The Swedish government has announced an investigation into the “Islamist infiltration” in the country following the publication of the bombshell French report claiming that the Muslim Brotherhood has waged a decades-long campaign to penetrate European institutions with the aim of subverting the West and imposing Sharia law.
A French intelligence report published this week by the Ministry of Interior warned of Islamist fifth columns embedded across Europe, with EU institutions, Muslim associations, and migrant communities all falling prey to a vast network of sworn Muslim Brotherhood members operating in plain sight, often using Western liberal values to veil their nefarious aims in a shroud of legitimacy.
While the report focused heavily on the Brotherhood’s activities in France and the EU, the Paris intel identified numerous other countries throughout Europe, including Austria, Belgium, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
The report also said that “evidence collected attests to the active presence of the movement” in Northern European countries like Denmark, the Netherlands, and Sweden.
Following its publication, Swedish Minister for Integration Mats Persson said: “I will convene an expert group to get a picture of the situation of Islamist infiltration in Sweden. This is against the background of what has emerged in France.”
“Sweden is mentioned in the French report and in many respects has similar challenges to France in terms of integration and counteracting parallel social structures that challenge liberal democracy,” he added.
Persson went on to say that the government will “strangle foreign funding of religious communities, where states fund radical mosques” to push back against “these Islamist and undemocratic forces.”
According to the French report, Sweden “hosts an active branch of the movement which, in addition to its small size, is characterised by its influence on European movement structures.”
The Muslim Brotherhood’s operation in Sweden accomplished this influence with the backing of money from Qatar, Paris claimed.
Additionally, Sweden appears to have been an easy target for the Islamist movement given the Nordic nation’s “great tolerance of multiculturalism,” the report found.
The French government investigation also alleged that the Muslim Brotherhood took advantage of “good relations” with local political parties, particularly the Swedish Social Democratic Party, the traditional party of government in Stockholm, which oversaw the vast majority of recent mass migration into the country.
Social Democrats Party Secretary Tobias Baudin said that the report “does not elaborate” on the alleged ties between his left-wing party and the Muslim Brotherhood, but said: “We have zero tolerance for association with extremist organisations. That line is crystal clear in our party.”
However, some have noted that just last year, the leftist party was forced to expel one of its members of parliament, Jamal El-Haj, over his alleged ties to Hamas and for reportedly attempting to lobby the Swedish Migration Agency on behalf of a Muslim Brotherhood-linked Imam to remain in the country.
“Jamal El-Haj is no longer a member of our party. It is because we are clear: There should be no interaction with extremist organisations,” Baudin said.
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