#religious freedom Sweden

[creativemedianews]

Sweden Accuses Iran of Cyberattack Inciting Revenge for Quran Burnings

Sweden Accuses Iran of Cyberattack Inciting Revenge for Quran Burnings #Anzuteam #foreigninfluenceSweden

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Jacob McHangama

Published: Aug 9, 2023

In 2005 a Danish newspaper published a number of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammed, which led to a global battle of values over the relationship between freedom of expression and religion. Despite multiple terrorist attacks—one of them deadly others thwarted—and concerted diplomatic pressure from the 57 Muslim-majority member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) led by countries like Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, the Danish government held firm and refused demands to impose Islamic blasphemy norms.

However, recent events have shattered this resolve. Following months of of public Quran burnings in Denmark and Sweden, as well as renewed and increased pressure from the OIC and attacks on the Swedish embassy in Iraq and a Danish non-governmental organization in Basra last month, Scandinavian democracies are retreating from their liberal principles.

On July 30, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen announced that the government will seek to enact legislation for "special situations where other countries, cultures, and religions could be insulted, potentially resulting in significant negative consequences for Denmark." Sweden is mulling over similar actions. These capitulations have forced these countries to debate how far they are willing to go to defend their freedoms in the face of violence and international backlash.

On the one hand, there are good reasons to be critical of book burnings. It is a poor substitute for reasoned debate and one that will forever be associated with totalitarian states, such as Nazi Germany, in our collective history. But however noxious the ideas of the far-right protestors who torch Qurans, they are not state agents, they are not speaking for the government, nor do they have the power to censor or discriminate. They are private individuals whose non-violent symbolic expressions are intended to convey a message, which however, offensive to those who disprove, is part and parcel of free expression.

The violence that accompanies these events stems both from terrorist groups as well as from counter protestors who insist that religious taboos can only be enforced through mob intimidation and violence, but they are mistaken.

In July, an Iranian citizen burned the Danish and Swedish flags as well as the Bible and Torah in front of the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen, praising Ayatollah Khomeini in the process. But few Danes cared about this deliberate attempt to provoke. No one threatened to use violence, and the protester was not arrested. Rather than demonstrating Danish hypocrisy, the protester managed to show how a secular society committed to both free speech and tolerance can handle offensive ideas, and also how these values serve as the antithesis to violence.

Despite these and other demonstrable merits of free speech, the recent steps taken by Denmark and Sweden reveal a concerning trend. Bowing to intimidation from politically authoritarian and religiously oppressive states sets a perilous precedent and gives oppressive regimes potential leverage to further undermine democratic principles. To sweeten this bitter pill the Danish government has been less than factual in its messaging. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that burning “sacred books” does not constitute an expression, despite established case law to the contrary. The government has also said that Denmark and Sweden are global outliers when it comes to permitting the desecration of “sacred books” even though both Norway and the Netherlands protect such symbolic expression. There are already also strong reasons to believe that the OIC will not be appeased by the proposed Danish legal restrictions, however rationalized.

The next day after the Danish government´s promise to explore legal remedies against Quran burnings, the OIC released a strongly worded statement admonishing Denmark and Sweden for failing to immediately criminalize them and pledging to continue to pursue the matter. The Turkish ambassador to Denmark also warned that the proposed Danish efforts were "insufficient." In other words, once democracies yield from principle, authoritarian states will not respond with gratitude and conciliatory attitudes but demand that the self-imposed restrictions on free speech be expanded more broadly. This is not only true in Scandinavia but also on the global stage.

Earlier this month, the OIC managed to secure a crucial win at the U.N.´s Human Rights Council with a resolution that calls on member states to, among other things, “address, prevent and prosecute acts and advocacy of religious hatred” as a direct response to the Scandinavian Quran burnings. The OIC argues that defamation of religious ideas and symbols constitutes incitement to religious hatred—a category of speech prohibited under international human rights law and in most European democracies. This would not just legitimize but also give legal teeth to the suppression of religious dissent, and would remove the stigma from countries where blasphemy and apostasy is severely punished.

This marks a radical departure from back in 2011, when the Obama Administration rallied democracies around the world and spearheaded a pivotal Human Rights Council Resolution to halt the OIC´s long-standing efforts to internationalize blasphemy laws. The 2011 resolution advocated education and counter-speech against religious intolerance, asserting the protection of people, not ideologies, under human rights law. It called for the penalization of "incitement to imminent violence based on religion or belief," underlining that free speech restrictions should shield individuals from tangible harm, not defend abstract religious ideas from criticism or mockery, however offensive. As then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the resolution was a step to overcome “the false divide that pits religious sensitivities against freedom of expression.”

While this broader, international perspective is critical, it is also important to consider the domestic implications of the laws Denmark and Sweden have on the table. The Danish government´s proposed legal remedy against insulting other countries doesn’t only threaten to restrict criticism of Islam. In fact, Danish Muslims protesting U.S. or Israeli foreign policy, or the mass internment of Uighur Muslims by China, could end up on the wrong side of the law, if they protest in ways deemed “insulting” to the U.S., Israel, or China and detrimental to the broad and nebulous concept of “Danish interests.”

Moreover, the Danish and Swedish governments’ misguided attempt to foster tolerance through censorship could inadvertently exacerbate social divisions within their own borders. Hard-nosed critics of Islam and Muslim immigration frequently argue that Islam is incompatible with democracy and freedom, painting Muslims as a fifth column. The external pressure from Islamic states, coupled with support for restrictive measures among some Danish Muslims, risks emboldening these divisive narratives. This stands to harm the many Scandinavian Muslims who appreciate the freedoms and equality that Denmark and Sweden offer, and which sets these countries apart from the Muslim-majority states of the OIC.

Free speech is a difficult principle to uphold consistently. Governments and citizens of democracies alike are frequently tempted to sacrifice this principle when faced with threats or adverse consequences of unpopular or extremist speech. But one only has to compare the vibrant democracies of Denmark and Sweden to the authoritarian regimes of Iran and Saudi Arabia to realize that, for all its flaws, free speech makes the world more tolerant, democratic, equal, and free. Denmark and Sweden’s defection from this core liberal principle is a dark day for the global fight for free speech.

==

You don't surrender or capitulate to bullies. Not even when they're pretending to be the victim.

