pointing out that he is responsible for several channels broadcast in languages which he does not speak.

"If an imam calls for other Muslims to kill converts, then we have a journalistic responsibility... If he didn't get any follow up questions then we have failed in our journalistic responsibility," he said.

According to Erik Johansson, the journalist reminded the imam that they were in Sweden, to which he replied that the same rules apply there.

"It is my hope my police report will encourage them (SR) to change their routines," Erik Johansson told The Local.

The Local's attempts to reach Sveriges Radio International for comment on Thursday have so far been unsuccessful.

In January, Mona Thwany was doing a bit of a tap dance, denying knowledge of the plot and saying, "Some people said Taimour is a martyr. I don't know whether he is or he isn't. All I can say is that I totally condemn terrorism"."

Jihad, not so much, apparently. "Widow of suicide bomber is arrested by terror squad on suspicion of helping husband plan attack on Christmas shoppers," by John Geoghegan for the Daily Mail, September 15:

The wife of a suicide bomber has been arrested on suspicion of helping her husband bring terror to the streets of Sweden in the run-up to Christmas last year.

Mona Thwany, the 28-year-old wife of Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly who killed himself and injured two people in Stockholm last December, was arrested on Tuesday in Luton.

It is thought she was arrested for her suspected involvement in her 28-year-old husband's bombing and not because of any new plot.

Abdulwahab, an Iraqi-born Swede who studied at a British university, killed himself and injured two others when he detonated explosives in a crowded shopping street in the Swedish capital.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: ‘At 6.15am on Tuesday morning, counter-terrorism officers raided a residential address in Luton.

‘A 28-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of the preparation of terrorist acts. She has been bailed until mid-November.’

Officers detained Miss Thwany at her home in Luton as they searched two properties. She was released on police bail until November.

It is thought Abdulwahab aimed to kill and maim hundreds, but, luckily for the many Christmas shoppers milling about nearby, the bombs went off early and incompletely.

Abdulwahab was the only fatality, on December 11, while just two passers-by were injured.

Afterwards, Miss Thwany said she knew nothing of her husband’s terrorist activities or his radicalisation.

In the story linked above, she "explained": "as a Muslim wife I was not expected to pry into his life."

Meanwhile, "education" alone won't stop jihadists:

The pair met at the University of Bedfordshire, where they both studied. The psychology graduate told how he was a loving father to their three children – Amira, four, Aisha, two, and Osama, six months – and adored his pet canaries.

Coincidence? After the attack, that does raise an eyebrow.

Just before the bombing, he told her he was going to Scandinavia to see relatives and celebrate his father Thamer’s birthday.

After the bombing, fears arose that Abdulwahab had lured a number of young Muslims into his extremist net during the nine years he spent in Luton.

Poverty causes jihad, we're told:

A beauty stylist who ran her own business, Miss Thawny is the daughter of a Romanian Christian mother, Mihaela, and an Iraqi Muslim father, Abdul.

Abdulwahab, who worked as a sports therapist in Luton, sent his wife an MP3 file ten minutes before he blew himself up.

Throwing off the trail:

She opened the message, which was the same one sent to the Swedish authorities, after the attack. It said: ‘To my wife, I am sorry and I hope you can forgive me.’

Speaking after the incident, Miss Thwany said: ‘He disliked the decadent side of society here. But he never gave off any clues that he was going to blow himself up. I totally condemn terrorism.’

They may have been targeting Lars Vilks, creator of the cartoon above, who had stated plans to attend the art center event that was evacuated the other night. An update on this story. "Sweden terror suspects 'tied to Shebab Islamists," from Agence France-Presse, September 12:

Four terror suspects arrested in Sweden at the weekend have ties to the Somali Islamist movement Shebab and were plotting an attack using bombs and firearms, a newspaper reported Monday.

Neither Sweden's intelligence agency nor the police have confirmed the report, and have released few details about the arrests.

"Police suspect the men were about to carry out a terrorist attack with firearms and bombs," Gothenburg regional daily GT said in its online edition.

"Police sources have told GT the suspects are linked to the terror network Shebab," the paper said, without disclosing its sources.

The Al-Qaeda linked militia has waged a years-long insurgency against Somalia's weak, Western-backed transitional government and controls much of the south and centre of the Horn of Africa country.

An elite counter-terrorism unit arrested four people in Gothenburg, Sweden's second city, and evacuated hundreds of people from a building hosting an art fair "after concluding that there was a threat that could endanger lives or health or cause serious damage," officials said on Sunday.

Police then searched the building, breaking open several lockers, the paper said.

It is not known why the venue was seen as a target, and art fair organisers have not been given an explanation, GT said.

The paper speculated that it could have been because of a Swedish artist, Lars Vilks, who has received death threats from Shebab for depicting the Prophet Mohammed as a dog.

Whose prophet?

Vilks had said publicly he planned to attend the event but in the end did not.

He has faced numerous death threats and a suspected assassination plot since his drawing was first published by a Swedish regional newspaper in 2007, illustrating an editorial on the importance of freedom of expression.

"Wherever you are, if not today or tomorrow, know that we haven't yet forgotten about you," a Swedish Shebab member, Abu Zaid, said in a video, according to US monitoring group SITE in November 2010.

According to Swedish news agency TT, the four suspects arrested late Saturday are aged 23 to 26 and are residents of Gothenburg.

Three of the men are born in Africa and the fourth in the Middle East, it said. The man born in the Middle East and two of the Africa-born men are Swedish citizens while another holds a Swedish residency permit, it added....

"The four men were arrested with the help of the National Task Force, which is deployed in situations of urgency such as terrorism or hostage-taking." "4 Suspects Arrested in Swedish Terror Plot," by Christina Anderson and Nicholas Kulisch for the New York Times, September 11 (thanks to Alexandre):

LUND, Sweden — Police in Goteborg arrested four people suspected of planning acts of terrorism there Saturday night, police said. Authorities also evacuated an art center there.

In a statement released Sunday, the Swedish Security Service said that the four men were arrested with the help of the National Task Force, which is deployed in situations of urgency such as terrorism or hostage-taking.

There was no evidence that the case was connected with the Sept. 11 anniversary and the Security Service said that “there currently is no cause for public concern.” Authorities did not raise the threat level and declined to provide further information about the continuing investigation.

Officials around the world are on high alert because of the anniversary. The arrests in Sweden were a reminder of the anger provoked in Scandinavia over drawings of the Prophet Muhammad, first in Denmark and then by the Swedish artist Lars Vilks in 2007.

Whose prophet?

The daily newspaper Expressen reported that the Roda Sten art center in Goteborg was evacuated and the surrounding area cordoned off last night due to a “serious risk to human life.”

Mia Christersdotter Norman, the head of the Roda Sten arts center, said by telephone Sunday that around 400 people were celebrating the opening of the Goteborg International Art Biennial when police asked her to inform the guests that they needed to gather their belongings and leave the building.

