Islam is considered the fastest growing religion in Northern Europe, while the traditional Lutheran church is rapidly losing parishioners. Followers of the Prophet Muhammad, whose number in the Scandinavian countries (with a total population of 25 million) has already exceeded one million, have achieved much. The police, bus companies, and armed forces have even developed special uniforms for Muslims, including a turban for men and a tight headscarf down to the eyebrows for women; pork has been removed from the rations of conscript soldiers and schoolchildren; and Muslim holidays have become official grounds for non-attendance at school or work in a number of municipalities. Even public swimming pools adapt to the trends of the new era, admitting women wrapped from head to toe. A couple of weeks ago, a swimming pool in Gothenburg had to pay compensation of €6,000 each to several 'hermetically sealed' bathers who were not allowed into the hall on the pretext of violating safety rules. And now — a new stage of the 'Islamic offensive' on the European north.
The founder of the Finnish Islamic Party, Abdullah Tammi, now intends to raise the banner of the Prophet over all of Finland. The program of the new party, as reported by the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, includes the following points: replacing sex education lessons in schools with teaching Islamic family values, allowing reading of the Quran instead of music lessons, introducing a system of measures to stimulate the construction of mosques, performing male circumcision in public medical institutions, Sharia courts, and animal slaughter according to Muslim tradition. Scandinavian media note that it is precisely new converts to Islam, most often pure-blooded Danes, Swedes, Norwegians, and Finns, like Abdullah Tammi, who are most active in promoting radical Islam in their countries. These people know the mechanisms according to which society functions, and they are not afraid, unlike immigrants from third-world countries, to speak out loudly.
Sweden has decided to 'tame' Islam by introducing Europeanized training for imams. Today, local Islamic communities bring in preachers from Middle Eastern countries. These people do not know the language and traditions, and as a rule, they despise democracy and instill their views in the congregation. Sweden's Minister of Education Lars Leijonborg recently proposed in the pages of Dagens Nyheter to introduce imam training into the program of state educational institutions in Sweden. In addition to religion, future pastors will be taught a wide range of socially oriented subjects, which, according to the minister, will make them supporters of democracy and reduce the recruitment base of Al-Qaeda and other radical organizations.
Experts who joined the debate over the minister's initiative generally view the idea of creating a corps of 'Scandinavian imams' positively. The problem only comes down to the system of financing higher education in Sweden. Students study through a long-term low-interest loan provided by the state, but in Islam, all usury is prohibited. Currently, specialists from the Ministry of Higher Education are preparing proposals to change the scheme of financing student education, so that the new model will suit future Islamic preachers.
Alexei SMIRNOV.