The image of Sweden has become much more negative in Muslim-majority countries in the last couple of years.
The background is an extensive misinformation campaign in which Sweden is portrayed as a Muslim-hostile country.
An important source of disinformation seems to be the Turkish state news agency Anatolia.
The matter was revealed by an investigation by Swedish newspapers.
The Sydsvenskan and Helsingborgs Dagblad newspapers went through a hundred Swedish stories of the Arabic-language news channel al-Jazeera.
In particular, many strange claims were found in the texts taken from the Turkish news agency Anatolia.
“The authorities kidnap Muslim children”
Reporter who made the report Inas Hamdan tells as an example how in the story of the news agency Anatolia, a Swedish interviewee describes social authorities who think kidnapping Muslim children is much more fun than taking care of alcoholic Swedes.
A similar quote can also be found Anatolian English about the service.
– According to Al-Jazeera’s headline, a Swedish lawyer says that the authorities are kidnapping Muslim children. This source is a 91-year-old lawyer who retired some time ago. Now he runs a website specializing in conspiracy theories, says Inas Hamdan.
According to him, Turkish Anatolia seems to be the mainstay of Qatari al-Jazeera’s Sweden coverage.
– Out of a hundred stories about Sweden, ten were taken directly from the Anatolia news agency. In many others, Anatolia was among the sources. Several stories contained incorrect information, says journalist Inas Hamdan.
Anatolia is a state news agency. In Turkey, most of the media is taken by the president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for administration control. Information from Reuters news agency according to the administration sometimes guides the reporting in great detail.
“Picture of systematic operation”
Inas Hamdan describes the revelation of Anatolia as a source of disinformation as startling.
– A rather frightening picture of systematic activity emerged. We went through things with the help of artificial intelligence. Many references to Turkey began to be found, but they were not related to Sweden’s NATO membership process.
The influence of information on Sweden is monitored by the agency for psychological defense, the myndigheten för psychologiskt försvar. There is no similar agency in Finland.
The agency has observed two main themes in disinformation in recent years.
– Swedish social authorities kidnap children and the state supports the burning of the Koran. These lies can go quite far, says the agency’s information manager Mikael Östlund.
Disinformation reached hundreds of millions
Swedish social authorities were the target of a massive campaign last year, says Östlund.
According to Östlund, several hundred million people read messages related to the alleged abuses of the social authorities.
In addition to Turkish sources, opinion influencers and media operating in several Arab countries have spread claims about, among other things, child abductions.
– This created an image of Sweden waging war against Islam. Disinformation often works by taking an event with a real background and then distorting it, says Östlund.
When taking custody of immigrant children has been characterized as kidnapping, the impression has been created that the authorities are taking children based on religion.
There are surprising claims in the news of the news agency Anatolia.
Close to the Turkish government Yeni Şafak newspaper reports, that Muslim children are taken from their families and handed over to pedophiles. This news also came from Anatolia.
The adoption spawned a hate campaign
Journalist Inas Hamdan followed a case a year ago in which a person who campaigned against the Swedish social authorities said publicly that a Muslim child had been “abducted” and handed over to a gay couple.
– The Turkish public radio TRT and al-Jazeera reported on this completely uncritically. We found out about it, and the grandmother said that the child’s background is Christian Swedish, to the extent that the family has a relationship with religion.
– This was a pure disinformation campaign. It also turned out that the biological parents had agreed to the adoption, Hamdan says.
The news generated a huge wave of anger on internet discussion forums, which, according to Inas Hamdan, formed a serious threat to the family.
Connection to the terrorist attack in Brussels
The hate speech seems to have a connection with the terrorist attack that happened in Brussels in mid-October. A Tunisian man murdered two Swedish football fans in an attack.
– The attacker followed the Tiktok channel, where it was reported that Sweden kidnaps Muslim children. The channel has also published information, names and pictures, about social workers and people who try to combat disinformation, says journalist Inas Hamdan.
According to Hamdan, sometimes information about these people’s children is also published on social media.
The main focus is on the social authorities, but politicians and the police also get their share, Hamdan states.
– Critics of the social authorities spread claims about the abduction of Muslim children, and they then get publicity on al-Jazeera, Turkish TRT channels and Anatolia news agency.
Dramatic videos of “abductions”
In Hamdani’s opinion, anyone can criticize the authorities, but it is special that the media provides a platform for people who are known to have treated their children badly.
– The version of the Swedish authorities is not told, but pictures are shown of how uniformed policemen take the children away, says Inas Hamdan.
Videos of custody situations are often dramatic.
Turkish Broadcasting Corporation TRT From the Youtube channel you can find, for example, a compilation in which a desperate Syrian man is standing in the snow in front of a social welfare office, apparently demanding his children back. No background is told, only “abductions” are talked about.
Swedish TV got to know to court documents about the case, and they said there had been violence in the family.
This year, Sweden has struggled on its way to NATO, and the Koran burnings in particular have received a lot of attention.
Korans have been burned in Sweden above all by people of Iraqi background Salwan Momika. In Sweden, it is not legally possible to prohibit the desecration of holy books. Freedom of expression is very broad.
– Every burning of the Koran is presented as proof that the Swedish government encourages the burning of Korans, says Mikael Östlund.
Officials speak cautiously about Turkey
Östlund does not directly blame Turkey for the disinformation aimed at Sweden, even though, for example, the news agency Anatolia is under strict state control.
– It is difficult to say how organized this is. In Russia, the situation is clearer, there the reins are in the Kremlin’s hands, and Russia has been spreading Islamist messages on its Arabic-language channels.
According to Östlund, there are disinformation disseminators whose goal is to create instability in Sweden, for example by strengthening suspicion of authorities and decision-makers.
– There are actors who have long-term goals, and that is dangerous.