“There was no panic,” Ms. Christersdotter Norman said, describing the orderly evacuation. Police called her early Sunday morning and said that they had searched the entire building but had not found anything.

“They didn’t say what it was, just that there was a serious threat,” she said.

The center, located in an old boiler house at the foot of the Alvsborg Bridge, is a landmark.

The arrests were made based on the third highest level of suspicion, four being the highest, which indicates that evidence has been found, witnesses have come forth or police have been monitoring the suspects.

Sweden was the target of a terrorist attack in December when a suicide bomber, Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, an Iraqi Swede who had studied in Britain, killed himself and wounded two others in the heart of Stockholm’s city-center shopping district two weeks before Christmas.

The Stockholm blasts came as a shock in Sweden, a country that prided itself on having created a stable and peaceful society.

Maybe they will learn some really useful phrases for Malmö, such as "Please, sir, may I, a lowly representative of the local kuffar constabulary, enter your emirate?" and "Please, sir, would you kindly stop beating up those Jews?"

"Malmö police to learn 'polite' Arabic," from The Local, September 5:

Police who patrol Malmö's Rosengård district are being offered a special Arabic language class to help them better understand and communicate with local residents in the predominantly immigrant area.

So far 45 officers have signed up for voluntary twelve-week class, which will provide training on a number of common greetings and pleasantries in Arabic, the local Skånska Dagbladet newspaper reports.

“It's about dealing with immigrants in a more dignified and little more civil manner,” local police chief Bengt Hersler told the newspaper.

According to Hersler, the course was arranged at the request of officers who have pushed the department to provide them with the tools to better communicate with Rosengård's residents, many of whom are immigrants and have Swedish as a second language.

In addition to teachings in basic Arabic, the tailor-made course will also offer lessons on Muslim culture and traditions to help officers better understand some of the cultural differences that can lead to misunderstandings in dealings with local residents....

Yes. Infidels misunderstanding Islam -- it's an ever-present problem.

“They obviously aren't going to learn the whole language,” Lena Gustafsson from Studieförbundet Vuxenskolan told the newspaper.

Not yet, anyway.

Malmö in south Sweden is about to become one of the first cities in Europe with a Muslim majority. According to the newspaper The South Swedish, a Hollywood movie director has cancelled plans to shoot a film about Jews in the area due to the well known fact that Jews are not safe in Malmö. The many calls for suppression, violence and murder of Jews in the Qur'an probably plays a role in the precarious situation for Jews in Malmö.

The South Swedish, July 12 2011 "Malmö's reputation scares Hollywood":

Malmö. Hollywood wanted to shoot a feature film in Skåne [South Sweden, where the principal city is Malmö), based on a best-seller. But the company got cold feet. The reason: threats against Jews in the region. In January of this year, a meeting was held in Los Angeles between Hollywood companies and Mikael Svensson from Øresund Film Commission, a Swedish-Danish cooperation agency that helps foreign film companies who want to shoot in the region.

The film company said they were interested in finding potential film locations in Malmö and Skåne for a film based on a bestseller with a Jewish theme.

But the delegation from Hollywood never showed up. Instead, Mikael Svensson received an email in February stating that the shooting in Skåne had been scrapped. The reason: the Hollywood company had heard that the Simon Wiesenthal Center had discouraged Jews from visiting Malmö.

Here is the email sent from Hollywood to the Swedish film commissioner:

The only problem I see with this project, as well conceived as it is, being based on a best seller, is the huge problem that this is a Jewish story and that the Simon Wiesenthal Center in the USA called the south of Sweden a VERY unsafe place for the Jewish community, due to the large and increasingly hostile community of Muslims.

Only 18 years? Why? Would more have been "Islamophobic"? "‘Honour killing’ dad faces 18 years in prison," from The Local, March 21 (thanks to Joseph):

A man in Sweden has been sentenced to 18 years in prison after being found guilt of murdering his daughter in a so-called honour killing.

Subhi Othman, who admitted to stabbing his daughter to death in November last year, was sentenced Monday to 18 years in prison by the district court in Nyköping, south of Stockholm.

After killing his daughter on the stairs of the family home, Othman gave himself up to the police.

When police arrived on the scene, they found his daughter lying in the foetal position at the bottom of the stairs. She had been stabbed 53 times.

During questioning, Othman claimed he saw no other solution as his daughter was leading what he viewed as an ‘indecent’ lifestyle.

According to tabloid Aftonbladet, Othman began hating his daughter after her husband had filed for divorce. Behind this was a rumour of infidelity....

Two concerned women priests with the Church of Sweden have rightly expressed concerns over whether the imam genuinely shares the same "core values" with the Church. For reasons Mark Durie explained here, there is also the matter of Islamic Friday prayers to be held in a church-owned facility.

In any event, the penalty for apostasy from Islam is death, and has been since Muhammad commanded it. Swedish authorities appear to have picked up on that connection on some level. "Säpo warns Swedish imam over internet threat," from the The Local, March 15 (thanks to Twostellas):

Swedish security service Säpo have expressed concerns about the safety of a Swedish imam who was recently hired by the Church of Sweden to work with teenagers at a Stockholm youth centre.

Imam Othman Al Tawalbeh made headlines in Sweden last week after it was revealed that he had been hired to work with children at Fryshuset, a youth centre in Stockholm run by the Church of Sweden.

The idea behind the appointment was to provide spiritual guidance for the couple of thousand children with a Muslim background who regularly visit the youth centre.

But when foreign ministry officials discovered internet postings which portrayed Al Tawalbeh in a negative light, they reported the postings to the Stockholm police, who handed the matter over to Säpo.

"They said that they are concerned for my welfare and that they are taking the matter seriously," Al Tawalbeh told local newspaper Helsingborgs Dagbladet.

The texts, which are written in Arabic and have found their way into established Arab newspapers, describe Al Tawalbeh as an apostate, someone who has left the true faith.

According to Al Tawalbeh, the author is Mahmoud Aldebe, a prominent Swedish Muslim who caused headlines in 2006 when he was advocating Sharia laws in Sweden.

“He claims that most people think that I poison the true Muslim faith, that I will try to turn Muslim youngsters into Christians and that I advocate women’s rights,” Al Tawalbeh told HD.

Al Tawalbeh said he is used to being criticised but that this time it is more serious.

“Family and friends are worried and have contacted me to find out what is going on,” he said.

The police confirmed that Säpo has been in contact with Al Tawalbeh but told HD that it is too early to say how serious a threat he is facing.

The Church of Sweden has also been criticised for the appointment of Al Tawalbeh.

On Sunday two Swedish female priests wrote an article in the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper in which they questioned the appointment of an imam by a foundation run by the Church of Sweden.