[mariacallous]

Vanity Fair: The things we associate with freedom—free speech, religious liberty—have been co-opted by the Republican Party. Do you think you could walk me through how that happened historically and how Democrats could take that word back?

Timothy Snyder: Yeah. I think the way it happened historically is actually quite dark there. There’s an innocent way of talking about this, which is to say, “Oh, some people believe in negative freedom and some people believe in positive freedom—and negative freedom just means less government and positive freedom means more government.” And when you say it like that, it just sounds like a question of taste. And who knows who’s right?

Whereas historically speaking, to answer your question, the reason why people believe in negative freedom is that they’re enslaving other people, or they are oppressing women, or both. The reason why you say freedom is just keeping the government off my back is that the central government is the only force that’s ever going to enfranchise those slaves. It’s the only force which is ever going to give votes to those women. And so that’s where negative freedom comes from. I’m not saying that everybody who believes in negative freedom now owns slaves or oppresses women, but that’s the tradition. That’s the reason why you would think freedom is negative, which on its face is a totally implausible idea. I mean, the notion that you can just be free because there’s no government makes no sense, unless you’re a heavily drugged anarchist.

And so, as the Republican Party has also become the party of race in our country, it’s become the party of small government. Unfortunately, this idea of freedom then goes along for the ride, because freedom becomes freedom from government. And then the next step is freedom becomes freedom for the market. That seems like a small step, but it’s a huge step because if we believe in free markets, that means that we actually have duties to the market. And Americans have by and large accepted that, even pretty far into the center or into the left. If you say that term, “free market,” Americans pretty generally won’t stop you and say, “Oh, there’s something problematic about that.” But there really is: If the market is free, that means that you have a duty to the market, and the duty is to make sure the government doesn’t intervene in it. And once you make that step, you suddenly find yourself willing to accept that, well, everybody of course has a right to advertise, and I don’t have a right to be free of it. Or freedom of speech isn’t really for me; freedom of speech is for the internet.

And that’s, to a large measure, the world we live in.

You have a quote in the book about this that distills it well: “The countries where people tend to think of freedom as freedom to are doing better by our own measures, which tend to focus on freedom from.”

Yeah, thanks for pulling that out. Even I was a little bit struck by that one. Because if you’re American and you talk about freedom all the time and you also spend all your time judging other countries on freedom, and you decide what the measures are, then you should be close to the top of the list—but you’re not. And then you ask, “Why is that?” When you look at countries like Sweden, Norway, Denmark, France, Germany, or Ireland—that are way ahead of us—they’re having a different conversation about freedom. They don’t seem to talk about freedom as much as we do, but then when they do, they talk about it in terms of enabling people to do things.

And then you realize that an enabled population, a population that has health care and retirement and reliable schools, may be better at defending things like the right to vote and the right to freedom of religion and the right to freedom of speech—the things that we think are essential to freedom. And then you realize, Oh, wait, there can be a positive loop between freedom to and freedom from. And this is the big thing that Americans get a hundred percent wrong. We think there’s a tragic choice between freedom from and freedom to—that you’ve got to choose between negative freedom and positive freedom. And that’s entirely wrong.

What do you make of Kamala Harris’s attempt to redeem the word?

It makes me happy if it’s at the center of a political discussion. And by the way, going back to your first question, it’s interesting how the American right has actually retreated from freedom. It has been central for them for half a century, but they are now actually retreating from it, and they’ve left the ground open for the Democrats. So, politically, I’m glad they’re seizing it—not just because I want them to win, but also because I think on the center left or wherever she is, there’s more of a chance for the word to take on a fuller meaning. Because so long as the Republicans can control the word, it’s always going to mean negative freedom.

I can’t judge the politics that well, but I think it’s philosophically correct and I think we end up being truer to ourselves. Because my big underlying concern as an American is that we have this word which we’ve boxed into a corner and then beaten the pulp out of, and it really doesn’t mean anything anymore. And yet it’s the only imaginable central concept I can think of for American political theory or American political life.

Timothy Snyder Explains How Americans Might Adapt to Fascism Under Trump

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

I have to start this one with the sad news that the hero who saved others by stopping the terrorist yesterday, despite being stabbed in several places (including in the neck), has passed away. His name was Uri Moyal, he was 51 years old, he leaves behind a wife and three kids. Yesterday, the number of wounded was still not fully clear, today it's confirmed that in addition to Uri, the terrorist managed to injure 2 more people. In the pic below you can see Uri holding up a lifetime achievement award. At his funeral today, his daughter Sapir mourned him: "Thank you for being a dad, who was also a teacher for life. There is no one who knew you and didn't fall in love with you."

The German press has reported (so far I've only managed to find this English source) that this week, the antisemitic, genocidal slogan "From the river to the sea" has been found painted in Arabic on the site of the 1972 kidnapping and massacre of 11 Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists. I'll point out that recently, the grandson of one of the murdered athletes was attacked (he had several bones in his face broken) in Berlin by an Arab anti-Israel activist.

A terrorist attack was prevented from happening, when two Palestinians, carrying a big knife and a sword, were arrested on their way to a Jewish community in the middle of the night. They're currently being questioned.

After Canada and Sweden, now Australia has also announced that it will renew its funding of UNRWA. I may sound like a broken record, but this is morally broken. They KNOW that UN agency is complicit in countless crimes of helping anti-Jewish hate and violence, the IDF evidence uncovered thanks to the war are just the tip of the iceberg when we're actually talking about decades of complicity, and resuming the funding without any changes, without even an investigation into this being completed, means these countries don't even care about looking as if they care about Jewish and Israeli lives. It's beyond ccontemptible. So. Canada, Sweden and now Australia, whenever these countries' heads tell you that they care about human rights, know that this includes, "but not for Jews."

And because I mentioned the long, long complicity of UNRWA (and many in charge of or dealing with it), here's the CEO of the NGO UN Watch explaining it better than most can, because they have been working for years on calling attention to the wrongdoing of UNRWA:

There's this common lie spread by the anti-Israel crowd, that everything was just peachy between Jews and Muslim in the Middle East, until Zionism came along. This is a blatant erasure of repeated discrimination, persecution, forced conversions, expulsions and massacres perpetrated against Jews living in Muslim majority countries for centuries. The ethnic cleansing of the entire Middle East of Jews (other than in Israel) is only the climax of that long history of antisemitism under Muslim rule, exactly like the Holocaust is just the climax of the long history of antisemitism under Christian European rule. And yesterday, I came across another reminder.

