Westerholm: Debatten om indragna bidrag till Islamic Relief bygger på sakfel

Johan Westrom editor-in-chief of the opinion pages and a contributor here at Epoch Times Welcome Thank you A debate article has been published in Aftonbladet written by a number of individuals and organizations asserting tha The withdrawal of support for Islamic Relief is Islamophobic How do you view this argument First and foremost the term Islamophobic is a coinage that emerged in response to the developed Muslim brotherhood It therefore has no medical basis whatsoever and that's exactly what they've managed to achieve Islamophobia is today tantamount to being a racist—it's simply understood as such But there's actually no medical consensus that supports this and it's just a term people toss around You're Islamophobic if you lack the courage to critique Islam within the bounds of religious criticism or religious dialogue men especially when you criticize Islamist organizations and the Islamist ideology itself It's therefore a political stance and this is one way of trying to silence the opponent and make the opponent adapt because no one wants to be a coward no one wants to be evil This is a tool found primarily in the Muslim brotherhood's toolkit This debate article is signed by quite a few organizations and researchers—what do you think about this list of organizations It's pretty much the usual suspects just amplified It's an important list to me as it helps identify who makes up the apologetic environment in this case ose found among Swedes who defend Muslim brotherhood Among the previously known names are the Uppsala Racism Academy among others who has steadfastly defended all the organizations in Sweden that have lost state funding Like many other young Muslims in Sweden they didn’t even bother to repay the money and simply shut down the organization And yet despite the repayment demands totaling nearly two million they simply defend themselves from the surface of the Earth The male debaters are still present but some of them are here It was another one who reacted to a new group called The Damned of the Earth and Earth's condemned prisoners embrace an ideologue named Frantz Fanon who died in 1961 He is better known for Jean-Paul Sartre or for his book The Damned Earth and that he also defined the Third World as a concept The introduction to Frantz Fanon's "The Wretched of the Earth" may be more intriguing than the book itself It's particularly fascinating because it serves as a handbook for movements including Black Power and most notably the Black Panther movement The foreword was written by Jean-Paul Sartre who argues that it is legitimate for Black people to use violence against white people with reference to colonialism Even if the white people are innocent in each individual case there still exists a collective guilt borne by the white man And then we're left with the possibility—perhaps at best—of watching our wife be raped or at worst be forced to confront it in their lives So a club is named after that book and I find the development fascinating ow we will develop that life philosophy Speaking of this preface is this the first time these ideas are being published No that's not it The Socialist Forum in Stockholm organized earlier by ABF He had it anyway now it's just one day but before it was a whole week and then you know you've spent half a day precisely on Frantz Fanon and the damned Rashid Moussa of the earth Chairperson of Sweden's Young Muslims affiliated with Stockholm Mosque Stockholm's mosque is of course the Muslim brotherhood in Sweden—he was given half a day on that stage So this isn't the first time one could say it's a comeback This is a revival of those ideas except this time it's them signing off Among the organizations listed here how many do you see as being linked to the Muslim Brotherhood I can't answer that directly right now but one could say tha Half of them adopt an apologetic or well-meaning attitude toward the fascist ideas of the Muslim Brotherhood This is clearly an opinion piece published in Aftonbladet What do you think about the state of the debate climate in Sweden Considering this debate article if we begin with the text itself That’s what they’re saying—that Islamic Relief has lost its government funding—and I’ve already commented on that They say this is just one of hundreds of cases where this is some kind of witch hunt against Muslims But I can say that this is a clear factual error I'm not saying they're lying but they're including a falsehood there That is an important nuance For what this amounts to is the effect of now diverting numerous association grants to various organizations Not only for Muslims but as of January 1st 2025 new democratic criteria will be in effect So then mustn't these organizations demonstrate that we live up to values such as inclusion democracy and human rights You don't do that then you won't get any money Yes we've seen quite a significant impact from that Of course I don't intend to impose those demands on them They're already talking for themselves I don't think we should take this debate article too seriously because they don't present the full picture of the issue That's one of the major reasons why they lose their government funding Yes because they fail to meet the democratic standards They do not have an operation that meets the standards set by the Riksdag and the government These organizations believe your money and mine are theirs to claim Not that they need to meet certain requirements Because it is a human right I think it's really exciting to see this And yet they haven’t given up in any way They do have such excellent conditions to succeed with this after all With their demands Morgan Johansson the political face of the expression chamber He has for the Social Democrats he's already promised to rejoin as minister for expression in this case He previously served as Minister of Justice He is part of the Social Democrats' committee working group You really do have to take him seriously He 's representing the Social Democrats' brand Otherwise I refer you to these aid and grant-related matters He says he'll restore all the previous subsidy rules and we have to accept that If that happens which organizations would be funded again At least We'll start with Sida of course Forum Civ Concord Islamic Relief Svenska kyrkan would surely receive a new allocation Name it Just take a look at the list from 2021–2022 Now all that's left is to dust it off Then we'll know what's coming How are the connections between Islamic Relief and the Muslim Brotherhood To begin with Islamic Relief Sweden was founded by Ibn Rushd They share the same founders as Ibn Rushd Therefore it is the Islamic Association in Stockholm or the Islamic Association in Sweden Among the founders we find several from the Islamic Association in Stockholm The Islamic Association in Stockholm is open about being part of the Muslim Brotherhood And those are their own words