Annika Borg and Johanna Andersson argued in the article that a prerequisite of being employed by the Church of Sweden had so far been to share the same core values, whether employed as a priest or as a janitor.

“It is our opinion that the appointment of an imam is unfortunate. It is a step taken too rashly and without proper consideration,” they wrote in SvD.

Despite the possible threat, Al Tawalbeh is eager to be getting on with his new job and his first prayers are scheduled to take place at Fryshuset in Stockholm this coming Friday.

That "30-year-old man" again. One might suggest Peter King drop his "strange obsession with Islam" and simply "not trust anyone over 30," but again, the actual bomber was 28. Khaled and al-Abdaly must have had something else in common. "Sweden suicide bombing suspect faces terror charges," from BBC News, March 14:

A 30-year-old man has appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court in connection with a suicide bombing in Sweden.

Ezeedem Al Khaledi, described as a Kuwaiti national, faces three charges under the Terrorism Act and five others under immigration laws and banking regulations.

He made no plea or declaration and was remanded into custody.

Two people were hurt in two explosions in Stockholm in December. A man with an explosive device was later found dead.

The Stockholm bomber was named as 28-year-old Iraqi-born Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly.

He had settled in Luton with his wife Mona, with whom he had three young children - two girls and a boy.

He previously attended the University of Bedfordshire.

The attack was believed to be the first suicide bombing in Sweden's history.

Police raid

Detectives have been investigating whether Abdaly was supported by others or acted as a lone attacker.

Mr Khaledi was arrested following a police raid on the 19th floor of a block of flats in the Whiteinch area of Glasgow on Tuesday 8 March.

A convoy, flanked by armed officers and watched from a police helicopter, escorted him to the private hearing in Glasgow Sheriff Court.

Proceeding were translated into Arabic for him.

The first charge against him alleges he provided money for Abdaly.

He is also accused of possessing money and bank cards which could have been used for terrorism, and with entering into an arrangement to provide money for terrorist purposes.

Mr Khaledi also faces a charge that he falsely claimed to be a Kuwaiti national so he could claim asylum and benefits in the UK and of fraudulently opening bank accounts.

He is expected to return to court next week under conditions of high security.

The freedom of speech survives, for now, in Sweden. Do you think Carl P. Herslow would have been put on trial for a poster mocking Jesus Christ?

"Politician on trial for nude Muhammad poster," from The Local, March 3:

A Swedish politician facing charges for producing a poster depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad naked together with his nine-year-old wife was found not guilty by a jury in Malmö on Wednesday.

Carl P Herslow, leader of the Skåne Party (Skånepartiet), a small right-wing populist regional party, is charged with agitation against an ethnic group (hets mot folkgrupp).

The poster included the text: 'He is 53 and she is nine. Is this the kind of wedding we want to see in Skåne?'.

Herslow admits producing the poster but contested the charges. He said the aim of the poster was to stimulate a debate about Islam, which he argued was incompatible with democracy and equality.

"The intention was to provoke a strong reaction among both Muslims and non-Muslims," he said.

Prosecutor Bo Birgerson, representing the Chancellor of Justice (Justitiekanslern - JK) - the country's top legal official, who is responsible for prosecution of cases involving freedom of speech - said that the distribution of the poster showed disrespect to Muslims.

Birgerson argued that previous cases in the Supreme Court showed that conviction for Herslow would not violate his right under Swedish law to freedom of speech.

"A conviction is important to show where the boundaries are for debate in an open and democratic society."

The prosecution argued that Herslow should to be given a suspended prison sentence and for the posters to be confiscated.

But after deliberating less than an hour the jury, which are only used in Sweden in freedom of speech cases, told the court that Herslow was not guilty of agitation against an ethnic group.

As a result, the court cannot convict the politician when it delivers its formal verdict on March 16th.

Whom did they tell? Did the U.S. officials involved notify the Swedes? If not, why not? Why was Taimour Abdulwahab still traveling around freely and able to engage in a jihad mass-murder plot?

"'Abdulwahab was trained in Iraq,'" by Tommie Ullman for Stockholm News, January 7:

The Arabic Tv-channel al-Arabyia claims that the Iraqi security service got information about Taimour Abdulwahab two month before he blow up himself in Stockholm. Abdulwahab had then already been trained in Mosul, north Iraq.

Abdulwahab was in Mosul for three month, were he learnt how to make explosives. This is said to al-Arabya by the Iraqi counter terrorism authority.

The Iraqis informed USA about Abdulwahab states the tv-channel. Captured Al-quaida fighters had said that targets in USA or Europe were to be attacked by the end of December. The Swedish security service, Säpo, does not want to comment on whether or not the information reached them.

UPDATE: Jihad Watch reader Tol has kindly sent in a correct translation, which now appears below.

Apparently it is now against the rules of the Swedish ice hockey league to draw pictures of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. Sharia comes to Sweden: here is an English translation of "Hockeydomare stängs av efter karikatyr på Facebook," from SvD, January 2 (thanks to Christer):

Hockey Referee suspended after caricature on Facebook

A Swedish ice hockey referee has been suspended after he published a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed on Facebook. According to Aftonbladet, even SAPO (the Swedish Intelligence Agency) has been brought into the matter....

According to anonymous sources SAPO has also been advised on the incident. Aftonbladet was unable to contact either the suspended referee or SAPO for comment.

Thanks a lot, kuffar. "Danish attack plot suspect in previous arrests," by Nina Larson for AFP, December 31 (thanks to David):

STOCKHOLM -- One of five men held over a foiled plot to massacre staff at a Danish newspaper had twice been arrested abroad suspected of terror links, the foreign ministry and media said Friday.

Munir Awad, a 29-year-old Swede born in Lebanon, had publicly thanked the Swedish secret service, Saepo, for obtaining his release from Somalia where he was detained three years ago.

"We know Saepo brought us home and we are very grateful," he told a newspaper at the time.

Swedish foreign ministry spokesman Anders Joerle confirmed the previous arrests and that Sweden had intervened on Awad's behalf.

"Awad was arrested in Somalia by Ethiopian troops. That was in 2007. He was arrested in Pakistan in 2009," foreign ministry spokesman Anders Joerle told AFP.

"The Swedish foreign ministry helped them. I wouldn't say to free him, but what we did was insist that he either should be tried or set free," he added.

Awad was one of five men arrested in Denmark and Sweden on Wednesday for hatching what Danish officials called a plan to "kill as many people as possible" in an assault on the Jyllands-Posten daily....

The Muhammad cartoons are still, in the minds of Islamic supremacists the world over, worth killing for. "BREAKING Four Held In Denmark Terror Arrests," from SkyNews, December 29 (thanks to Benedict):

Four people suspected of planning a terror attack against a newspaper that printed controversial cartoons about the Prophet Mohammed have been arrested.

