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Monday, May 4, 2020

Muslim Brotherhood in Sweden (4)

Hat tip Ledarsidorna (Se) and Gates of Vienna. Translation by Fousesquawk.



This is the fourth in a series of translations of Swedish articles regarding the presence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Sweden. It is part of a larger series of translations on the MB in Western European countries written in the original languages. This article, like the previous three articles on Sweden, comes from the Swedish site, Ledarsidorna.



Muslim Brotherhood established in Swedish total defense

Saturday, May 2, 2020

In the shadow of the Corona-crisis, the Muslim Brotherhood network of organizations has begun to establish cooperation with defense forces' civil society organizations. An establishment together with ABF (Worker Education Association) and the Swedish Church which again makes it clear the high level of the Brotherhood's organization as well as communication skill. A capacity that is built up over a long time.

Defense trainers are a nationwide voluntary defense organization, and their activity covers from individual security to defense of the community. Defense trainers are responsible for recruiting, training, and writing up voluntary agreements for both defense forces and crisis readiness.

   * Specialists like care givers, scouts, CBRN (Chemical, Radiological and Nuclear) -soldiers, who handle hazardous substances, field cooks and information officers for the Home Guard.

   * Agreements for crisis readiness in order to increase stamina in case of crisis in, for example, communication, health protection, hazardous substances, or nuclear accidents.

Defense trainers are responsible for comprehensive activity within both Sweden's defense and crisis readiness.

Together with the municipality of Huddinge, defense trainers arrange free digital training in crisis readiness-for your security. Training consists of three 15 minute films, and there are texts in Arabic, Kurdish, and Turkish as well as Swedish sign language. The training is offered in cooperation with ABF Huddinge and the Swedish Church in Huddinge, as well as the Ibn Rushd Study Association.

The Ibn Rushd Study Association is one of the Muslim Brotherhood's network organizations in Sweden. Through personal unions and activity, like for example, the now-defunct Muslim Family Days, there is a direct connection with the Islamic network organization. Mainly through the connections between Ibn Rushd, Sweden's Young Muslims, and FIFS, (United Islamic Associations in Sweden), which constitutes the links to, among others, the Muslim Brotherhood's Egyptian organization as well as the Brotherhood's ideological leader, Yussef al Qaradawi.

It is not only in Johan Westerholm's "Islamism in Sweden" (Greycat 2020) where personal unions between the Muslim Brotherhood and Ibn Rushd are presented. Also, not least, that the Muslim Brotherhood rests upon a totalitarian and basically fascist ideology.

Within the defense sectors, there is knowledge, and the Public Education Council has come to the same conclusion. The Public Education Council's report on the Ibn Rushd Study Association by Professor Erik Amnå, "When  Trust Is Tested", comes to the same conclusion. Amnå points out earlier warning signals in the form of the report that FOI (Swedish Defense Research Agency) produced for  the SST (Swedish Support to Faith Communities) authorities through Rickard Lagervall. This study  concluded that the study association, at the founding of the organization, rested upon the Brotherhood's ideological and theological interpretation of the Koran. 

That the Muslim Brotherhood is now taking the opportunity to strengthen its position in society together with the Swedish Church is something that isn't surprising, and is as Ledarsidorna earlier pointed out. Partly because the government has now been influenced to remove requirements for self-financing of aid projects, but also  through cooperation  with the Swedish Church. Cooperation with the defense forces-connected civil society organizations comes as no surprise either.

In an earlier article, Ledarsidorna described how the Swedish Church initiated cooperation within the framework of the project, A World of Neighbors", with another of the Muslim Brotherhood's network organizations, Islamic Relief.

The cooperation also includes the Muslim Cultural Heritage Center in Kensington, London. The Center is more known as the Manaar Mosque, and should be considered as one of Great Britain's more extreme Islamic milieus. Al Manaar has among its former parishioners, ISIS executioner, "Jihadi John", who became known for his videotaped executions of war prisoners, along with the at least as brutal "The hip-hop jihadist". It is the first time al Manaar is openly found in a Swedish context in Sweden, but the connections to Sweden are older than that. On al Manaar's board of directors is found a Swedish citizen who earlier resided in North Stockholm County.

The Muslim Brotherhood's network organizations are characterized by their communicative skills. A skill that they have partially acquired through working with the media house, al Jazeera, but also through building their own competency in Sweden.

Sara Gunnerud, now with ABF, was formerly communications chief for Ibn Rushd, as well as editor for the study association's newspaper, Kupolen. (The Dome). Gunnerud is author of "The Power of the Word" (Katalys 2014). Gunnerud should be considered as one of Sweden's most skilled and most experienced political communicators even if her role is mainly adviser and expert.

Within the Social Democrats, Gunnerud sits on the board of directors of Föreningen Hjärta (Association Heart), part of the Social Democrats for faith and solidarity. (Among) the former members of the board of directors of Heart, are found, among others, Omar Mustafa, ex-chairman of Föreningen Hjärta, and Ibn Rushd's ex-head, as well as Rashid Musa, chairman of  Sveriges Unga Muslimer (Sweden's Young Muslims).

The Islamic Association in Sweden identifies itself, according to its own statutes, with the Muslim Brotherhood's  theological and political interpretation. Sweden's Young Muslims lost their right to state aid from MUCF (Authority for Youth and Civil Society Questions) in 2019 in a judgment in Stockholm's parliamentary court because they were not seen to live up to democratic criteria.

The Corona crisis provides a possibility to take a further step in the Brotherhood's wider establishment in different societal functions. It can now be seen to have begun an establishment in the Armed Forces civil society organizations and thereby in the Swedish total defense.


Note: The municipality of Eskilstuna has recently stopped all payments to the Ibn Rushd Study Association (citing) that the association is one of the Muslim Brotherhood's network organizations in Sweden.



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