Report: Sweden has become ‘base’ for Islamic extremists

by WorldTribune Staff, May 20, 2018

Some 2,000 violent Islamic radicals reside in Sweden and authorities say they are having a harder time tracking down potential terrorists.

Swedish security agencies currently receive 6,000 extremism related tips every month. Five years ago, the number was 2,000.

The Scandinavian country has become a “base” for international Islamic extremists, according to researcher Peder Hyllengren of the Swedish Defense College.

Meanwhile, a study by the Expressen newspaper revealed that the majority of underage Afghan migrants admitted into Sweden are actually adults and nearly all of them are male.

Hyllengren said political correctness by the Swedish establishment greatly contributed to the situation getting out of hand.

“You risk being identified as racist in a way that you did not see in other European countries,” Hyllengren said. “There, this question was as uncontroversial as the importance of combating Nazism and right-wing extremism. But in Sweden, it took a long time before we could discuss jihadism in the same way that we discussed Nazism for a long time.”

The reported number of violent Islamic extremists in Sweden in 2018 is a huge increase from 2010 when security agency Sapo said there were 200 violent Islamists and around 100 neo-Nazis and far left extremists in the country.

Sapo said it now receives around 6,000 extremism related tips every month. Five years ago, the number was 2,000.

Sapo said it is having a hard time tracking potential terrorists as more and more are lone wolf attackers who are inspired by, but not directly tied to, the Islamic State (ISIS).

“We see, above all, that the type of attack threat we handle does not come from established networks in the same way as before, but there are unknown actors, where we have not received information about them earlier, which means that it will be more complex to assess,” said Fredrik Hallström, Deputy Unit Manager at the Security Department according to a report by Swedish radio broadcaster Sveriges Radio.

“What we saw earlier was more of a kind of spectacular attack, well-planned, well-executed, with trained attackers who demanded an advanced plan, advanced weapons, access to bombs and a network of contacts. Today, we see that you can go from a quick thought to an implementation in just a few hours,” Hallström said.

“And it is clear that it is a challenge for us to be able to judge that kind of intention, because the ability in the form of a crime tool is almost entirely in its vicinity, in the form of a kitchen knife or a car,” he added.

Last month, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven and his government announced a plan to allow some 9,000 “underage” Afghan migrants to stay in the country after a protest against deportations to Afghanistan, Breitbart reported on May 20.

None of those in the newspaper’s study of the so-called “underage” migrants had valid identification documents when they entered Sweden and a significant number, almost half, had lived in Iran for at least a year before heading to the Scandinavian country.

Additionally, 99.4 percent of the Afghan migrants are male, the Expressen newspaper’s study found.

Migration has been voted the most important election issue in Sweden ahead of the September elections, according to a study conducted by Demoskop.


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