I was listening to an interview with Rabbi Abraham Cooper, an American rabbi, about the discrimination he had recently suffered during a trip to Saudi Arabia. I'd read the headlines, but hearing him tell it in his own words (in amazing Hebrew, might I add) really drove it home. He was heading a US delegation meant to inspect the state of religious freedom in Saudi Arabia, when he gets a phone call from the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, telling him that the Saudis have laws which must be respected, and which dictate that no one but "the members of our religion" (meaning, Muslims) can walk around publicly displaying signs of their religious identity. In other words, Rabbi Cooper was told to remove his kippah (the head cover religious Jews wear). Rabbi Cooper asked the official on the phone, whether he was sure, and tried arguing against this decision. When the demand was reaffirmed, Rabbi Cooper responded that he wouldn't take off his kippah for the Soviets decades ago, and he wouldn't be taking it off for the Saudis, either. That meant he had to leave, and so the delegation had to end its visit. This isn't a small incident of anti-Jewish discrimination in the 1930's, in an Arab country where no one would even bat an eye at that. This is a Saudi official, speaking to an American Jew, in 2024, during an official visit, meant to check the state of religious freedom in that country, while Saudi Arabia is doing its best to present a more tolerant, modern and progressive image for the world. And this still happened. There is a long tradition of antisemitism in the Middle East, it doesn't simply disappear even when Jews were forced to, and the attempts to deny it with the excuse of "But Zionism!" are antisemitic, too.

This is Hadar Gadol.

He's an Israeli author, a practitioner of alternative medicine, and as a reservist, he serves as a casualty officer (an army official who lets a family know that their loved one was killed in combat, in Israel a casualty officer also continues to work with and support the family after the initial notification, kind of like a social worker appointed by the army). In January, IDF soldier Mark Kononovich was killed. A few weeks ago, as party of taking care of the family, Hadar took Mark's dad Alex on a tour of the last army post where Mark and the friends who died with him had slept. In the middle of that, Hadar got a heart attack. Alex happens to be a doctor, he recognized the signs, administered some first aid, and made sure Hadar would be taken to the hospital to receive the treatment he needed. This is Hadar after being released from the hospital, visiting Alex to thank him (you can also see Mark's younger brother in the pic):

During this visit, Alex told Hadar, "You took our case as very close to you, you felt it like we do, very close to the heart." I have no doubt their bond is gonna be there for years to come. Hadar is actually not the first Israeli casualty officer I've heard of, who collapsed and was in need of hospitalization since Oct 7, just the latest. I think that in a way says something about how acutely Israelis feel the pain of the massacre, whether we personally lost someone or not.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[f--e-u-e-r-t-r-u-n-k-e--n]

The End of the World or the End of Capitalism?: Colletion of Notes.

>"Capitalist realism as I understand it cannot be confined to art or to the quasi-propagandistic way in which advertising functions. It is more like a pervasive atmosphere, conditioning not only the production of culture but also the regulation of work and education, and acting as a kind of invisible barrier constraining thought and action". -Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? >[Capital] has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervor, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up that single, unconscionable freedom Free Trade. In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation -Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei.

>"In his Prison Notebooks, Gramsci said that in periods of crisis the old is dying and the new is not yet born. While Gramsci drew attention to the morbid symptoms of such a situation (in 1930) our crisis is different, and I want to draw attention to more hopeful symptoms (waiting to be born) of our present crisis of capitalist hegemony. The viability of initiatives trying to avoid competition with the market and escape from the hierarchic state rests on many untested assumptions. The first assumption is that those who do essential day-to-day tasks would continue to do their jobs in a PCC in preference to large corporations and their local affiliates: a multitude of people who now work in private or public sectors, directly or indirectly, establishing PCCs in their local communities producing food, organizing transport, setting up places of learning and transmission of skills, providing healthcare, running power systems, and so on. PCCs already do this all over the world on a small scale but such initiatives struggle within capitalist markets. Community-Supported Agriculture schemes in various parts of the world represent a first step on a long and difficult road to self-sufficiency in this sphere". - Leslie Sklair, The End of the World or the End of Capitalism? >"In 1869, New York neurologist George Beard used the term "neurasthenia" to describe a very broad condition caused by the exhaustion of the nervous system, which was thought to be particularly found in "civilized, intellectual communities." In 1998, Swedish psychiatrists Marie Åsberg and Åke Nygren investigated a surge of depression health insurance claims in Sweden. They found that the symptoms of many cases did not match the typical presentation of depression. Complaints like fatigue and decreased cognitive ability dominated, and many believed their working conditions to be the cause" >"The whole life of those societies in which modern conditions of production prevail presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. All that once was directly lived has become mere representation".  -Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle. >"Architecture is the simplest means of articulating time and space, of modulating reality, of engendering dreams. It is a matter not only of plastic articulation and modulation expressing an ephemeral beauty, but of a modulation producing influences in accordance with the eternal spectrum of human desires and the progress in realizing them. The architecture of tomorrow will be a means of modifying present conceptions of time and space. It will be a means of knowledge and a means of action." -Ivan Chtcheglov, Formulary for a New Urbanism

>"To you, this gathering is just one more boring event. The Situationist International, however, considers that while this assemblage of so many art critics as an attraction of the Brussels Fair is laughable, it is also significant.

Inasmuch as modern cultural thought has proved itself completely stagnant for over twenty-five years, and inasmuch as a whole era that has understood nothing and changed nothing is now becoming aware of its failure, its spokesmen are striving to transform their activities into institutions. They thus solicit official recognition from the completely outmoded but still materially dominant society, for which most of them have been loyal watchdogs.

The main shortcoming of modern art criticism is that it has never looked at the culture as a whole nor at the conditions of an experimental movement that is perpetually superseding it. At this point in time the increased domination of nature permits and necessitates the use of superior powers in the construction of life." -The Situationist International, Action in Belgium Against the International Assembly of Art Critics >"Karoshi (Japanese: 過労死, Hepburn: Karōshi), which can be translated into "overwork death", is a Japanese term relating to occupation-related sudden death.

