Sweden has for decades served as a recruitment base for extremists despite its relative lull in terms of terror attacks compared with other European countries, a defence expert said to Swedish Television on Sunday.
“Sweden has stood out in this respect,” said Peder Hyllengren, a researcher at the Swedish Defence University, while talking about the relatively strong international influence of the country’s violent jihadist network.
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“One risked being called out as a racist in a way that was not the case in other European countries. There, this issue was as uncontroversial as the importance of fighting Nazism and right-wing extremism. But in Sweden it took a long time before one could discuss jihadism in the same way as we for a long time have discussed Nazism,” said Hyllengren.