Terror Researcher: Swedish Left Sees Muslims as "Voting Cattle"

STOCKHOLM - Islamist organisations have spent decades building influence in Sweden. According to terrorism researcher Magnus Norell, parts of the Swedish left have made that job a great deal easier.

Norell, who has studied political Islam, terrorism and the Middle East for most of his career, sat down with Samnytt for a long interview about his new book and what he calls the growing alliance between the left and Islamism.

He is careful with his words. He would rather not call it "Islamisation" or "infiltration". What has happened, he says, is that organised Islamist movements have quietly secured an established place in Swedish society.

"Various Islamist movements have established themselves in Sweden over these decades in different ways," he said.

First among them, in his view, is the Muslim Brotherhood. Over roughly thirty years it has built up organisational structures in Sweden, much as it has elsewhere in Europe. A major French government report on the Brotherhood has also singled out Sweden and its ties to groups close to the Social Democrats.

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An alliance that should not exist

On paper, the radical left and the Islamists could hardly be further apart. One side preaches gender equality, gay rights and personal freedom. The other often stands for the exact opposite.

"It is hard to think of anything more opposed," Norell said.

Yet at pro-Palestinian rallies in Swedish cities, left-wing activists and feminists regularly march alongside supporters of Hamas. The French even have a word for it: islamo-gauchisme.

The glue, he argues, is antisemitism. "That is where they meet."

And it is nothing new. Norell points to the long history of hostility towards Israel and Jews within the Left Party, well before today's cooperation with Islamist movements took shape.

"Voting cattle"

Then there is the simple matter of votes. Norell describes how he believes Swedish parties look at Muslim voters.

"Oh, here's a group of Muslims. And then they see them as a collective. As voting cattle, quite simply. So they bring them in."

The Left Party has been hit by repeated scandals over candidates who praised Hamas or spread antisemitic conspiracy theories. Norell does not accept naivety as an excuse any more.

"It takes an effort to be that naive. And how long can you be naive? These are such blatant examples, and so many of them."

He suspects a mix of ignorance, opportunism and shared ideology. "I think they are quite okay with it. They buy it. To get those votes."

Speaking for people they do not represent

Norell stresses that mosques themselves are not the problem. Muslim congregations, like Christian ones, can run religious and social activities.

The problem starts when certain organisations become the political voice of far more people than they actually represent - as with the giant mosque projects now under way in Skärholmen, Linköping and Kalmar.

"For the Brotherhood around Europe, it is about seeing themselves as the best and most authentic representative of all Muslims, whatever country they are in," he said.

Do they really speak for Sweden's Muslims? "No. Most Muslims in Sweden are not members of any Muslim congregation at all."

He calls it a Swedish own goal. Officials have long been used to dealing with immigrant groups through associations and spokesmen. Apply that model to a religion, and self-appointed Islamist groups suddenly become the official partner of the state.

"They have been given a role that in reality they do not have. At all."

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The war over reality

Norell's new book, Tunnelseende ("Tunnel Vision"), examines the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023 and how the war that followed was reported in the West.

He argues that a second war, over who gets to define reality, began within minutes of the attack. He is especially hard on Sweden's public broadcasters, saying they have left out the context needed to understand the conflict, from the laws of war to the difference between civilians and combatants.

"It doesn't always have to be wrong, what you say. But if you strip out a lot of important ingredients needed to understand the context, then it becomes wrong."

He now reads Swedish Radio and SVT, he says, much as he once read the Soviet paper Pravda.

"No rights to the collective"

Asked whether Islam is capable of reform, Norell says that is beside the point. What matters is that religion is kept out of government.

"You can believe exactly what you want. But it must not decide how the country is run. At all."

He sums up his view with a principle borrowed from the French republican tradition: "No rights to the collective. All rights to the individual."

Asked about Denmark's ban on the improper treatment of religious scriptures, introduced after the Quran burnings, his answer was immediate: "Insane. Extremely dangerous."