Muslim Sweden will soon attack Europe to make it the new caliphate

Swedish citizens active in the IS force gathering for the return of the caliphate
Domestic

27 maj 2022

kl. 21.15

The fall of the Islamic State caliphate did not mean that the Muslim terrorist group died out or even weakened. Instead, the pandemic has been used to go under the radar and mobilize its force for a return, a work in which many Swedish citizens are said to be influential. That's what researcher Michael Krona says.

Michael Krona is an expert on IS propaganda and senior lecturer in media and communication science at Malmö University. On Tuesday, he attended a conference in Stockholm organized by the Center against Violent Extremism, which DN draws attention to .

READ ALSO: Almost all investigations against female IS terrorists in Sweden closed

For eight years, Krona has been collecting data from jihadist forums. Today, IS and their supporters will be active on about 100-150 different platforms that are more or less encrypted. Nowadays, much of the propaganda and recruitment of new followers takes place in secret while the group plans for the return of the "caliphate".

What we see now is a decentralized, dispersed guerrilla warfare where you connect your activities with militant groups in the world and thus create the conditions for establishing a new caliphate.

Preparing for new terrorist attacks in Europe
Increased European security cooperation has made active IS cells in Europe increasingly uncommon. At the same time, Krona often sees examples of how IS is trying to recreate them in order to be able to organize attacks in Europe again. In these discussions, people with connections to Sweden must appear. These have also started fundraisers for the group.

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- We sometimes forget that Swedish citizens since 2014 have been very active not only in self-produced propaganda, but also form a large part of IS official propaganda, said Michael Krona and exemplified with an IS film from 2013 which was in Swedish and whose purpose was to recruit more Swedes.

Stockholm is singled out as a destination
In IS propaganda channels, Stockholm will from time to time appear as a legitimate target. At the same time, Krona has observed a large amount of communication in Swedish among IS supporters online, where they express support for the terrorist group.

ALSO READ: Sydsvenskan'S REQUIREMENTS: Let in IS terrorists in Sweden

- The message is becoming increasingly intense when it comes to inspiring lone perpetrators who take matters into their own hands, which happened on Drottninggatan. It is also detailed and is not just about instructions on how to steal and injure with a truck, but for example how to use a knife to injure a person as much as possible, says Michael Krona.

Protects the sanctuary in Sweden
While the jihadist community is relatively large in Sweden, few attacks take place here, which is believed to be due to the fact that jihadists have a large margin of maneuver in Sweden and enjoy a freedom that they protect.

- We have an active jihadist environment both digitally and physically. Look, for example, at the Salafist mosque environment, where you get a lot of outlet for your ideas. Perhaps, paradoxically, the number of attacks decreases, than if you did not get an outlet for it at all, says Michael Krona.