The most common medical causes of karoshi deaths are heart attacks and strokes due to stress and malnourishment or fasting. Mental stress from the workplace can also cause workers to commit suicide in a phenomenon known as karōjisatsu (過労自殺)" >"The limits of capitalism are not fixed by fiat, but defined (and redefined) pragmatically and improvisationally. This makes capitalism very much like the Thing in John Carpenter's film of the same name: a monstrous, infinitely plastic entity, capable of metabolizing and absorbing anything with which it comes into contact. Capital, Deleuze and Guattari says, is a ‘motley painting of everything that ever was'; a strange hybrid of the ultra-modern and the archaic. In the years since Deleuze and Guattari wrote the two volumes of their Capitalism And Schizophrenia, it has seemed as if the deterritorializing impulses of capitalism have been confined to finance, leaving culture presided over by the forces of reterritorialization.

This malaise, the feeling that there is nothing new, is itself nothing new of course. We find ourselves at the notorious ‘end of history' trumpeted by Francis Fukuyama after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Fukuyama's thesis that history has climaxed with liberal capitalism may have been widely derided, but it is accepted, even assumed, at the level of the cultural unconscious. It should be remembered, though, that even when Fukuyama advanced it, the idea that history had reached a ‘terminal beach' was not merely triumphalist. Fukuyama warned that his radiant city would be haunted, but he thought its specters would be Nietzschean rather than Marxian. Some of Nietzsche's most prescient pages are those in which he describes the ‘oversaturation of an age with history'. ‘It leads an age into a dangerous mood of irony in regard to itself, he wrote in Untimely Meditations, ‘and subsequently into the even more dangerous mood of cynicism', in which ‘cosmopolitan fingering', a detached spectatorialism, replaces engagement and involvement. This is the condition of Nietzsche's Last Man, who has seen everything, but is decadently enfeebled precisely by this excess of (self) awareness." -Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?

>The Socialist Patients' Collective (German: Sozialistisches Patientenkollektiv, and known as the SPK) is a patients' collective founded in Heidelberg, West Germany, in February 1970, by Wolfgang Huber (born 1935). The kernel of the SPK's ideological program is summated in the slogan, "Turn illness into a weapon", which is representative of an ethos that is continually and actively practiced under the new title, Patients' Front/Socialist Patients' Collective, PF/SPK(H). The first collective, SPK, declared its self-dissolution in July 1971 as a strategic withdrawal but in 1973 Huber proclaimed the continuity of SPK as Patients' Front.

The SPK assumes that illness exists as an undeniable fact and believe that it is caused by the capitalist system. The SPK promotes illness as the protest against capitalism and considers illness as the foundation on which to create the human species. The SPK is opposed to doctors, considering them to be the ruling class of capitalism and responsible for poisoning the human species. The most widely recognized text of the PF/SPK(H) is the communique, SPK – Turn illness into a weapon, which has prefaces by both the founder of the SPK, Wolfgang Huber, and Jean-Paul Sartre. Rejecting the roles and ideology associated with the notion of the revolutionary as scientific explainer, they stated in Turn Illness into a Weapon that whoever claims they want to "observe the bare facts dispassionately" is either an "idiot" or a "dangerous criminal."

[aplaceinthedark]

DROWN you OUT

a DROWNED story

Word Count: 2.3k+

CW: religious themes, supernatural themes, LOTS of drowning, depression, brief mention of suicide attempts, blood, murder, cannibalism

Blinded by a fear of feeling, these are the kings we chose. Lost and looking for the meaning, I've been searching high and low.

When we fade into nothing; when we go up in the smoke, we'll beg God for a mercy that he knows we'd never show.

Despite the hot June night, the river water surrounding Joakim felt ice cold.

He didn’t know why this was the first thing he thought of as he feebly struggled against the many sets of hands holding him underwater. He was absolutely panicking, his body fighting instinctively, but the only thing currently going through his head was the temperature of the damn river water. He probably should be more concerned about the people who he thought were his fellow congregates and why they wouldn’t let him come up for air, but he’d been brainwashed into thinking that he deserved this fate.

He’d left his home country of Sweden years ago, coming to the east coast of America, but never quite settling down. He’d gone from state to state, starting up north and making his way down, trying to find a new home, but nothing seemed to stick. He’d never felt accepted for the ways he’d been raised; a mixture of the natural ways with the Christian God.

And then he moved to the Appalachian mountains, where he met The Children of the Revered Father.

A small group of them were passing out flyers one Sunday when Joakim was traveling through. He found himself going to one of their weekly gatherings, since why the hell not? That’s how he found out that these people were exactly what he’d been looking for. Pretty soon, he found himself living in the nearby town, surrounded by who he had thought were kind, loving people. He attended gatherings and workshops two or sometimes three times a week. The Revered Father had become his whole world; like getting swept up in a tidal wave.

But pretty soon, he found that he would experience the crash.

Some of his friends had invited him to a midnight mass sort of thing, to welcome the first throes of summer. He gladly accepted. They mentioned something about baptization, to fully accept everyone into the Family, and Joakim was thrilled. It meant that he was finally being accepted into something here, something he hadn’t felt since he left home all those years ago.

They’d all gone out into the woods after night fell. The entire congregation met up at the deepest hollow, where they had their monthly moonless gatherings. They said the usual words, the usual hymns, the usual rituals. Some drinks were passed around; something stronger than what they usually had, Joakim thought. There was talk of the proceedings, about how the Revered Father would test their faith. Joakim didn’t think of what that would mean if he failed; he was faithful, he wouldn’t fail.

Except he must have. Why else would those he had called friends be holding him under the water for longer than the others? Why else would the murky river water taste foul as his lungs finally caved and forced his mouth open? Why else would the water fill his lungs, making him feel heavier than he actually was?

Through the murkiness of the water and the flurry of limbs, Joakim thought he saw something. He thought he saw a low, red pulse on the shoreline of the river. He thought he saw a pair of matching eyes staring at him, despite a small part of his brain telling him that there should be now way he could see that through all the chaos going on.

Those same eyes told him to sleep, to give in. And despite his body telling him not to, his mind eventually did.

