Sweden has called for an EU crackdown on immigration to end terrorism, with a right-wing bias towards Muslims likely to deepen divisions.
EU ministers are expected to discuss in December how to prevent attacks such as the murder of Swedish football fans by an Islamist extremist in Brussels on October 16, the Swedish government said in a letter on Tuesday, November 7.
“Recently, we once again saw the ugly face of terrorism rear its head in the heart of Europe, when three Swedish citizens were shot dead at a football match in Brussels, simply because they were Swedes,” said the Ministers of Justice and Migration, Gunnar Strömmer and Maria. Malmer Stenergard, said.
A 45-year-old Tunisian, Abdessalem Lassoued, entered the EU via Italy in 2011 and lived in Sweden and Belgium before committing the murder.
It is “crucial that people who may pose a threat to our countries and to the lives of our citizens are detected and identified when they attempt to enter the Schengen area” before being expelled “in a rapid, safe manner and effective,” Sweden said. said.
The Schengen area is home to 400 million people spread across most EU states, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
EU capitals must share more data on red flagged individuals and do more to combat terror financing, as well as crack down on external borders and expulsions, Swedish ministers said.
Previous terrorist attacks in the EU have prompted similar calls for action.
But Sweden’s appeal to the EU on Monday comes amid what its national security adviser, Henrik Landerholm, called the country’s “greatest” danger since World War II, citing terrorism, shootings between gangs and Russian aggression in Europe.
This also comes against a backdrop of rising anti-Semitic and Islamophobic tensions in the country. the wider EU over the war in Gaza.
The Brussels killings saw foreign media coverage of Sweden reach 85,000 posts between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. on October 16, the Swedish Institute (SI), a government watchdog, told EUobserver.
Despite their “intensity”, most reports were factual and sober, the SI said, covering “the chain of events” and “speculation about the perpetrator and his motive”. Danish and Norwegian media stood out “in terms of sympathy shown”, SI added.
This contrasts sharply with the anti-Swedish hatred stoked in Arab and Turkish media following the Koran burning protests in Stockholm in January and June this year.
But if there was widespread sympathy, including among Belgium’s 800,000 Muslims, for Sweden following the Brussels attack, then authorities had to weigh their words carefully so as not to rile frayed nerves, warned Paul Levin, professor of international relations at Stockholm University.
The Swedish ministers who signed the EU letter belong to Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s ruling center-right moderate party.
They did not mention “Muslims” or “Islam”, despite their explicit references to Lassoued, the Brussels killer, and foreign asylum seekers.
But Levin said: “Personally, I fear that an exclusive focus on Muslim immigrants as threats will only deepen divisions in our societies and create problems instead of solving them.”
“The letter must be seen in the context that we now have a center-right government that is building its parliamentary majority on the support of the Sweden Democrats, a far-right party that has long viewed immigration as a threat,” he said. he added.
“This is a European challenge, not just a Swedish one,” he said.
The war in Gaza has caused unprecedented losses on both sides, with more than 10,000 Palestinian deaths and 1,400 Israeli casualties.
Youssef Kobo, writer and speaker on Belgian politics, also warned Last Friday, a bad reaction from the EU could worsen the internal security situation.
“This (Gaza) war will have greater consequences for global security than the Iraqi invasion and Syria,” Kobo said, referring to Islamist radicalization after the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq and the war. Syrian civil war which broke out in 2011.
What Muslims see as an EU “carte blanche” for Israel has caused “disgust at the sheer indifference to the loss of life in Palestine”, he said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has given Israel the strongest support of any senior EU official so far, despite protesters’ protests. Arab diplomats.
She met Jordan’s King Abdullah II in Brussels on Tuesday and unveiled 900 million euros of European investment in her country, for projects such as water desalination plants, but did not hold a conference Press.
Abdullah also met EU Council President Charles Michel the same day and warned that Israeli aggression in the West Bank risked escalating tensions.
Subjects interact
“His majesty warned of the continued escalation in the West Bank and settler violence against Palestinians, which could lead to an explosion of the situation,” Abdullah II’s palace said in a statement.
“His Majesty reiterated Jordan’s rejection of Israeli measures and continued violations in Jerusalem as an occupying force restricting the freedom of worship of Muslims at the Al Aqsa Mosque,” the text added.
Returning to Sweden and Brussels, Stockholm University’s Levin said: “Al-Qaeda and Isis (Islamist extremist groups) have both made calls for devout Muslims to attack Swedes, and the terrorist suspect accused of the murder of two Swedish football fans in Brussels was apparently “He was informed by this speech. It may also have been informed by anger over the war in Gaza, which shows how closely these topics interact.”
Aside from terrorists, Sweden saw 391 shootings last year, killing 67 people, many of them young teenagers.
This is a “crescendo” by Swedish and Scandinavian standards, Levon noted.
“At the same time, Sweden’s total homicide rate (not just gun-related) has increased only moderately since the 1990s and is lower than in Finland, France, the Baltics and Balkan countries,” he said.