Month: August 2023

The Koran burnings in Sweden – legal, but unethical?

Posted on by Neil Shipley's watching the Swedes

More than 90,000 articles have been written about the Koran burnings that are occurring in Sweden. The burnings have led to an escalated terrorist threat, international public protests, storming of embassies, burning of the Swedish flag, and condemnation from everyone from Turkey’s Erdogan to the Pope.

For many people outside Sweden it is hard to understand why the burnings are being permitted. The bottom line is that it is not against the law. The question is why is it not against the law.

It all boils down to understanding Sweden’s version of freedom of speech, expression and demonstration. In Sweden, you are allowed to publicly comment on, demonstrate against and criticize anything. Sweden’s centuries-old democracy is built on this.

Powers such as the royal family, industry giants or organized religions cannot legally stop or influence this. In secular Sweden, religion has no influence over politics. However, you are free to follow any religion you want, and this right is protected by law. Likewise you are free to criticize any religion you want.

With this understanding, you can see how the burning of books, including any religious scripture is allowed and not, per se, limited only to the Koran.

So you have to separate the law from ethics. Is it ethical? Maybe not. Is it illegal? No. This is why the Swedish government condemns the action but at the same time defends the right to 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 recent Koran burnings, outside a mosque on the first day of Eid, or outside the embassies of Muslim countries, and with today’s political instability, one can seriously question the police’s choice to allow such demonstrations to occur. Many Swedes say that it shows a poor sense of judgement and disregard for public safety and national security. But it isn’t illegal, and is fully in line with freedom of speech and demonstration.

Swedish law often looks at intent. At this could be the case with the Koran burnings moving forward. What is the intent of the demonstrators? Personally, I see it as a obvious provocation, an attempt to destabilize Swedish society and a direct insult to all the Swedish Muslims residing in the country.

Denmark has recently suggested a law change, based on the fact that the intent behind the action is malicious. The legislation will prohibit the inappropriate handling of objects with essential religious significance for a religious community. The Minister of Justice says ‘I fundamentally believe there are more civilised ways to express one’s views than burning things.’ I’m sure he is right. Changing the law isn’t about bowing down to the extremist demands of other nations, but showing respect for the diverse citizens of one’s own country.

Maybe it is time for Sweden to follow suit?

What are your thoughts on this current debate?

Swedish soccer success!

Posted on by Neil Shipley's watching the Swedes

The FIFA Women’s World Cup in Football (soccer) is currently taking place in Australia and New Zealand, and Sweden is doing really well. Next week, the Swedish team plays in the semifinal, and will hopefully qualify for the final, where a gold medal looks possible. Understandably, football fever is taking over in Sweden and Swedes are very proud of what the team has achieved.

Sweden is a strong football nation. Together with ice hockey, football is probably the favourite spectator sport in the country. The biggest arena in Sweden – Friends Arena – in Solna, Stockholm, can hold over 52,000 spectators at a match.

The sport was brought to Sweden from England in the 1800’s and the first match between two Swedish teams took place in Gothenburg in 1892 between Örgryte and Lyckans Soldater. The Swedish Football Association was founded in 1904.

In Sweden, there are roughly 240,000 licensed players (approximately 56,000 women and 184,000 men) with another 240,000 youth players. There are around 3,200 active clubs fielding over 8,500 teams, which are playing on the 7,900 pitches available in the country.

The world’s largest and most international youth football tournament – the Gothia Cup – takes place in Gothenburg, Sweden. Each year, around 1700 teams from 80 nations take part and they play 4500 games on 110 pitches. One year, my nephew actually came over from London with his team and participated.

Sweden has its own domestic league and has achieved some international success of the years, despite being a relatively small country. These include, for the men’s team, one World Cup silver and two bronzes, as well as an Olympic gold medal in 1948.

The women’s team have also succeeded in taking, amongst others, World Cup silver in 2003, European gold in 1984, and Olympic silver in 2016 and 2020. They are eagerly trying to top this with a gold in 2023!

So, fingers crossed that Sweden can make it the whole way next week! ‘Heja Sverige!’

19 Swedish words for rain

Posted on by Neil Shipley's watching the Swedes

It feels like it has rained for ever in Stockholm this summer. We awaken to rain, we walk in the rain, we come home in the rain, and we go to bed to the sound of the rain. Around the country, rivers have broken their banks, streets are flooded, roads collapsed and trains derailed.

I guess to some degree the wetness is positive as it is replenishing the water magazines that have dried out, and soaking the forest beds to prevent any potential fires.

In English, we have lots of words for rain, with some fun ones such as drizzle, mizzle, sleet, spit and ‘ache and pain’.

So I became curious about how many Swedish rain-related words there are – other than the word for rain – ‘regn’. Here are 18 that I found:

  1. Duggregn – a light rain, spit
  2. Dusk – drizzle
  3. Snöblandad regn – sleet
  4. Hällregn – heavy rain, pouring down
  5. Ösregn – torrential rain
  6. Skyfall – sudden heavy rain, a cloud burst
  7. Skur – shower
  8. Störtregn – heavy rain, a downpour
  9. Skval – constant, uninterrupted rain
  10. Sommarregn – light, summer rain
  11. Regnby – rain shower
  12. Slagregn – heavy rain, a deluge
  13. Glopp – rain with large snow flakes in
  14. Arlaregn – refreshing morning rain
  15. Strilregn – steady rain
  16. Nederbörd – precipitation
  17. Dagsregn – precipitation
  18. Rotblöta – a large amount of rain, usually in the summer
  19. Spöregn – very heavy rain

So the next time, look out of the window and see what word best describes the rain outside. It might at least give you a few seconds of distraction in this wet drudge.

Any other Swedish words for rain that you’d like to add to the list?

Why does Sweden still need Pride?

Posted on by Neil Shipley's watching the Swedes

This week is Stockholm Pride. It culminates on Saturday with a huge parade. The event celebrates 25 years this year, and some people question if it is still needed or relevant.

The answer, unfortunately, is more than ever.

But we’ll come to that later.

Currently there are 73 Pride festivals in Sweden during the year. From Arctic Pride way up in the north to Malmö Pride in the south, it is possible to celebrate throughout the year.

This indicates that many Swedes seem to have embraced the concept of Pride with open arms. There is, of course, a commercial benefit but the main reason seems to be that LGBT+ Pride resonates well with the societal Swedish values of equality, tolerance and acceptance.

However, like everything, it has its opponents.

Sweden’s current conservative government is in power, solely with the support of a right-wing populistic party. This party has consistently attacked LGBT people and the Pride movement. For example, this week, one of their politicians tweeted that Pride legitimizes pedophilia.

It is comments like this that plant the seeds of aggressive counter demonstrations, homophobic, anti-Pride propaganda and personal physical attacks. LGBT+ people are still regularly abused, discriminated against and attacked in Sweden. And if we lift our eyes to the broader world, we see examples of LGBT + rights being restricted or removed, and same sex relations being criminalized and punishable with the death penalty.

This is why Pride is still needed, not only as a celebration, but as a political manifestation of human rights.

If you’d like to know where a Pride is near you, go to http://www.svenskapride.se which collects all the Swedish events in one place.