His limbs started freezing up, the heaviness and cold settling into his bones to make them useless. The hands on him started to slowly leave one by one, and for a brief moment he thought about freedom, how he could finally fight his way to the surface, but he couldn’t get his body to cooperate. His clothes weighed him down.

Finally, as he sank to the bottom of the river, the stones digging into his back, he couldn’t help but think of how he had failed his God. As his vision went dark, he felt the rage fill him. There’s no room for salvation, he thought, Now, there’s only room for demons.

And that was how the young human, Joakim Karlsson, died.

On a canvas we stained with blood and painted with our sins, there's a candle melting and it's burning at both ends.

We'll take and take 'til it caves and drowns us in the wax it drips. Like a moth to a flame you never should've fucking lit.

You can give sight to the blind, but you can't force them to see. You could take us back in time, but it wouldn't change a thing.

When Joakim was a child, he was told all about the fairy tales of his homeland. But the one that intrigued him the most was the tale of the näcken.

He was always told to avoid the rivers without his parents nearby, lest he be lured to the bottom of a näcken’s song. It never bothered him much. In fact, when he grew older, he said that he wanted to find one so he himself could learn how to play guitar as well as any supernatural water creature could.

He never expected to become one himself.

Unlike some of the other Hollowed Souls, Joakim had his faculties after the Watcher of the Woods left his body to become overtaken by the curse of the Shenandoah. At first, he didn’t know what to do with himself, and as he wandered up and down the river, he grew to hate everything. Fuck this, fuck that. Fuck this, fuck that. The worst part was that he found out that he couldn’t truly leave the river; not without running water, and certainly not for long periods of time. But eventually, that pain faded away, leaving him more hollow than ever before.

He discovered his curse after he felt such sadness that couldn’t be expressed like before. He could make the motions, but he couldn’t release the emotions and grief and pain. It wasn’t until he began singing that he realized why. It eased the pain, but as people came to the river, he wanted nothing to do with it.

And worse, there was always the voice in the back of his head that compelled him to do it.

CONSUME.

The sadness only grew with every young life he took, whether it was by devouring their flesh or by drowning them, almost like how he was drowned. Their deaths only prolonged his sadness, for now there was no way he could ever see salvation in the afterlife.

He knew this for certain. It was how he discovered that he could no longer die, after all.

Soon, he learned to just become numb to the death that surrounded him. After all, how could he live when he was already dead on the inside?

Luckily, around that time was when he met Nick Folio. To be honest, he wasn’t sure why he let the kid stay around. He was annoying at the best of times, a straight up demon at the worst. But after a while, with no voices or dread filling his head up, he realized that Nick was more of a balm than a hindrance.

Within a year, Joakim had crafted a guitar of his own making. The body was made out of driftwood, the strings made out of various types of hair. He was pretty proud of himself for the craftsmanship. It felt less like an instrument and more like a piece of himself, like an extension of his body. He grew possessive over it, to the point when Nick asked if he could play Freebird on it, Joakim nearly tore off the boy’s arm. Between the two, he felt like he didn't need anything else.

Except he did feel like he still needed more. And it didn't come to him until a year after Nick did.

HELP.

Joakim couldn’t leave the river for long periods of time. He found that after a while the itch to sing and the hunger to play his guitar would grow. To save hikers and campers, he would stay holed up in his little hole tucked into a waterfall. But this voice; this New Voice in his head compelled him to abandon the river to find it.

That’s when Joakim found himself standing in the hollow where the Children of the Revered Father once stood. He froze. Why would the voice bring him here? Was it a new torture for him to endure? He snapped out of it when he felt Nick shift into the Church Grim and started digging at a spot in the middle of the hollow with a whine.

This is crazy, Joakim thought to himself, even though he’d seen enough in the past few years that would prove that thought wrong. Especially when a young man showed up, out of breath, and when he looked up, Joakim watched as his blue-gray eyes shift to a deep green.

“I hope I’m not too late,” he said.

If God came down from his kingdom; He came down from his home, and we asked him if he'd take us back, He would surely tell us no.

If God came down from his kingdom; He came down from his throne, and we asked him if he'd take us back, He would tell us we can't go.

To a rat in a maze the end is where the start begins, but if we made it out I know that we would do it all again.

We live and die in vain like treasure on a sinking ship. All in the name of a God we'd just abandon and forget.

They'd used him.

Joakim had heard Nick's tale about how he'd been treated, but until he met Nicholas and Noah, he hadn't believed that the Children were the same group. But they were, and they used him just to appease their so-called Revered Father, some forest-spirit claiming it was a god.

But it was dead to this plane of existence and another took its place. Noah had given him a choice, unlike the previous Watcher of the Woods. Joakim asked to give him some time, because he still had things to do, before he could make up his mind.

There were some loose ends that needed to be tied up.

With it being Midsummer's Eve, Noah had heard the whisperings of how the Cult of the Black Stag was going to attempt to reform and bring back their “Revered Father,” and it was a perfect opportunity to get their revenge. It was a perfect opportunity to get his revenge.

And he got everything he wished for.

They came to him in waves. Slowly at first, but surely. They would come out of the woods quietly, their faces slack but their eyes wide with fear, and they would slowly shuffle into the water. One by one, they would come closer to him and his music, until their knees disappeared into the water; until their waists, their chests, and their shoulders disappeared. He didn't let them go until their heads were fully submerged.

The ones he didn't recognize Joakim let be swept up into the rapids. Those he hadn’t much care for. Those ones were pulled away and under, their breath stolen from them by the current or by a random rock they hit their heads on.

The ones he did recognize, however: the ones that he had called friends once; the ones who pinned his head below the surface so he would be the Hollowed Vessel. Those he pulled closer to him. When they were surrounding him, he set his guitar on the rock, and then he slipped into the water.

And with a scream to drown out all other sounds around them, the bloodbath began.

Afterwards, when the river no longer ran red and Joakim stepped foot on land, Noah once again asked, “You want to help protect these woods from evil again?”

This time, Joakim had his answer.

And from then on, Joakim Karlsson became known as the Drowned, the nacken of the Shenandoah Rivers.

We're dying everyday. Tell me is it all in vain? Is it worth the suffering? Is it worth the price we paid?

Is it worth it?

Joakim frowns. Is it worth it?

