The Swedish terror threat level has been raised from 3 to 4 with a high risk of terrorist acts. At the center of the new assessment is the threat from the violent Islamist environment.
According to Thom Thavenius, there are several reasons why Sweden, unlike other Western countries, has ended up in their focus. One of them is the disinformation campaign against the Swedish social services.
– Actors who move in Islamist environments have worked up a discourse and an infrastructure to be able to drive and spread this issue. Then we have Sweden’s NATO application and the effect maximization that the Koran burnings got with Turkey’s reactions, he says.
Grateful target
According to Thom Thavenius, Sweden is also a grateful individual target for the reactions of the Muslim world.
– It is not only violent Islamists who single out Sweden. In the other ring corner, we basically have friendly-minded Muslim countries that have a problem with the Koran burnings. Between these two extremes there is a spectrum of actors who, for various reasons, focus on what is happening in Sweden right now.
Thom Thavenius describes Sweden’s situation as unique.
– When there have been serious situations in the past, in connection with the Muhammad caricatures for example, the focus was on those who published the images. But now there is such a breadth of the threat picture and since Sweden is the focus, it is a very serious situation.
Maybe the worst situation ever
– I would like to say that it is among the most serious security situations we have ever had since Säpo started using the system of terrorist threat levels, he continues.
It will take a lot for the situation to change.
– I think we will have to live with the threat picture we see for the foreseeable future. It will become part of our everyday life.