Some years ago I saw a video of a young Swedish man with a loudspeaker shouting the truth about Islam (protected by the police, but that goes without saying these days) in the middle of the street, while aggressive protesters unsuccessfully tried to make him stop by shouting threats at him and drowning out his speech by screaming like children.
Fearlessness that benefits others is always impressive, and I never forgot the clip of that young man. A year later I received an email from a man named Kent Ekeroth, who asked me if I would like to give a speech in Gothenburg, Sweden, in connection with the Swedish elections. He and his party The Swedish Democrats are now in parliament. And that young man that I saw a long time ago on that video was Kent.
A few months later, I shook hands with Kent, and protected by a dozen armed policemen and women, I gave the lecture in Gothenburg. Kent and I met several times since then and I have no doubt that he will play an important role in the future of Sweden and Europe. Kent Ekeroth is the Swedish Geert Wilders.
Sennels: Kent, you seem to really work hard to prevent the spread of Islam and sharia. What opened your eyes to these dangers?
Ekeroth: A lot of people were woken up by the attack on the Twin Towers at September 11, 2001. But for me it started already when I was seven or eight years old. At first hand I could see how people, even children my age, from Muslim countries acted with unprovoked aggression, threats, intimidation and that sort of behaviour. It happened mostly at school, but of course also out of school in social settings.
This insight was then strengthened by what I later on read in the media about their behaviour all over the country and also in other Western countries. And studying societies in Muslim countries, I saw what kind of societies this behaviour leads to: unfree, undemocratic, oppressive societies with a violent attitude toward Jews, women and non-Muslims in general.
When I started reading up on Islam and its history, the problems and dangers became clearly and completely visible.
Sennels: The Swedish Democrats are now a significant power in Swedish politics. Did you ever expect that the party would get into parliament?
Ekeroth: Well, using the term significant is a stretch at the moment, since we hold 5.7%. Sure, that makes us the sixth largest party in the parliament out of eight parties, but even though we have influence and are deciding several issues from time to time, there is still much growing to be done.
And yes, I did expect it and I definitely think we will continue to grow. Considering the developments in Sweden, there will be more and more people who will be willing to vote for us and who also have the courage to do so. The question is with at what pace it will happen.
The reason that I expect that The Swedish Democrats will grow is that mass immigration, multiculturalism and islamization are influencing our society and lives more and more every day. Every day there is another Swede who gets harmed due to it - who gets beaten, raped or even murdered. Every day there are people who start realizing that they do not feel at home in their own neighbourhood or even their own country anymore. More and more people realize the huge sums of money we are wasting on non-integrationable immigrants - money that could have been spent in much better ways.
Sennels: How does one actually start a successful Islam-critical party? Any good advice?
Ekeroth: Well, The Swedish Democrats started twenty-four years ago and it has only been a year and a half since we finally got into the national parliament. So it has been a slow process. If I were to give any advice at all, it would have to be obvious ones. First of all, never give up. If you have the truth on your side, that’s a pretty good ally. And you have to make sure that the bad seeds are kept out from the start. In that way you can avoid unnecessary mishaps coming from party members who shouldn’t have been allowed in in the first place, and that the media likes to bring up for the next thirty years. Whether you should go top down or bottom up when building a party is hard to say. Top down can be a very fast way to get quick results, and speed is indeed of the essence. The problem is that it can easily fall apart if the leader quits or anything like that. Building a grassroots movement takes longer, but gives more stability.
Sennels: Sweden just got its own Free Speech Society. Can you give a picture of the debate climate in Sweden?
Ekeroth: It’s like everywhere, but probably worse. There isn’t a single media outlet in Sweden that is not pro mass immigration and pro multiculturalism. And Sweden is probably spearheading the politically correct dogma to absurdity, which is reflected in our Leftist, naive media. One recent example is the political views of the journalist in Sweden: in a recent poll, a majority (52%!) of the journalists in the biggest TV-channel, SVT, and the biggest radio channel, SR, (both state owned and led), sympathised with Miljöpartiet (the Green party), as compared to their election result of 7,34%. The Green party is, as could be suspected, a very left-wing party with an open border policy on its agenda. In total, over 70% of the journalist favour left-wing parties. So, the debate climate when it comes to immigration is bad in Sweden. But, a small, and I do mean small, shift has been noticed since we got into parliament. That’s something at least.
Sennels: Many people fear that Sweden will experience a civil war-like scenario because of the massive Muslim immigration. Do you see any signs of such development?
Ekeroth: Well, we already see an increase in conflicts and attacks against the society from the ghettos. We already see immigrants attacking Swedes because they are Swedish. We already see Swedish people moving out of the immigrant areas. So the fragmentation of society has already begun, the attacks have begun. With the same policies as we have now, these frictions will increase, and there is a risk of a civil war-like scenario sometime in the future. History shows many examples of how different ethnic groups that basically do not fit together eventually create a civil war. Sure, it’s not around the immediate corner, but if we do not do something about it, I would not be surprised if we are closing in on a scenario that at least could resemble something like that.
Sennels: What is it about Islam that makes Muslims so hard to integrate and so hostile towards non-Muslims?
Ekeroth: It’s a combination of Arab/Muslim culture together with the Arabic religion Islam, which has values and norms that are contrary to the West in pretty much all areas; equality before the law, crime & punishment, education, technology, etc. etc. It’s a part of their doctrine and has been from the start.
Sennels: What role does the EU play in all this?
Ekeroth: Well, the EU does a lot of bad things. One such thing is the Mediterranean Partnership, in which the EU facilitates talks with North African states about easier access to Europe. The EU has also talked about the “need” for 50 million immigrants from Africa.
Of course, many EU countries have a more restrictive immigration policy than Sweden, but the EU as its own entity has no interest in preserving the national states and sees immigration as a way to dissolve the borders.