“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.”…