Pausing his fingers, he peeks up at the sky. The morning light was washing the river and woods in pale tones. The same sky he's been seeing the past ten years, it never changed except with the seasons. Another summer solstice had come and gone with no sign of the children returning.

But Joakim could tell that wasn't true. He and Noah have felt something stirring lately. Something felt off with the Woods.

But Jolly kept playing his guitar and singing softly to himself, humming along to the melody he created a couple of days ago.

“If God came down from His kingdom, He came down from His home, and we asked Him if he'd take us back, He would surely tell us no.”

WE'RE ALMOST THERE. NICK'S BRINGING A “FRIEND”, SO FAIR WARNING.

Joakim rolls his eyes at Noah's voice in his head, but acquiesces to Noah's unspoken command. With hardly any movement, Joakim shifts form into something less horrifying than the drowned corpse he normally looks like. It's his skin that he used to have back when he was alive.

It's miniscule, barely even noticeable, but Joakim smiles to himself as he continues playing his guitar.

“WHAT UP JOLLEEEEEE!” he hears Noah calling from behind him. He turns to face his friends.

And he thinks to himself, Yes, it is worth it.

You can give sight to the blind, but you can't force them to see. You could take us back in time, but it wouldn't change a fucking thing.

[hanna-kin]

Hej ! I just read your post about Swedish facts (loved it) and i've been wondering for a long time, what place does have religion in Sweden ? Is it the default situation to be a believer or a majority of swedes are atheists ? Does it feel like the church have some grip and power over political decisions in Sweden ? Does the church seem more progressive in Sweden than in other countries (regarding of women, lgbtqia+ people, etc.) ?

Seeing it from Hillerska, it seems like students do not really care but the school in itself still has strong religious foundations with the chapel or praying before diner. And how monarchy is just very based on christian traditions.

If you've already talk about it i'm sorry and ik it can be a quite vague and though question, i read some stuff online but i thought it would be more interesting to have your view and opinion on it.

Have a nice day and thank you so much if you reply to this ✨

Hi.

Sweden is one of, of not the most secular country in the world and the church is very much a separate entity from the government. Many people are Christian "by default" meaning that they are not practicing but might believe in god a little bit or they don't really know. There are many people who are atheist too.

Sweden is still very tied to Christian culture though traditions ans holidays but they don't have a religious element for many people.

The Swedish state church is very open and liberal. They are open ans welcoming of Lgbtq+ people and have allowed lgbtq+ people to get married in church for several years. More Conservative churches are far behind but some are catching up and in this year qx gala a pastor of a church is actually nominated for hetero of the year for his work for lgbtq+ rights a more Conservative church.

State school is not supposed to have religous elements but private are allowed to to some extent. There are Christian private schools and also muslim schools that I know of.

Hillerska is a private school but I think it's mostly about keeping traditions than anything else.

The royal family is bounded by law though to be Christian which is against freedom of Religion which is a human right. They have to be raised Lutheran to inherit the throne. However it's very unclear how religious they are internally.

However, as you say, the monarchyis very much based on Christianity.

[friendlymathematician]

next up, we're moving west to småland. what do you think about when you hear småland?

[beardedmrbean]

Helsinki — Denmark's foreign minister said Sunday the government will seek to make it illegal to desecrate the Quran or other religious holy books in front of foreign embassies in the Nordic country.

Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in an interview with the Danish public broadcaster DR that the burning of holy scriptures "only serves the purpose of creating division in a world that actually needs unity."

"That is why we have decided in the government that we will look at how, in very special situations, we can put an end to mockery of other countries, which is in direct conflict with Danish interests and the safety of the Danes," he said.

A recent string of public Quran desecrations by a handful of anti-Islam activists in Denmark and neighboring Sweden have sparked angry demonstrations in Muslim countries.

Lokke Rasmussen said the Cabinet of Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is determined to find "a legal tool" to prohibit such acts without compromising freedom of expression, but he acknowledged that would not be easy.

"There must be room for religious criticism, and we have no thoughts of reintroducing a blasphemy clause," he told DR. "But when you stand up in front of a foreign embassy and burn a Quran or burn the Torah scroll in front of the Israeli embassy, it serves no other purpose than to mock."

His comments followed a statement issued late Sunday by the Danish government saying freedom of expression is one of the most important values in Danish society.

But, it added, the desecration of the Muslim holy book in Denmark has resulted in the nation being viewed in many places around the world "as a country that facilitates insult and denigration of the cultures, religions, and traditions of other countries."

The government repeated its condemnation of such desecrations, say they are "deeply offensive and reckless acts committed by few individuals" and "do not represent the values the Danish society is built on."

In Sweden, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Sunday on Instagram that his government is analyzing the legal situation regarding desecration of the Quran and other holy books, given the animosity such acts are stirring up against Sweden.

"We are in the most serious security policy situation since the Second World War," Kristersson said.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation has called an emergency remote meeting Monday to discuss the Quran burnings in Sweden and Denmark.

[eretzyisrael]

A Muslim activist who had received permission to burn a Torah and a Bible outside the Israeli embassy in Sweden on Saturday said he was backing off from the move, adding that he only wanted to draw attention to the recent burning of the Quran in the country.

The man, identified as Ahmad Alush, 32, had received permission from Swedish authorities to perform the act, drawing widespread condemnation and protest from Israel and Jewish groups, among others.

But Alush arrived outside the Israeli diplomatic mission on Saturday clutching only a copy of the Quran and said it was never his intention to burn Jewish or Christian holy books, only to protest the recent burning of the Quran.

“It is against the Quran to burn and I will not burn. No one should do that,” Alush, who is of Syrian origin, told reporters gathered at the scene.

“This is a response to the people who burn the Quran. I want to show that freedom of expression has limits that must be taken into account,” he added.

“I want to show that we have to respect each other, we live in the same society. If I burn the Torah, another the Bible, another the Quran, there will be war here. What I wanted to show is that it’s not right to do it.”

Swedish public broadcaster SVT said Alush threw a lighter in his hand to the ground and said he didn’t need it.

Local police on Friday said they had approved an application from an individual in his 30s to hold a rally outside Israel’s embassy in Stockholm on Saturday, where a Jewish Torah and Christian Bible would be burned.