Danish intelligence services said that three of the four men were Swedish residents who entered the country between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning....

Sweden returned five Iraqi Christians to the land from which they had fled, saying that a situation of "relative peace" prevailed there. Now the Iraqi government begs to differ.

An update on this story. "We Cannot Protect Assyrians and Other Minorities: Iraqi Official," by Nuri Kino for AINA, December 27:

Stockholm (AINA) -- In a secret meeting in Stockholm by an Iraqi delegation with members of the Swedish government, the Iraqi delegation called on Sweden to stop deporting to Iraq refugees whose applications were rejected for asylum. "We cannot receive Iraqi refugees deported forcibly from Sweden because we cannot protect them and their lives will be at risk if they are returned to Iraq," said an Iraqi diplomat....

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) strongly criticized Sweden last week for forcibly deporting people to Iraq. On December 15, in the same week when the meeting between the Iraqi delegation and the Swedish government took place, twenty Iraqis were forcibly deported to Iraq on a chartered Swedish aircraft; five of them were Christian Assyrians. This act was widely criticized by many organizations, who have pointed to the extremely volatile security situation in Iraq....

At the UNCR they had no problem answering questions about the meeting.

"The Iraqi delegation was clear about their mission; they were in Stockholm to ask the Swedish government to stop forcibly sending back Iraqis," said Hanna Mathisen of UNHCR. "The Iraqi government cannot at this time protect anyone that is threatened. Iraq needs more time, and priority number one now is to stop more emigration, so they asked Sweden to delay all deportations until security and safety returns to Iraq."...

Our old friend and former colleague Raymond Ibrahim here confirms my analysis here of the motivation behind the attack on Sweden: it's all about the Lars Vilks and Motoon and the freedom of speech.

"Swedish Jihad Revelations," by Raymond Ibrahim for Hudson New York (via RaymondIbrahim.com), December 20:

Back in 2004, in one of his most recognized messages to America, Osama bin Laden, responding to then President George Bush Jr.'s claims that Al Qaeda hates freedom, rhetorically asked, "If so [if Al Qaeda hates freedom], let him [Bush] explain to us why we have not attacked Sweden, for example."

Days ago, on December 11, an Al Qaeda affiliated suicide bomber attacked Sweden--the first terrorist attack in Sweden in three decades, and its first ever suicide attack. The attempt largely failed (only the bomber died, two Swedes were injured). Even so, it "could have been truly catastrophic," said one official.

So much for Sweden epitomizing Al Qaeda's "respect" for freedom. Why the change in policy? In fact, according to an audio-recording issued by the terrorists minutes before the attack, the vitriol is such that "all Mujahadeen [jihadists] in Europe and Sweden" are to prepare for action: "Now is the time to strike, don't wait any longer." [...]

As for motives, according to the audio-recording, there are three: Sweden will be a target of the jihad "as long as you do not [1] end your war against Islam and [2] humiliation of the Prophet and [3] your stupid support for the pig Vilks."

The first point--"war against Islam"--appears to be a reference to Sweden's 500 troop presence in Afghanistan. Yet Sweden is only one of nearly fifty countries--including Muslim ones--to have a presence in Afghanistan; Turkey alone has contributed nearly four times as many troops. And most of these nations have not (yet) been targeted. Moreover, Sweden has been a troop contributing nation since July 24, 2003--well over a year before Osama portrayed it as a neutral country, undeserving of attack. (Perhaps he meant Switzerland, which is known for its neutrality, and is often conflated with Sweden by Middle Easterners?)

The second and third reasons cited--"humiliation of the Prophet" and "support for Vilks"--are one and the same and, in fact, the immediate reason behind the attack. Context: back in 2007, Swedish artist Lars Vilks drew unflattering caricatures of the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Since then, Al Qaeda has set a bounty on him (the reward increases if he is "slaughtered like a lamb"); he has already been physically assaulted and his house nearly burned down.

Swedish freedom of speech and expression, then, is what prompted the attack. In fact, eliminating Western freedoms--or at least conforming them to the dictates of sharia law, which, among other things, forbid mockery of Muhammad--is a longstanding Islamist goal. Nor is it limited to violence; rather, the West's very legal system is being exploited, through Islamist "lawfare" designed to censor free speech concerning Islam (prompting countermeasures such as the Middle East Forum's Legal Project)....

Read it all.

Even the UN called them out on this one. "Five Iraqi Christians seeking asylum returned from Stockholm. UN protest," from AsiaNews, December 18:

Baghdad (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Harsh criticism of the Swedish government by the United Nations Commission for Refugees after they forcibly returned five Iraqi Christians seeking asylum in Sweden. The five were part of a group of at least 20 people from Iraq. Thousands of Christians have sought a safe haven outside the borders after the massacre of 31 October in the Syrian Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation. According to unofficial sources the authorities justify the refusal by citing a situation of relative peace in the country.

Perhaps those authorities would like to go for a field trip and enjoy the "relative peace" the remaining Christians are living in.

"We have heard many stories of people fleeing their homes after receiving direct threats. Many new arrivals explain that they left Iraq for fear of an attack, after what happened on October 31," says Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for the UN body in Geneva.

"Some might take only a few things with him," adds Fleming. The deportation of the five Iraqi Christians took place a week after a suicide bomber, born in Iraq and resident in Great Britain, blew himself up in central Stockholm.

Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the massacre in Baghdad, and said that Christians are a legitimate target. Killings and other violent incidents have followed, and according to Fleming about a thousand families have fled Baghdad to the Nineveh province in search of relative security in the Kurdish area. The UN officials in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon say that a growing number of Iraqi Christians are coming, and asking for help. In Syria alone about 133 families - 300 people - have sought refugee status in November. In Jordan, the number of asylum applications from Iraq have doubled in a month. The UN says that the return from Sweden comes at a time when officials on the spot report a growing number of cases of attacks on Christians.

"We reluctantly are issuing this advisory because religious Jews and other members of the Jewish community there have been subject to anti-Semitic taunts and harassment." Islamic supremacists are the culprits, of course, and dhimmi Swedish authorities stand by passively.

"Jews warned about visiting southern Sweden," from The Local, December 16 (thanks to Twostellas):

A US-based Jewish group has issued a travel warning urging Jews to exercise "extreme caution" when traveling in southern Sweden.

"We reluctantly are issuing this advisory because religious Jews and other members of the Jewish community there have been subject to anti-Semitic taunts and harassment," said Dr. Shimon Samuels, Director of International Relations with the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Centre, in a statement.

"There have been dozens of incidents reported to the authorities but have not resulted in arrests or convictions for hate crimes."

Samuels, along with Wiesenthal associate dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper, conveyed their concerns for the safety of the Jewish community to Swedish Minister of Justice Beatrice Ask during meetings in Stockholm on Thursday.

