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The Threat to the Nordic Countries
09 Feb 2011The Nordic region is generally regarded as peace-loving, tolerant and a champion of freedom and transparency – Norway is home to the Nobel Peace Prize, Sweden aims to remain neutral in proximate wars. There have, however, been serious threats from Islamist extremism, particularly to Norway and Denmark in recent years, stemming mainly from cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
Sweden
Despite Osama Bin Laden proclaiming in 2004 that Sweden was “a freedom loving state that did not merit attack”, subsequent intelligence indicates that may not still be the case and on 1 October the Swedish Security Service – Sakerhetspolisen (Sapo) – raised its threat level to ‘elevated’ from ‘low’, following an intelligence review, but said that an attack was not thought to be imminent. The service said that the reclassification was due to the activities of certain groups within Sweden, thought to be targeting the country. A Sapo official said in a March 2009 interview with Jane’s Intelligence Review that intelligence and internet postings by groups such as al-Qaeda in Iraq have indicated that Sweden could be a target for extremism.
Sweden did not send troops to Iraq as part of the US-led invasion in 2003, and only as peacekeepers with the International Security Afghanistan Force (ISAF), not as combat soldiers. There are around 500 Swedish peacekeepers still in Afghanistan. Following the Iraq invasion, Sweden has received around 20,000 Iraqi refugees, the biggest number in Europe. Its tolerant society and liberal asylum policy may be a protective factor in the face of al-Qaeda and other Islamist extremists. But, since 2007, around half of the Iraqi refugees in the country have been sent home.
Sweden is also home to around 20,000 Somali immigrants and asylum seekers. Sapo has said that tens of Swedes of Somali origin are in al-Shabab training camps in Somalia. Throughout 2010 the press has reported several arrests of Somali Swedes on suspicion of links to terrorism. MORE ONLINE