Common sense. Long overdue. “Sweden mulls new laws banning jihad combat, travel,” AFP, June 17, 2015:
Stockholm (AFP) – Sweden is considering drafting new legislation that would ban its nationals from fighting in armed conflicts for terrorist organisations such as Islamic State (IS), the government said Wednesday.
“It is completely unacceptable that Swedish citizens are travelling to (join) IS, financing the organisation, or fighting for it,” Justice Minister Morgan Johansson and Interior Minister Anders Ygeman wrote in a joint article in leading newspaper Dagens Nyheter.
No kidding, really?
The proposed ban would prohibit combat for terrorist organisations listed as such by the United Nations or European Union.
“We have a responsibility for what our citizens do both here at home and in other countries,” they wrote.
“People who live here and who have chosen to join IS can constitute a serious threat upon their return. Criminalisation is of course not the only way of preventing this but it is an important part of anti-terrorism measures,” they said….
Swedish intelligence service Sapo has said that about 150 people from Sweden are known to have travelled to Syria and Iraq to join Islamic militant groups, but that the figure may be as high as 300.