The statement emphasised that the travel warning had nothing to do with Saturday's suicide bombing in Stockholm.

In issuing the warning, the Wiesenthal Centre cited "the outrageous remarks of Malmö mayor Ilmar Reepalu, who blames the Jewish community for failing to denounce Israel."...

"Detectives have ... failed to find any trace of explosives in properties linked to the bomber, suggesting someone else could have made the bombs at an unknown location."

Time will tell if the bomb builder or the person inhaling in the background on the suicide tape (if they are different people) made the list of 200 known "extremists." "Stockholm bomber: police fear accomplice is on the loose," by Martin Evans for the Telegraph, December 16:

Experts who have scrutinised the recording say someone can be heard breathing in the background as Taimur Abdulwahab al-Abdaly vows to kill innocent civilians.

Almost a week after Abdulwahab blew himself up in a shopping street in Stockholm, injuring two people, detectives have also failed to find any trace of explosives in properties linked to the bomber, suggesting someone else could have made the bombs at an unknown location.

Police hope that if the bomber did meet an accomplice in the days before the bombing, the rendezvous might have been caught on CCTV. Hundreds of hours of recordings from CCTV cameras in Stockholm and his home town of Tranas have been seized and are now being scrutinised by investigators.

Johan Ohgren, a sound analyst who has examined the suicide tapes recorded by Abdulwahab in Swedish and Arabic, said: "In the Swedish file it is rather clear that someone is inhaling at the same time as he is speaking.

"I would say that means there are two people, as you can't inhale and speak at the same time."

There may be 200 that they know of now, but it was number 201 of the Tiny Minority of Extremists that very nearly succeeded in committing mass murder. More on this story. "Suicide bomber in Sweden not on security list," by Louise Nordstrom for the Associated Press, December 15 (thanks to JCB):

STOCKHOLM - The suicide bomber who blew himself up on a busy pedestrian street in Sweden was not on a list of 200 radical Islamists that the country's security service had compiled, officials said Wednesday.

In a report detailing the extent of extremist Islamist networks in Sweden, ordered months before Saturday's near-massacre in downtown Stockholm, the SAPO agency downplayed the risk of terror attacks in the Nordic country.

Activity among radicalized Muslims in Sweden is primarily directed toward supporting militants in other countries, including Somalia, Afghanistan and Pakistan, it said.

"After Saturday's attempted attack, we can see that it also presents a serious threat against people in Sweden," Malena Rembe, chief analyst at SAPO's counterterrorism unit, added at a news conference.

Taimour Abdulwahab, an Iraqi-born Swede, killed himself and injured two people Saturday when a bomb he was wearing exploded on a pedestrian street in downtown Stockholm.

An audio file sent shortly before the blast from his cell phone referred to Sweden's military presence in Afghanistan and an image by a Swedish artist that depicted the Prophet Muhammad as a dog, enraging many Muslims.

Abdulwahab spent much of the past decade in Britain and appears to have been radicalized there. Rembe said he was not among the roughly 200 people that SAPO said they had identified as active in radical Islamist networks in Sweden....

"The radicalisation happens in Sweden." And while "the agency stressed the 200 or so extremists were 'not a threat to the fundamental structures of society, Sweden's democratic system or central government'," the fact that such "radicalization" can and does occur within the country points to an equally urgent matter and a broader web of "extremists" across European borders. Indeed, the failed bombing in Stockholm demonstrated how easily jihadists can slip into whichever country they care to attack in spite of being based elsewhere in Europe.

For that matter, where strength and tactical capabilities for overt jihad are lacking, there are the many means of stealth jihad, and slow demographic conquest enabled by a welfare state insufficiently shielded from outright abuse. Then there are the Muslim-dominated "no-go" zones of Malmo where police and ambulances are afraid to enter.

In other words, the presence of 200 identified "extremists" is not the end of Sweden's troubles. Not by a longshot. "About 200 Islamic extremists in Sweden: intel," from Agence France-Presse, December 15 (thanks to JCB):

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Swedish intelligence agency Saepo said Wednesday there were around 200 violence-promoting Islamic extremists in Sweden, days after the country's first ever suicide bombing missed wreaking havoc among Christmas shoppers.

Some "80 percent of the 200 can be linked to each other," Malena Rembe, the chief analyst at Saepo's Counter-Terrorism Unit told reporters, adding they were not part of one big network.

"The radicalisation happens in Sweden," but "the concrete threat is mainly directed at people in other countries," Rembe said, explaining that most of the violence-promoting extremists were men between the ages of 15 and 30.

The man suspected to have carried out this weekend's bombing was not among the 200 extremists the agency knows about, she said.

"Most of these networks focus on action and propaganda against foreign troops in Muslim countries and against governments they see as corrupt and not representing what networks consider to be the only true interpretation of Islam," Saepo said.

It explained in its 126-page report, which was commissioned by the government before the weekend's suicide attack, that the extremists focus on areas such as Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The agency stressed the 200 or so extremists were "not a threat to the fundamental structures of society, Sweden's democratic system or central government."...

In Human Events this morning, I discuss one obvious lesson of the jihad bombs in Stockholm:

[...] And so we see yet again, with this new escalation in the jihad against the West, that the freedom of speech is one of the foremost battlegrounds of this war. Jihadists like Taimour Abdulwahab Al-Abdaly, the suicide bomber who killed himself in Stockholm on Saturday, want to punish Western countries -- even relaxed, multicultural Sweden -- for daring to allow the freedom of expression to the extent of permitting depictions of their prophet that they find insulting. Meanwhile, the Islamic supremacists of the 57-government Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), is working at the United Nations for the same end: to compel befuddled Western governments that no longer remember why they ever protected the freedom of speech in the first place, or why that freedom is so valuable as a bulwark against tyranny, to give up that freedom in order to avoid offending Islam.

This two-pronged assault, if successful, would extinguish any honest discussion of the ways in which Islamic jihadists use the texts and teachings of Islam to justify violence and supremacism. And that may be part of the point. For without such discussion, the West would be mute and hence defenseless in the face of the advancing jihad.

That's why it is more imperative than ever for Western officials -- in Sweden, the United States and elsewhere -- to speak out strongly in defense of free speech, and to take firm steps to ensure the safety of people like Lars Vilks and Molly Norris, the Seattle cartoonist forced into hiding after originating the whimsical "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day," which was designed to poke fun at the murderous thugs who would kill over a cartoon. It was all in fun, that is, until those thugs set their sights on Norris herself, who lost her career, her home and her very identity - while the world yawned....

There is more.

But they really should be blaming Islam, for in this fascinating piece from the Telegraph, it is taken for granted that someone who becomes more "religious," i.e., more devout in his observance of Islam, will be liable to become fanatical and violent. Yet we are constantly told in the West that the truly devout Muslims abhor violence and terrorism. So why is it that when Taimur Abdulwahab al-Abdaly became more religious, he started breathing threats and murder against unbelievers? Yes, the Luton mosque imam says he argued with him and put him out of the mosque -- and yet Luton is a hotbed of Islamic "extremism." And so the questions linger, as always.

