– All Muslims are guilty of any terrorist acts, says Leif Stenberg, professor of Islamology at Lund University. He fears that the perception of refugees and the desire to receive those affected by the weekend’s terrorist attacks.
why he is calling for more research on how the Muslim community in Sweden looks.
– We must know what we are talking about, he stresses.
There are many questions after the bloody attacks in Paris on Friday, 13 December. Why did it happen? Why Paris? Can it happen here? Is war now?
No one has the exact answers, but one that is well positioned to respond Leif Stenberg, who is director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Lund.
He builds on the story and believes that since the 1800s there is discussion about the role Islam should play in the Middle East.
– The Jihadism as the Islamic State (IS) exerts stands for the revolutionary road toward Islam. They want the armed struggle to change society so that Islam should govern both man and society. By creating conflict and chaos would like IS herald the Messiah will come down and establish God’s kingdom on earth. It may sound strange as anything, but that’s what ideologni is about. It can also read their texts online.
Revolution in Iran
Leif Stenberg out that there are other movements within Islam who are trying to act in other ways, but right now it is undeniably IS makes the clearest impression.
– The revolution in Iran in 1979 was an important turning point for the radical movements. It showed that it is possible to create an Islamic republic by rebelling, he said.
Since then, several militant movements emerged in the region. IS is born out of the frustration or dilemma such as Hamas and al-Qaeda, according to Stenberg, who also points out that there have been plenty of both training sessions and nurseries in the region during the last decades of war in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.
The long-term goal of the IS is therefore to establish an Islamic state, but Leif Stenberg see many question marks with the arrangement.
– It is still unclear how the State institutions should be designed and how it should work in practice. You hear the most rhetorical phrases that it will be a caliphate, but not how it is in practice be controlled. It would be an interesting research task, but perhaps not just now after what happened in Paris.
Why do you think they batted in Paris?
> – ICE says that it is at war and are attacked from several different directions. Probably they have sympathizers in all western countries, it must be cold reckoned with. But why it was precisely Paris, not London, Rome or New York, I do not.
Säpo has now been a few days after the attacks on Paris and Beirut gone out with elevated terrorhotsnivå in Sweden.
Could it happen in Stockholm?
– Well, you can never be sure, but Stockholm is not nearly as hot as Paris and I can think of several other places that are ahead in the ranking. That Sweden is doing is to train 35 Kurdish soldiers in Iraq, it’s probably not that significant.
– On the other hand, there are relatively many Swedes have gone down and fought with IS, 286 was the last figure I saw. But only 140 have come home. So yes, there may be a potential risk.
But it is war now that IS saying?
– I do not know how to define it in progress. In the IS rhetoric is war – a decisive war between good and evil and it lasted long. I see it almost as an extension of the war against terrorism to a global level. But a new world war in the sentence thousands of people on the battlefield is not the case.
How do you think the refugee crisis will be influenced by the Paris attacks?
– Many of those who fled’ve just escaped from this, it is important to say. It must be frightening for those who just come to Europe to see this happen. I do not think there’s a lot of fifth columnists or IS-supporters among the refugees. They are surely just as shaken as we are.
A step back
Yet fears Leif Stenberg that the perception of refugees and the desire to receive those affected of what happened in Paris.
– Everything that has been built up and which has been positive in the work of the refugee issue will probably take a step back now. We can get a situation where all Muslims are guilty of any terrorist acts. If the perception spreads, it can affirm political reversals, and it can suddenly become a legitimate tougher, expulsions and closed borders.
This would be an unfortunate development, he stresses.
– Muslims are like all other people and individuals should be assessed individually. So saith also law and asylum law and other international conventions.
Not only Muslim refugees risk having to pay for crimes that others committed in the name of Islam. While all the other innocent Muslims can be drawn. The lessons learned from the attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States.
– After that, we saw a resurgence of anti-Islamic movements and public opinion for a clampdown on Muslims in general. It is not unthinkable that something similar is happening now, says Leif Stenberg.
wrong to regard Islam as a unified
At the same time he believes there is a great knowledge gap, not least in Sweden, when it comes to the Muslim population here. It is a gap that he is very keen to contribute to the clog.
– As a scientist, I see serious problems with Islam is regarded as something uniform. There are serious contradictions within Islam, both in theological and ritual matters. If we are to assess whether there is any threat from Muslims in Sweden, so we need to know more about them, preferably a knowledge building that takes place in common with Muslim communities. But we have not had any major research project about it in Sweden. It is unfortunate that we talk so much about Islam, although we have no clear basis for research.
More research is needed
He would like to see a large survey of Muslim congregations and movements in Sweden – what they say in their Friday prayers, how many people are involved and what one has for businesses in general.
– We have to get a picture of how the Muslim society looks like before we start thinking of it as a breeding ground for radical movements such as IS. Similar studies have been done in many other countries and it has been done in cooperation with the Muslim community. I see it as very important to produce that kind of knowledge. But there is no research that has gone around and knocked the door of the Muslim community.
Do you have any hypothesis before such a project?
– The idea is simply that we should know what we’re talking about. I am convinced that we generally exaggerate the importance of Islam for Muslims. We believe that they are religious in far greater extent than they are, we also believe that the mosque visitors are more than what they are. This is evident from a small study in Malmo coming soon. But there is obviously huge in terms of what we imagine to Muslims in Sweden are doing in the name of Islam, says Leif Stenberg.
Text: Bengt Rolfer
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