In his request for Saturday’s protest, the man said he wanted to burn the Torah and the Bible outside the Israeli embassy in response to a Quran burning outside a Stockholm mosque last month by an Iraqi immigrant. He called it “a symbolic gathering for the sake of freedom of speech.”

The Swedish decision to grant him permission to burn the Torah had sparked widespread condemnation and outrage. According to the Kan public broadcaster, senior Swedish officials told their Israeli counterparts they were working to outlaw the burning of religious texts but stressed any such change would take a while to implement.

[bluedalahorse]

fic promotion? sure let’s do it I guess

This thread and its discussion of Sara and the Erikssons’ overall experiences with neurodivergence reminded me of a part of Heart and Homeland I was particularly proud of writing, so I thought I’d share it here on my blog before working on the H & H epilogue chapters today. This was from one of the epistolary chapters early on in the narrative, when everyone is at the very beginning of their character arcs. Sara is thinking about what she did and didn’t inherit from her parents. It was also when I feel like I really hit my stride writing Sara.

Nothing wrong with a little shameless self-promotion, right?

Things to know as far as backstory if you decide to read what’s below the cut:

We’re in an AU set in 1808-1809 with lots of empire/regency vibes.

Sara keeps a diary and sometimes sketches in it.

Simon and Wilhelm have met at Hillerska, which is only for boys at this time period. The Ehrencronas live on an estate not far from Hillerska.

Simon and Sara have lived a lot of places, including for a time Göteborg, because Micke sails with the Swedish East India Company. Micke met Linda on his travels. Micke’s parents (Farfar and Farmor) also played a role in Simon and Sara’s early upbringing.

Felice has a little brother (Viktor) and two little sisters (Sofia and Agata.) Sara is employed as the governess of Felice’s sisters, and they torment her often. Felice and Sara have become secret friends, though.

Felice was at one point reluctantly engaged to August, but she’s broken it off at this point in the story. August at one point attempted A Scheme where he wrote Sara a poem and told her to leave it out where Felice would see it and become jealous. August as always is an absolute rake who lacks self-awareness.

Wilhelm has been getting threats from a mysterious Society, and Sara is worried about Simon’s safety.

The Ehrencronas are about to host the ball of the year, and Wilhelm is going to be their guest of honor. There are rumors, of course, that the mysterious society will show up to the ball to cause trouble.

Content note for ableism, references to Micke’s abuse of Linda and his kids, Micke’s parents’ ethnic prejudice against Linda, August being August, and a bit of Sara’s (protestant) religious trauma, which is more of a thing in 1808 I suppose.

March 24, 1809

I lose so much sleep worrying for Simon of late. I must write of it, for there is nothing else safe to do if I am lying awake. My thoughts are not safe. I will write in Mamma’s Spanish, for it would upset Felice greatly if she read this.

Always Simon writes me with an air of confidence and reassurance, as if the Crown Prince of Sweden’s life had not been threatened. As if he were not His Highness’s most intimate friend at school. Surely it does not escape Simon’s notice that he could become a target himself. On the other hand, he should also know that the speed at which he and the crown prince befriended one another will raise suspicion. I routinely fear that some high-ranking instructor or noble will label Simon a potential future assassin and take him away, never to be seen again. Simon would remind me that this did not happen to Farfar a generation ago when the previous king dissolved the Riksdag, abolished the freedoms of the press, and made himself an absolute monarch. Yet it happened to some of Farfar’s friends, and that is always the part people leave out around me.

Must I always be protected? Felice is gathering information about what is happening at Hillerska, but she is holding details back from me. What is she not saying? What does she know of my brother’s fate? Does she want me to read into her silences and make guesses from the way she arranges her face? I cannot do that. I am forced to imagine the worst possible horrors, because no one will tell me anything.

Then there would be the damage to Simon’s name. I would hate it if Simon were killed gone and people only remembered him as someone who threatened His Highness Prince Wilhelm. I can think of no greater injustice than the entire world thinking Simon wicked. For you see, of the two of us, he was born good. I was born the opposite.

Farmor said it to Mamma herself, when I was seven years old. I have never told Simon. I keep thinking of that day when she said it. I distract myself from awful thoughts with the next battalion of awful thoughts.

It was the first Tuesday after Pentecost, and I am not sure why I remember that. At that age I used to run from room to room in our house in Göteborg, leaping over one item of furniture or the next, rocking and shouting and laughing and tapping everything and spinning and flailing my arms and legs everywhere. That day there were red flowers sitting in a china vase that Pappa had brought back to Mamma from one of his journeys. For the past six months all had been peaceful between them; he had brought Mamma flowers every week since the beginning of spring. I was running about the parlor that day, and in my exuberance I jostled the side table where the vase was. The vase tumbled to the ground and shattered. I can feel the clattering noise it made in my bones even now, and the way it made my stomach crumple in on itself. I must have frozen for minutes on the spot, watching the water from the vase crawl across the floor. Farmor’s long, fortepiano-perfect fingers suddenly pinched at my shoulder, and she pushed me out of the parlor as quickly as she could.

As Farmor and Mamma picked up the broken pieces of the vase, debating what to tell Pappa about what had happened, I listened at the door. They didn’t know I was still there. I know nothing good can come of listening at doors and yet I was so curious. Listening in, I could be truly still and quiet for once.

Farmor said, making her voice slow like she always did while talking to Mamma, We love her very much, and it pains me to realize this. But something is wrong. I do not think Sara is touched by God’s grace. 

Mamma said, Sara is only a child, she will learn. 

Farmor replied, Mikael was the same way as a boy. I thought he would grow out of it, and perhaps he grew out of the noise and running, but there is something missing in him, something that would stop his worst impulses. I think Sara may be like her pappa. 

She is young, said Mamma. And she is good when she is with Simon, you have seen them play together. 

Simon is very good, said Farmor. He is a blessing to us every day. I am afraid you will see the opposite with Sara, however. I will hope and pray that I am wrong. But I am warning you, to prepare you for the future. Sara will break our hearts. 