"Stockholm bomber: family blame Britain for radicalisation," by Martin Evans, Gordon Rayner and Andy Bloxham in the Telegraph, December 13 (thanks to Rob):

The family of the Stockholm suicide bomber last night blamed Britain for his transformation from an "ordinary teenager" to an al-Qaeda fanatic.

Taimur Abdulwahab al-Abdaly showed little interest in religion as he was growing up in Sweden, channelling his energies into sport and partying.

But after he began attending Bedfordshire University in Luton "everything changed" as he became a strict Muslim with increasingly extremist views, even naming his baby son Osama in honour of the al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden.

On Saturday he blew himself up in a street full of Christmas shoppers in Sweden's first suicide attack, after recording a message which promised to kill "your children, daughters, brothers and sisters" partly in revenge for the country's support role in Afghanistan.

Abdulwahab's radicalisation during his time in Luton once again raised questions over whether British universities are doing enough to stamp out the recruiting of extremists on campus.

In other developments:

* There were fears that Abdulwahab, 28, could have radicalised dozens of students after it was claimed that he preached at his old university in 2007, having been banned from his local mosque because of his extremist views.

* MI5 was investigating whether the bomber had links to other Luton-based terrorists, including one of the ringleaders of the 2004 fertiliser bomb plot. [...]

A close friend said the family had been shocked by his transformation from an ordinary teenager to a religious fanatic after he left for Britain.

"There is no doubt that Taimur changed when he went to Britain," said the friend, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "He would drink beer with his friends and go nightclubs. He didn't care about politics or religion. He even had an Israeli girlfriend. He had many girlfriends, he enjoyed life.

"His parents were even a little worried that he was having too much fun. But then he went to England to study in 2001 and everything changed.

"When he came back he had grown a beard and he was very serious. He talked about Afghanistan and religion and did not want to hang out with his friends.

"His parents were worried about him but they thought he was just going through a phase. No-one ever imagined anything like this. Everyone who knew him is devastated. His parents are heartbroken."

Teachers at Holavedskolan College in Thanas remembered him as "a quiet student" who liked basketball, and a former classmate who would only give his name as Khaled, said: "We used to hang out together, drink together and play practical jokes together. They were good times. I remember him as a college student chasing girls and drinking beer.

"But when he came back he was a changed man. He told me that something had happened when he was in (Luton). I am sure of this. Someone had taken advantage of him and had brainwashed him." [...]

Anjem Choudary, the former head of al-Muhajiroun in Britain, told the Daily Telegraph he visits Luton "at least once a week" for meetings but added: "I can't remember all the people I come across. His face and name are not familiar but Luton is a small place."

He said the suicide bombing should be seen as a "severe warning" and "should not come as a surprise."...

Oh, it doesn't, Choudary.

He was hoping to commit mass-murder on a large scale for Allah. "Stockholm bomber aimed for major targets: prosecutor," by Patrick Lannin and Niklas Pollard for Reuters, December 13 (thanks to all who sent this in):

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A Middle East-born man who died in a blast in Stockholm was wearing an explosives belt and likely aimed to attack a crowded train station or department store when the device went off prematurely, an official said on Monday.

Sweden's chief prosecutor Tomas Lindstrand told a news conference the man had been well equipped with explosives and he assumed the man had accomplices as the attack was well planned.

"He was wearing a bomb belt and was carrying a rucksack with a bomb. He was also carrying an object that looks something like a pressure cooker. If it had all exploded at the same time it could have caused very serious damage," Lindstrand said.

A car containing gas canisters blew up in a busy shopping area in central Stockholm on Saturday followed minutes later by a blast nearby which killed the bomber and injured two people.

"It is not a very wild guess that he was headed to some place where there were as many people as possible, perhaps the central station, perhaps (department store) Ahlens," he said.

He said the man was almost certainly Taymour Abdulwahab, who has been widely named in media reports.

He said Abdulwahab was born in 1981, became a Swedish citizen in 1992 and came from a Middle Eastern country, although it was unclear which. The Swedish immigration service told Reuters he came to Sweden in 1992 and got citizenship in 1998....

The University of Bedfordshire in the southern English town of Luton said a student called Taymour Abdulwahab, a Swedish national, had registered in 2001 and graduated with a degree in sports therapy in 2004....

A post on a Muslim dating website showed Abdulwahab was born in Iraq, was married with two young daughters and looking for a second wife.

Shortly before the blasts, Swedish news agency TT received a threatening letter criticizing Sweden's troops in Afghanistan, caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad drawn by a Swedish cartoonist and which spoke of a Middle East trip for "jihad."

"To all Muslims in Sweden I say: stop fawning and humiliating yourselves for a life of humiliation is far from Islam. Help your brothers and sisters and do not fear anything or anyone, only the God you worship," the letter said.

In the letter, he said to his family: "I never went to the Middle East to work or earn money, I went there for jihad. I hope that you can understand me some time."...

Oh, I understand you real well.

"He drank alcohol and had girlfriends." But then in England he encountered Muslims who told him that the true and pure Islam was something different from what he had been living. Once again we see devoutness in Islam lead to jihad activity. But note also that, at least by the account of Qadeer Baksh of the Luton mosque, the bomber wasn't "radicalized" there either. He showed up there already "radical." So where exactly encounter the Egyptian imam referred to in this story?

"Sweden bomber 'friendly' immigrant turned radical," from The Local, December 13 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

The man suspected of being the suicide bomber behind two Stockholm bombings on Saturday was described on Monday as an ordinary friendly young immigrant to Sweden who drastically changed after moving to the UK to study....

He had lived in Britain for a number of years, prosecutor Tomas Lindstrand said, adding that his wife and three children still lived there....

When he was about 10, Wahab and his family reportedly fled war-torn Iraq to settle in Tranås, population 18,000, some 200 kilometres south of Stockholm.

"From Tranås to Jihad," said Monday's Expressen tabloid, which published a full-page photo of a young, smiling Wahab wearing a typical Swedish high school graduation cap.

It said Wahab had grown up in "a light red house" in Tranås with his mother, father and two sisters, adding that the family had no problems adjusting to life in Sweden.

"He was just like any other young man. He loved life, he had lots of friends and was out and partied just like anyone else," acquaintance and Tranås resident Jean Jalabian told Expressen.

"He drank alcohol and had girlfriends. It's really strange that he would do something like that," Jalabian said....

A former teacher told Aftonbladet the young man spoke excellent Swedish and was "an honest, friendly person with many friends."

However, Abdel Wahab drastically changed when he left Sweden in 2001 to complete a bachelor's degree in sports physiotherapy at the University of Luton -- now the University of Bedfordshre, from which he graduated in 2004.

