Swedish taxpayers have been funding organisations tied to extremism, a leading political scientist warns, including a mosque that Sweden’s security service says has been used as an intelligence hub for the Iranian regime.
The Imam Ali Islamic Centre in Järfälla received 3.2 million kronor (€292,000) in 2023 from the Swedish Agency for Support for Religious Communities (SST). The money was channelled via the Islamic Shia Associations in Sweden (ISS), which shares the mosque’s address and has taken in 28.5 million kronor (€2.6 million) in subsidies since 2006. In total, SST handed out 80 million kronor (€7.3 million) to religious groups last year.
Political scientist Daniel Schatz stressed in a column for 100% that the state cannot seriously claim to be combatting extremism while it “simultaneously finances forces that undermine democracy.” The question, he added, “is no longer whether SST has failed. The question is why the government refuses to close the authority.”
Back in 2018, [Swedish security service] Säpo determined that public funds were going to organisations with links to violent extremism. Yet the multi-million-kronor donations continued to roll in.
Richard Jomshof, who represents the Sweden Democrats in the Swedish parliament, supported Schatz’s view that officials should stop funding such groups on social media.
Politician Mikael Flink warned as long ago as March last year that the government will “never win the cat-and-mouse game against extremists, benefit fraudsters and foreign powers.” He called for it to “immediately dismantle SST and scrap all the subsidies.” More recently, Flink complained that the agency has been “pumping out millions to Islamists” for “far too long,” asking: “What is the government waiting for?”
This funding no doubt undermines efforts to tackle the Muslim Brotherhood’s infiltration into Swedish society. Sweden Democrats MEP Charlie Weimers said in May that officials must take a “zero-tolerance policy” against the Islamist group. The same should go for much of the rest of Europe, but Brussels—as always—has its fingers in its ears.
