Sweden Surrenders to Saudi Arabia
by Ingrid Carlqvist and Lars Hedegaard • April 12
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 12
"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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