Wahab became interested in radical Islam in the town just north of London, where he met his wife, reportedly the same age as him and also a Swedish citizen.

"He got to know an Egyptian imman [sic] at the mosque in Luton," a friend of the family told Expressen, adding that during his time there "he became another person. It's hard to say how. He changed and became more restrictive."

When he returned to Sweden in 2005, he had a beard, cut contact with his old friends and led a withdrawn life. He never settled back into Swedish life and went back to Britain, only sporadically visiting his family in Tranås.

Aftonbladet said he showed his new opinions online, posting radical religious view on the war on Iraq and calling for a boycott of Denmark on his Facebook page in Arabic.

His status updates were often prayers and he had uploaded videos with Islamist messages to his page, the tabloid said.

He was also searching for a new wife "who accepts Allah's religion and who is not against me having another wife" on a Muslim contact website, Expressen wrote.

In November, he bought the car which he blew up on Saturday, slightly injuring two people, investigators said, after returning to Sweden a few weeks before.

In a threat he sent Swedish news agency TT and intelligence agency Säpo, Abdel Wahab asked his family for forgiveness for lying to them.

"I never went to the Middle East to work or make money. "I went there for jihad. It wouldn't have been possible to tell you who I really was. It wasn't very easy to live the last four years with the secret of being...as you call it, a terrorist," he said.

"I talked to him and went through his arguments and countered all of them theologically and he accepted it. I thought that was the end of it but he carried on. So one day, before the end of Ramadan, when the mosque was full I directly challenged all his misinterpretations of Islam."

Of course, Qadeer Baksh doesn't bother to explain to the Telegraph exactly how Taimur Abdulwahab al-Abdaly misunderstood Islam, and that is par for the course: again and again over the years we have seen Islamic spokesmen make sweeping generalizations about how jihad terror contradicts basic tenets of Islam, but detailed theological refutations of the jihadists' Islamic arguments remain extremely thin on the ground.

Also, it's noteworthy that the Luton mosque leaders acted so proactively, by their own account, while at the same time Luton is known as "synonymous with Islamic extremism." So many Misunderstanders of Islam in Luton, and none of them go to this mosque? Or do some of the go there indeed, and they all get thrown out, as was Taimur Abdulwahab al-Abdaly?

And why didn't it occur to Gordon Rayner, Andy Bloxham and Laura Roberts of the Telegraph to ask Qadeer Baksh any even mildly probing questions?

"Stockholm bomber was thrown out of Luton mosque for trying to recruit extremists," by Gordon Rayner, Andy Bloxham and Laura Roberts in the Telegraph, December 13 (thanks to all who sent this in):

The Stockholm bomber was thrown out of a mosque in Luton three years ago following a row over his extremist beliefs, it has emerged.

Taimur Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, 28, tried to recruit other Muslims to share his fanatical views when he was given a chance to preach at the Luton Islamic Centre.

Sources there said he then turned his attention to trying to recruit students by giving sermons at the Islamic Society of the University of Bedfordshire, of which he was a graduate....

Qadeer Baksh, chairman of the Luton Islamic Centre, also known as the Al Ghurabaa mosque, said the bomber believed Western governments had no right to involve themselves in Iraq or Afghanistan and urged others to "take matters into their own hands" because traditional mosques were not proactive enough.

Mr Baksh said: "He arrived at the mosque at the start of Ramadan [the Muslim holy month of fasting] in 2007.

"We hadn't seen him before but he was very nice, a gentle, bubbly character. People liked him and he was very helpful to them.

"He was like that for a couple of weeks and he was given the opportunity to preach.

"Some of the members brought it to my attention that his views were extreme so I challenged him[.]

"It was all about Iraq and Afghanistan. He was saying that Western governments had no right to be there and how too many Muslims remained silent.

"He said we should be more proactive and take matters into our own hands but he never directly advocated violence.

"He said the leaders of Muslim nations had to take more action and said scholars here were working for the government.

"It was quite serious because some of the worshippers were starting to really listen to him.

"I talked to him and went through his arguments and countered all of them theologically and he accepted it. I thought that was the end of it but he carried on.

"So one day, before the end of Ramadan, when the mosque was full I directly challenged all his misinterpretations of Islam.

"He just stood up and stormed out. We never saw him again - but I heard he'd gone to the Islamic Society at the university and continued to preach his extremist views."

The mosque has been linked in the past to extremist groups including Al-Muhajiroun, the banned organisation which was headed by the firebrand cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed.

Mr Baksh said that the mosque remained vigilant against infiltration from organised extremist groups.

He said: "We removed them from our mosque. We are sick of them.

"We see them as problematic. They have a completely distorted view of Islam."

Meanwhile, it has also emerged that Abdulwahab sent a chilling audio recording in English shortly before the bombings warning his actions would "speak for themselves".

A man is heard describing the Islamic state as a "reality" in Europe and in Sweden....

The recording states: "Now the Islamic state has been created. We now exist here in Europe and in Sweden. We are a reality. I don't want to say more about this. Our actions will speak for themselves."

He added: "We are not a lie, or imagination. We are real."

He also referred to the depiction of the prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog in a 2007 cartoon by a Swedish artist which enraged many Muslims.

He said: "Stop your drawings of our prophet...No more oppression against Islam or Muslims will be tolerated in any way or by any means."...

International jihad. "UK police search house in link with Swedish blasts," by Simon Johnson and Patrick Lannin for Reuters, December 13 (thanks to JCB):

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - British police were searching a house in southern England on Monday as part of investigations into two explosions in Stockholm which Swedish authorities said they were treating as an act of terrorism....

Swedish daily Expressen said on Monday the dead man had planned to set off three devices, including one at the main railway station and one at a large department store.

The man was named on an intelligence website as Taymour Abdulwahab, an Iraqi who had studied in Britain. Police have not identified him....

Following reports that the man had a Facebook entry and a profile on a Muslim dating website which said he had spent time in Britain, British police said they were examining a house in the town of Luton under the terrorism act. The house has been cordoned off.

"No arrests have been made and no hazardous materials found," a police statement said....

The man had planned to blow up his car but also had 12 pipe bombs strapped to him and a bomb in a rucksack, it said.

"It is clear that he was trying to create as much chaos and hurt as many people as possible," Expressen quoted a police source as saying....

For Allah!

More on Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly. "Sweden: Stockholm bomber 'acted on Al-Qaeda's orders,'" from AKI, December 13 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

(AKI) - Iraqi citizen Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, who apparently blew himself up on a busy shopping street in the Swedish capital Stockholm at the weekend, was acting under direct orders from Al-Qaeda's leadership, according to several jihadist websites close to the terror network.

