If I were an observant Muslim, I would add the phrase “Blessed be His name” after saying something about Prophet Mohammed. But as most of you know, I am not an observant Muslim and I suspect the Muslims would regard me as nothing more than a pagan. But be that as it may, the point in question here today involves the Prophet Mohammed’s grandsons.
I am not a student of Muslim history but I take it that the prophet had two grandsons who were at war with each other. They could not settle their differences and so we have today the Sunni branch of the Muslims and the Shi’ites. I have no idea what the difference is between those two sects but let us proceed.
Most of you will recall the bloodletting that took place in Iraq after the American invasion. If news reports are basically correct, it would appear that some Shi’ites were cleared out of their living quarters and sent on their way and that in other places the same happened to the Sunnis. To our great discredit, the Americans, who started the war, did not do much about this displacement. Some estimates run as high as two million people being displaced because of the religious differences.
But while we did nothing, it turns out that the Swedes stepped in to help. The Iraqis are an intelligent people and our failure to act in this humanitarian field rebounds to our discredit.
But what I did not know was that the Muslim faith had a following in Sweden. I must say that I thought that those blond-haired children attending Lutheran schools knew nothing about the Muslim faith. But that is far from fact.
As I do in most matters involving Sweden, I consulted with my friend of many years’ standing named Sven Lernevall. I asked Sven what is taking place now that Sweden has invited the Muslims to settle there. Within a short while, Sven, as he always does, gave me a comprehensive answer. Rather than interpreting Sven’s comments, I will simply let you read his email to me. Here it is.
“Last year about 8000-10000 Iraqi immigrants were received in this country; totally the Iraqis now are a bit more than 100 000 people. (The whole population in Sweden is 9.3 millions.) The number of Muslims is at least 250 000 people. Most of them come from Turkey, it is said, but the whole Middle East is represented. There are close to 150 mosques around the country, most of them very simple rooms, often situated in basements in residential blocks. But a few of them are beautiful buildings with minarets and so on. Some of the mosques are run by Sunnis, some by Shiites. Of course there must be some tension between the two religious groups, but it is not to be read of in the newspapers. It also should be remembered that many immigrants from the Middle East are Christians, for instance Assyrians and Syrians who attend a special church, the Coptic church, which is very active in some parts of the country. A big group of the Iraqis are the Kurds who want independence for their people and a country of their own. Unfortunately, there are small groups of Swedish people with racial prejudices who oppose to immigration of Muslims and building of mosques. They are a bit noisy and try to block the construction of some actual mosques. There are also political parties which pursue the policy that foreigners and immigrants, especially Muslims, are criminal, they steel our jobs and so on. But that is the situation in every country, I guess.
However, by the majority of the people the immigrants are well accepted and looked upon as a good contribution to the country. When they got their place at a certain local district they are supposed to participate in a training course in Swedish; the children are connected to the compulsory school teaching and often also get training in their original home language. The idea is that they learn a new language better if they are good at their first language from home.
Sorry to say, I am not an expert on immigration, but what I said above hopefully gives you a glimpse of the present situation here on that field.”
Well, as you can see, I was quite wrong in assuming that the Swedes were a monolithic society. I would predict that as time passes and as the Iraqi children learn the Swedish language and attend Swedish schools, they may even intermarry. That of course has been the experience in this land of ours called “the land of immigrants.” The time may even come when a foreigner such as myself would have great trouble in determining the ethnic background of someone he meets in Stockholm.
And so I say to the honorable Sven Lernevall and to Ella, his wife, that I admire the humanitarian gesture that the Swedes have offered the Iraqis. The Swedes in this gesture have become another land of immigrants. Everyone may not agree with me, but I think this is good stuff. Apparently the Iraqis have an exemplary record of behavior since they have come to Sweden. For all I know, some of them may develop into sopranos such as Birgit Nilsson or even a Jussi Bjorling on the tenor side. The only famous opera house in Stockholm, which serves superb food, is named, I believe, the Operakällaren. So as I was saying, I will go to the Operakällaren to hear a duet by Bjorling and Miss Nilsson after a sumptuous meal cooked by an Iraqi chef. To me that would be a glorious evening.
E.E. Carr
May 2, 2010
Essay 451
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Kevin’s commentary: I know almost nothing about Sweden so I’m happy that Sven — who is featured prominently in these essays — was able to weigh in. This was an international/humanitarian situation that was new to me to read about in 2013. Turns out the situation has soured somewhat since then, however.
Read more here: http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/aljazeeraworld/2013/04/201349151526757668.html