Salafists Build Mosque in Jämtland: 'Fundamentalist and Reactionary'

On December 3rd last year, a purchase agreement was signed for a property on Frösön in Jämtland. A fundraising campaign is underway to convert the building into a mosque, and behind the project stands an entity linked to a national Salafist campaign. Experts warn about the implications of this establishment.

Upon signing, a down payment of one million SEK was made and the remaining five million is currently being raised. The municipality of Östersund is said to have granted planning permission and organizers claim they are close to collecting the full five million SEK.

Outwardly, the association Centrum för Fred (Markaz as-Salam) is responsible for the fundraising. The mosque project is part of the national campaign ‘Vi mår bra’ (‘We Feel Good’), which has Salafist connections and is a group previously examined by Samnytt. The group’s stated aim is to build a mosque in every Swedish city.

Salafism is a conservative branch within Sunni Islam that emphasizes a literal interpretation of the religion and has strong ties to Saudi Arabia.

Researcher and anthropologist Aje Carlbom at Malmö University urges caution.

“It is clear that the actors behind the project are Salafists, which is the most fundamentalist and reactionary current of Sunni Islam we have in Sweden. Saudi Arabia is known for its ambitions to spread Islam throughout the world, including Sweden and other European countries,” he writes in an email to Jämtlands Tidning.

Religious Worldview

He warns of the risk that Muslim children could be indoctrinated into a religious worldview that is anything but integration-friendly. He also emphasizes that there is no reason for Swedish authorities to assist or support the establishment of institutions whose agenda is to socialize children into the idea that they should follow laws other than Swedish law.

He hopes that authorities and politicians in northern Sweden understand the problems associated with the establishment of a mosque of this kind.

“It is high time that Swedish authorities stop foreign funding and at the same time make it difficult to establish mosques of this type. If not stopped, Salafists and activists in the Muslim Brotherhood will be able to establish a comprehensive religious infrastructure throughout the country, which could result in even more serious consequences in the future than those we’ve already seen, such as IS travelers and other forms of Islamic fundamentalism. These are actors who see it as a religious duty to indoctrinate Muslim children and in various ways spread reactionary norms and values,” Carlbom writes.

Extreme Lack of Knowledge

Magnus Ranstorp, terrorism researcher at the Swedish Defence University, notes that Saudi Arabia has financed many mosques in Sweden and that there is no transparency regarding financing in this case. However, he confirms that a Salafist campaign is underway in several locations with the intention of gaining influence.

According to Ranstorp, there is an extreme lack of political and religious knowledge when it comes to such issues, and he urges Östersund municipality to demand transparency regarding the financing.

The Sweden Democrats have also taken notice of the project: