Scientific Islamophobia: Swedish Authorities Deliberately Close Islamic Schools in Sweden

The Middle East Eye reported that Swedish authorities had closed 17 private Islamic schools since 2019, claiming they’re unfit to conduct school activities.

Although a large number of Islamic academic schools rank among the best in Sweden, the government continues its process of closing them.

Sweden’s Education Minister, Lina Axelsson-Kihlblom, said earlier this year at a press conference that her government had introduced a bill that seeks to ban the establishment of what she called independent religious schools.

The bill essentially bans schools from expanding by increasing the number of their students or opening new branches from 2024.

Organizations, researchers, and activists defending Islamic schools believe that the project makes Islamic schools the first, and maybe the only, target, which has angered the Muslim community in Sweden and elsewhere.

They claimed that the decision to close was based not on bad academic results or other educational defects but on anti-Islamic political motives.

 

‘My Children Cried For Days’

Samsam Ahmad is the mother of two children who were studying in the Islamic school al-Azhar—8 and 12 years old. They had just known that their school in the Swedish capital Stockholm was closed down, leaving their mother at a loss of how to explain why they would no longer be with their friends in the new school year. 

In July, Ahmad, like other Muslim parents, received a notice from the Swedish Schools Inspectorate that al-Azhar private Islamic school would be closed down due to “mismanagement.”

“We were only given one month’s notice…but I wasn’t given further details. Islamic teaching made up five percent of the school’s curriculum,” Ahmad told Middle East Eye.

“My children cried for days when I told them that the school would be closed,” Ahmad said.

“When I asked them why [they were upset], they said they would miss their friends, classmates, and teachers. They didn’t sleep well for several nights,” she added.

In a letter sent to al-Azhar, the Swedish Schools Inspectorate informed the school, where more than 200 students were enrolled, that the management was deemed “unfit to conduct school activities after it was assessed that children are at risk of being exposed to radicalization.”

Members of Sweden’s Muslim community stressed that these actions are only directed to private Muslim schools.

Mohamed Issaq, a father of three, who can’t afford private Islamic lessons, has had to send his children to free Islamic schools.

“I used to believe that I was living in one of the best countries, where the government even funds [private schools], including ones that offer religious studies,” Issaq said.

“These schools were fulfilling our children’s need to have their Islamic and cultural values taught, but now they are no longer there.”

Issaq explained that some parents were expecting the authorities to provide alternative options for Islamic teaching, but they were disappointed.

 

Discriminatory Policies

Mohammed Amin Kharraki, director of the independent Islamic school, Framstegsskolan, in the suburb of Ragsved in the capital, Stockholm, said that about 20 schools that classify themselves as Islamic or are owned by Muslims had been closed.

“Three schools are still awaiting the results of lawsuits against the closure decision,” Kharaki added to Anadolu Agency.

In May 2022, the Education Inspection Department in Sweden said that it would close the Framstegsskolan School, which won an appeal against the decision, as the Administrative Court said that the decision was “no longer valid” and the school was waiting for a final ruling.

Alain Gabon, Associate Professor of French Studies and chair of the Department of Foreign Languages, explained that, having transcended discriminatory policies, some countries have now reached the point of outright persecution of Muslims including their “native” citizens. This boom in Islamophobia affected every Western country; even the most open, tolerant, multicultural, democratic, and liberal countries were not spared from it.

He emphasized that recently, Islamophobia has entered a new phase characterized by a triple process: convergence and crystallization (different governments, parties, movements, and anti-Islamic forces that were isolated in the past are now gathering); horizontal/geographical expansion; and vertical intensification/penetration, affecting even more intimate areas of life (family, parental educational choices, freedom of belief and consciousness, etc.).

He stressed that we are now witnessing what might be called the era of scientific Islamophobia, which is characterized by a significant increase in innovative and effective methods and technologies (old and new), tools (including legal ones), and anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic strategies. Like Foucault’s rational-force strategies, these multiple lines of containment and penetration weave an almost inescapable web for most Muslims.

 

Values Under Attack

In February 2022, an Al-Estiklal report revealed terrifying and shocking information about the Swedish Social Welfare forcibly separating children from their Arab and Muslim families under the pretext of negligence.

The Swedish center for information stated that 20,000 children are taken away from their families every year.

For instance, the center reported the story of the Moroccan immigrant Selwa Lina, who was found dead in her flat after being separated from her child. The reason for her death was not revealed.

Lina’s misery, along with many Arab and Muslim sad testimonies about the offensive practices of the Swedish Social, triggered widespread criticisms and condemnations. Protests and pressure from all over the world raised rejecting practices that violate the basic rights of the child and their families.

Many rights activists accused the Swished Social of systematic targeting of Muslim families.

The report disclosed the suicide of Yasmine, 13 years old, after being forcibly taken away from her family to be adopted by a rich Swedish family. Similarly, Dina Hassan, 15 years old, also committed suicide after her custody was given to a new alternative Swedish family. The suicide of those two children should raise the alarm about the repercussions of the Swedish Social horrific process.

There are many institutions in different Western countries, similar to Sweden Social, that follow up on cases of violence against children and ensure that the child grows up in a healthy environment. However, the practices of these institutions fuel the fears of Muslims in different Western countries, with the spread of several cases of forcibly taking Arab and Muslim children from their parents without considering their cultural differences.