ISIS rampage in Europe and a how a Swedish MP’s espouse jihadists
Vienna, Austria. Katrin moved here from Sweden 24 years ago. Love brought her here.I am having coffee at the Austrian-Swedish couple´s home in a suburb of Vienna.She works as a nurse in a Christian hospital and he as an accountant. Katrin is upset. A patient of hers, a young Austrian man who has converted to the Wahhabi movement, one of the more radical branches of Islam, refuses to eat at daytime. It is Ramadan, and he wants to fast although his body desperately needs nutrition. I tell Katrin that the Wahhabi are not required to fast if they are ill, the Koran states the exceptions to the rules of fasting.
”Oh, it seems he doesn´t know that. But it’s not the only thing annoying about him. Yesterday he kneeled and said a prayer in one of the hospitals room.”
When I ask her why that is annoying, and that it’s his business, she replies:
”He took down the cross. There’s a crossing hanging on the wall in every room. It’s a Christian hospital and he knows this, so he shouldn´t have come to our hospital for care.”
Katrin was reprimanded by a colleague for yelling at the convert and demanding that he hang up the cross again.
Katrin´s husband, Jurgen, is also upset. His friend had been brutally beaten the previous week.
”Can you believe it? My friend Thomas couldn´t help it. When a Muslim woman walked passed him dressed in one of the blue robes with a netting across the face, he couldn’t help staring. Her husband went berserk and brutally assaulted him with a pair of brass knuckles.”
My cousin collects me and I leave Katrin and Jurgen.
“They may be exaggerating somewhat, but I have to say, I did get very upset when I passed a young guy with an ISIS T-shirt the other day. He was a convert as well. They are the worst. And today at work a Muslim called the ISIS ”freedom fighters”. I was so furious I had to leave.”
My cousin can´t stop talking, he is upset as well. The leader of ISIS, al-Baghdadi, made his first public appearance yesterday at a mosque in Mosul and people in Vienna with roots in the Middle East are talking about it. Assyrians and other non-Muslims feel threatened. Al-Baghdadis speech was heavily focused on Islamic dominance, a society in which modern Muslims, Christians and people of other faiths have no place. He said that states such as Iraq and Syria no longer exist. They are now a caliphate, Islamic territory, where only his followers may reside.
On my return flight home I read an article that I downloaded from thedailybeast. ISIS will continue the cultural plundering of Syria and Iraq, thousands of ancient Assyrian statues and other archaeological sites will be destroyed. ISIS will not only destroy entire countries, but also wipe out their history.
”I recognize you. I’ve read one of your books. The one about Nineveh in Iraq, it more or less foretold what is happening now. That’s crazy, how could you predict that?”
You is plural for myself and David Kushner, co-author to the book The Line In The Sand. Based on real life accounts and over 200 in-depth interviews of people from five different countries, it might as well be considered non-fiction.
Who would have thought that Iraq would shatter like it is now? Well, those of us who know a lot about the Middle East and understand how radical Islam sees the world and the people in it. And those of us who realise the grasp the oil has on us, because everybody wants the oil. Including ISIS.
The next day I’m having breakfast with three old friends in Södertälje. Thetopic of discussion is now Sweden. One of my friends angrily argues:
Another friend counter argues:
”He didn´t say that, he drew a comparison between those who leave Sweden to go blow themselves up in Syria and the Swedes that went to Finland to help the Finnish people defend the freedom of their country. There is a huge difference — it’s worse”.
My friends think we should refuse to pay tax unless Kaplan resigns. They don’t want to contribute to his salary.
”How dare he compare Islamists who decapitate people and boast about it on web clips, men who kidnap, rape, torture and murder women of other religions, to European freedom fighters? He should come out to Södertälje and meet the non-Muslims who’ve been victimised by his so-called freedom fighters.”
I do some Googling and find a few articles about Kaplan’s faux pas and that he’s expressed regret. I show this to one of my friends.
“He hasn’t changed his mind about the Jihadists, he only says he regrets comparing them to Swedes who fought for Finland. There’s a difference. You’re a journalist, you should be able to see through it. And what do you think?”
I’m thinking, maybe I should write a new book which will depict what will come to pass in the next five years.
