In English, we have lots of ways to say that we are going to bed to sleep: ‘up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire’, ‘hit the hay’, ‘beddybies’, ‘hit the sack‘ to mention a few. And it turns out, so do the Swedes. ‘Gå till sängs’ ( go to bed) is probably the most common, and literal. Here are a few other examples:
’Dags att koja’ – time to go to bed (Koja is a small hut, or a bunk on a boat)
‘Nu ska jag gå lägga mig’ – now I’m going to lie down
‘krypa till kojs’ – creep to the hut / bunk
‘Knyta sig’ – knot yourself – similar to curl up
‘Slagga’ – similar to crash out
What other expressions for going to bed do you know?
More than 90,000 articles have been written about the Koran burning in Stockholm that occurred last week. Many of these articles are declaring Sweden as Islamophobic. The action has led to international public protests, storming of embassies, burning of the Swedish flag, and condemnation from everyone from Turkey’s Erdogan to the Pope.
So, is this true? Is liberal-minded, egalitarian Sweden, in fact Islamophobic? Like everything the answer lies in your definition, and perspective.
It all boils down to understanding Swedish freedom of speech. In Sweden, you are allowed to publicly comment on, demonstrate against and criticize anything.
Influential powers such as the royal family, industry giants or organized religions cannot legally stop or influence this.
In Sweden, you are free to follow any religion you want. Likewise you are free to criticize any religion you want. That is the basis of democracy in Sweden.
With this understanding, you can see how the burning of any religious scripture is allowed and not, per se, limited only to the Koran.
So you have to separate the law from ethics. This is why the Swedish government condemns the action but at the same time defends self expression.
That said, there are other laws in Sweden that restrict public speech. For example, if it is considered hate speech, or incitement to violence, or against the interests of national security.
In the case of the recent Koran burning, outside a mosque on the first day of Eid, and with today’s political instability, one can seriously question the police’s choice to allow a such a demonstration to occur. Personally, I think it shows a poor sense of judgement and disregard for public safety and national security. But it wasn’t illegal, and fully in line with freedom of speech.
So, is Sweden islamophobic? From this one action, no. If you want to burn a bible or the tora, you can. Is Sweden Islamophobic in other regards? Maybe. Were the actions of the individual demonstrator islamophobic? Maybe, although he himself is Muslim. He claims his action to be politically motivated.
Time will tell what the outcome is of this. The man who carried out the act is currently living under police security, and amongst other things is being charged with starting a fire during a fire ban.
Watching the Swedes 