Al-Abdaly, 29, was linked to Al-Qaeda in Iraq. In his last will and testament disseminated shortly before he allegedly detonated his explosives on Saturday, he said: "The Islamic State of Iraq has kept its promise," referring to the Al-Qaeda affiliated group.

Al-Abdaly was the only victim of Saturday's attack, during which he allegedly first set a white Audi car alight and then detonated explosives in his backpack, 200 metres away from the car.

If confirmed as a suicide bombing, the attack would be the first of its kind in Sweden.

A few minutes before the explosion, an audio message in Swedish and Arabic was delivered to a news agency and to police, demanding Sweden withdraw its 500 troops from Afghanistan. The message also deplored the 2007 publication in a local Swedish newspaper of a satirical cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed by Swedish artist Lars Villks.

The Islamic State of Iraq in 2007 first vowed to carry out terrrorist attacks in Europe after the publication of Vilks' cartoon.

Vilks has been forced to live under police protection receiving several death threats, including a statement by the Islamic State of Iraq which has offered up to 150,000 dollars for his assassination....

In today's Front Page, I ask the burning question: why Sweden?

Why did Islamic jihadist Taimour Abdulwahab Al-Abdaly, the suicide bomber who killed himself on a major street in Stockholm on Saturday, decide to target Sweden, of all places -- one of the most benign multiculturalist welfare states on a continent full of them?

For even though no one was killed, that was apparently only because al-Abdaly didn't set off his bomb at the intended time or place. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said the bombing was a "most worrying attempt at terrorist attack in crowded part of central Stockholm," and noted that it "failed -- but could have been truly catastrophic."

And certainly that seems to have been the intent. In an audio file in Arabic and Swedish that was sent to TT, the Swedish news agency, about ten minutes before Al-Abdaly detonated his bomb, the unidentified speaker exhorted "all Mujahadeen in Europe and Sweden" to act: "Now is the time to strike, don't wait any longer. Step up with whatever you have, even if it is a knife, and I know you have more than a knife. Fear no one, fear not prison, fear not death."

Why would an Islamic jihadist want to unleash catastrophic mass-murder upon mild, sclerotic, socialist old Stockholm? Reuters [1] had a ready answer: the same audio file, it reported, "threatened retaliation for Sweden's military presence in Afghanistan."

Ah. So if Sweden withdrew its military personnel from Afghanistan, no more jihad would be waged against it, right? That is certainly an assumption often taken for granted by Western analysts on both the Left and the Right: Islamic jihadists are provoked by our presence in their countries, and if we just left them alone, they'd leave us alone.

It is a comforting notion, at least to those who are so supine and addicted to their comfort that they'll sacrifice their freedom for it, but unfortunately for them, there was more in that audio file.

"Our acts will speak for themselves," said the message, "as long as you do not end your war against Islam and humiliation of the Prophet and your stupid support for the pig Vilks."

"The pig Vilks" is the Swedish cartoonist who drew the dog Muhammad: taking umbrage at the threats and murders of innocent people that followed the publication of cartoons of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper, Lars Vilks published his own cartoon of Muhammad as a dog with a human head. Islamic supremacists have put Vilks high on their hit list; last spring, he was attacked while he was giving a talk in Uppsala, and jihadists also tried to burn his house down....

There is more.

Still, "police haven't confirmed Saturday's attack was motivated by Islamist views." Of course. It must have been Tim McVeigh. "Swedes shocked by 1st terror attack in 3 decades," from the Associated Press, December 12 (thanks to Steve):

STOCKHOLM -- No one died except for the suspected bomber, but two explosions in Sweden's capital tore at the fabric of this tolerant and open nation -- a society that hadn't seen a terrorist attack in more than three decades. [...]

While police haven't confirmed Saturday's attack was motivated by Islamist views, an audio file sent to Swedish news agency TT shortly before the blast referred to jihad, Sweden's military presence in Afghanistan and a cartoon by a Swedish artist that depicted the Prophet Muhammad as a dog, enraging the Muslim world.

It hasn't been verified that the speaker is the person who set off the explosive, but police have said they are investigating that possibility.

"Now the Islamic state has been created. We now exist here in Europe and in Sweden. We are a reality," the voice said in the file, submitted to The Associated Press by TT. "I don't want to say more about this. Our actions will speak for themselves."

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt on Sunday said the attack was "unacceptable" but urged Swedes not to jump to "premature conclusions" that "create tension which paints pictures that are then difficult to change."...

In other words, despite the jihadi's explicit Islamic motivations, don't get the idea that this has anything to do with Islam.

The 2007 drawing of the Prophet Muhammad by Lars Vilks has raised tensions before in Sweden. In May, Vilks was assaulted while giving a speech in Uppsala, and vandals unsuccessfully tried to burn down his home in southern Sweden....

On Sunday, about 100 people assembled in chilly central Stockholm for a peaceful demonstration organized by Swedish Muslims for Peace and Justice.

"We felt a responsibility to sharply condemn the attack, but it would be naive to think that yesterday's events aren't going to have a negative effect on the perception of Muslims in Sweden," said Samaa Sarsour, 26, one of the main organizers of the rally. She urged the crowd to punch the air and kick out their feet in a display of defiance against the hijacking of religion by extremists....

Yes, of course, Samaa. It's all about you. It's all about "backlash." It's all about playing the victim and evading responsibility, no matter what the jihadis do.

Feeding the hand that bites us. "Suicide bomber who killed himself in Stockholm terrorist blasts studied at British university," from the Daily Mail, December 12:

A suicide bomber who died in a terrorist bomb attack which rocked Stockholm city centre, is believed to be a graduate from a British university.

A Facebook page thought to belong to the 29-year-old indicated that he studied sports therapy at the University of Bedfordshire in Luton. He graduated in 2004.

The man, named locally as Taimour Abdulwahab Al-Abdaly, had also posted numerous videos relating to the Iraq war, the war in Chechnya and the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay.

The Iraqi-born bomber first set his car on fire and then walked 200 metres before the explosives, believed to be in a backpack strapped to his body, detonated.

Just minutes before, he had sent out an email to the police and a news agency warning of deadly reprisals for having Swedish soldiers in Afghanistan.

He was the registered owner of the car that blew up and was believed to have worked on the street corner on which he died, carrying a sign advertising a local fish-and-chip restaurant.

The man is also thought to have been active on Muslim contact sites, where he claimed to be looking for a second wife.

In one message on the site Muslima.com, he says that he was born in Iraq and moved to Sweden in 1992. He said he had two daughters, one aged three and one under the age of two. He said he wanted to marry again and that his first wife had agreed to this.

His favourite pages on Facebook included 'Yawm al-Qiyaamah', the Islamic 'Day of Ressurection [sic]'. And a picture posted on his page shows an apocalyptic scene with the world in flames.

'In the future, am looking for to move to an arabic [sic] country and settle down there,' he wrote....