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Sweden
Surrenders to Saudi Arabia
by Ingrid Carlqvist and Lars
Hedegaard • April 9, 2015 at 5:00 am
The
Swedish Prime Minister added that Sweden has no intention of ever criticizing
Islam. As is customary, Expressen refrained from asking the PM if his
comments should be taken as an indication that Sweden would stop criticizing
such Islamic practices as torturing bloggers, executing infidels and
oppressing women.
It is
hard to say what concessions Sweden may have given King Salman in exchange
for normalizing relations. Sweden may even have agreed to further the cause
of Islam back home by, for example, promising to build new mega-mosques and
giving greater influence to local imams.
Sweden's
Minister for Culture and Democracy, Alice Bah Kuhnke, has already promised to
initiate a "national strategy against Islamophobia" -- meaning any
criticism of Islam or mass immigration.
If the
Swedish-Saudi deal is as conjectured, Saudi Arabia will have obtained de
facto veto power over Sweden's foreign policy -- and perhaps its domestic
policies.
From now
on, it will be hard to take seriously Sweden's claims to be a humanitarian
and feminist superpower.
After weeks of diplomatic wrangling and recrimination, the Saudi
government on March 27 announced that it would reinstate its ambassador,
Ibrahim bin Saad bin Ibrahim al-Brahim, to Stockholm. The ambassador had been
recalled on March 11 as a protest against Swedish Foreign Minister Margot
Wallström's criticism of Saudi Arabia's legal practices and treatment of
women. In February, she had described conditions in the desert kingdom as
"medieval".
The recall of the ambassador came a day after the Swedish government
announced that it would discontinue its weapons exports to Saudi Arabia.
The Arab reaction to what they saw as a deliberate denigration of Saudi
Arabia and Islam was fury. In a statement, the foreign ministers of The Arab
League said: "Arab countries totally reject Wallström's statement as
irresponsible and unacceptable. ... Saudi Arabia's Constitution is based on
the Shariah that protects the right of people and safeguards their blood,
wealth and honor."
Turkey's
"Muslim God"
by Burak Bekdil
• April 9, 2015 at 4:00 am
"Even
touching Erdogan is a form of worship." — Mustafa Akyol, Turkish
columnist.
There are
the casualties such as the judiciary, fully loyal to Erdogan, which carries
out ugly witch hunts against his opponents -- who number in the tens of millions.
"Opposition
parties still exist and regular voting still occurs but the institutions of
democracy have been hollowed out." — Wall Street Journal.
More than
70 people have been prosecuted for "insulting" Erdogan since her
was elected president in August 2014.
Each day
Turkey looks more like Putin's Russia rather than any member of the European
club it theoretically hopes to join.
Turkey is probably one of the best social laboratories in the world to
prove why Islamist ideology cannot be compatible with a culture of humor,
dissent and protest. It also offers a unique experience that shows how
Islamists can even violate one of their religion's most fundamental teachings
for the sake of worshipping a leader's cult personality.
At a parliamentary session in February, Turkish deputies gathered to
debate a controversial security bill. Instead of debate, a brawl broke out.
The session ended after five MPs were taken to the hospital.
That bill, sponsored by the government but fiercely rebuked by the
opposition, has just taken effect, adding to fears that Turkey is fast
becoming a police state.
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Thursday, April 9, 2015
Sweden Surrenders to Saudi Arabia
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