It was silent for a long while. Mamma did not protest against Farmor a third time, so she must have agreed with her. The stillness and quiet I had taken on before, that had allowed me to eavesdrop on Mamma and Farmor, soaked into me like a damp autumn chill. I did not speak or run around the house for the rest of the week. It was then that I first learned how stillness and quiet—how “thank you” and “excuse me” and the “look at me when I’m speaking, Sara” and the “hands in your lap, Sara” and all of those other rules—kept my wickedness inside. For a time. The effort of those rules exhausts me. I am not even certain who the real Sara inside is, anymore. Is it that destructive little girl who runs like a horse? Or someone worse?

Now all of these rules may not be enough. I try, but—I am restless and pacing and impatient in the schoolroom. I want to join in on the little girls’ quarrels and win every argument. I burned with jealousy today when a parcel arrived with Felice’s new dancing slippers for the ball. I want to snap at her parents for laughing when the children make up lies about me. I am angry at Pappa for making us poor and disgraced and for hitting Mamma. I am angry at Mamma for not taking us away from him when he hit her the first time. I am angry at Simon for hiding me away here, for the part where I need to hide away at all. I am more than grateful for Felice’s friendship, but I wish I could enjoy her company the way Fröken Eld and the other girls do. That I didn’t have to worry so much about losing everything when she is not by my side to reassure me. She can only protect me for so long.

One last bit of wickedness: I did not burn August Horn’s poem like I said.

I did not lie about the poem being awful. Truly, it was a marvel of poor composition. And yet I cannot help taking the folded paper out from where I’ve stowed it in my needle book. I don’t unfold it, but I turn it back and forth in my hands, testing the weight of the paper, wondering.

He should not have written the poem. Felice says he should not have approached me in such a manner at all. And yet, late at night—when I can no longer bear to think about Simon in danger and Mamma’s silence and Farmor’s judgement and every last terror related to Pappa—my thoughts gallop away, clinging to the word if.

If Greve August Horn had been kind, or even pretended to be kind, and made overtures toward me not to provoke some jealousy in Felice, but rather just because he wished to have my attention and sympathy, I might have given him encouragement.

If I had been rich and carefree and appropriately titled, I would have asked Simon to formally introduce us.

If August could offer me a way out of all this tomorrow, would I take it?

What would he want in exchange?

He must want something. If… if… if… 

I will burn the poem. I will do it now, in the middle of the night. Some thoughts must be tossed into the flames and reduced to ash. I must try at least. I must.

I do not think I can burn away the part of me that is Pappa’s daughter.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

In response to the most recent Quran-burning incident in Sweden, where an Iraqi immigrant burned the religious book in front of a mosque in Stockholm last June, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted a resolution on July 12th on religious hatred, condemning the acts of burning the Islamic holy book in Sweden.

UN: Quran burning is hate speech designed to incite https://t.co/tdyfQyjd4j pic.twitter.com/9KTGTFqyvT — The Guardian Nigeria (@GuardianNigeria) July 12, 2023

Introduced by Pakistan on behalf of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the resolution urged the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to draft a report on religious hatred and called on countries to review their laws and close legal loopholes that may "impede the prevention and prosecution of acts and advocacy of religious hatred."

The resolution was highly divisive since several states, primarily Western countries, decided not to back the proposal due to fears that it might infringe on freedom of speech and expression. Still, that did not prevent the human rights body from adopting the resolution. Among the council’s 47 members, 28 voted in favor of the resolution, 12 voted against it, and 7 chose to abstain.

Following a Quran burning in Sweden, the @UN passed a resolution calling on countries to “prevent and prosecute acts and advocacy of religious hatred.” The US and EU—rightly in my mind—voted against the resolution as a violation of freedom of expression. https://t.co/B0MaFz8u4h pic.twitter.com/58Dub2ynju — Leah McElrath (@leahmcelrath) July 13, 2023

Several countries that voted to adopt the resolution included Muslim-majority countries, such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, and Malaysia. The 12 countries that voted against it included the United States, the United Kingdom, and members of the European Union. While Western countries condemned the recent Quran-burning act in Sweden, they argued that the resolution would more likely safeguard religious symbols than human rights.

The resolution also came after a debate on issues of religious protection shortly after the Quran-burning incident in Sweden on July 11th, which was held upon Pakistan’s request. Pakistan and other countries said "the alarming rise in premeditated and public acts of religious hatred as manifested by the recurrent desecration of the Holy Quran in some European and other countries” moved them to act.

Can't Allah fight for himself ? — Wormwood (@__init__kwargs) July 4, 2023

The outcome of the resolution showed the power of OIC-member states within the council, the only global body made up of governments to protect human rights all over the world and also marks a significant blow to the West and its allies on the issue, with the director of the Geneva-based Universal Rights Group Marc Limon saying that "the West is in full retreat at the Human Rights Council” and adding that "they're increasingly losing support and losing the argument."

It’s just a book. Grow up. — ASH:Mike Darwin (@darwin_ash) July 4, 2023

Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the UN, Khalil Hashmi, also criticized the West and accused them of "lip service" to their commitment to preventing religious hatred, adding that “they lack [the] political, legal and moral courage to condemn this act, and it was the minimum that the Council could have expected from them."

As the special session went underway, which is the second of the three annual sessions at the UNHRC that will run until July 14th, Austrian lawyer Volker Türk, who currently serves as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that “speech and inflammatory acts against Muslims, Islamophobia, antisemitism, and actions and speech that target Christians — or minority groups such as Ahmadis, Baha'is or Yazidis — are manifestations of utter disrespect. They are offensive, irresponsible, and wrong."

After burning down Paris they still believe they are victims. — CoolNambiar (@CoolNambiar) July 4, 2023

He also added that "every national limit on the greater right of free speech and free expression of opinion must be so formulated so that its only task, its only outcome, can be the protection of the individual — and not the protection of religious doctrines from critical analysis."

--

For reference:

==

This is what happens when you normalize and reward victimhood culture. Even a murderous political ideology of world domination can pretend to be the injured party.

The United Nation is fucking useless.

Your religion's rules apply to you and nobody else.

[fromchaostocosmos]

The man told Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter that he is trying to spark debate and expose a double standard in the treatment of Muslims and Jews in Sweden. He also said he believed a provocative protest outside the Israeli embassy would shed further light on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  “My action is not aimed at the Swedish Jewish minority. I am standing outside the Israeli embassy because I want to remind about Israel’s killing of Palestinian children,” he said. He added that he had only postponed his plan. “I will still carry out my actions, it is important to me. I will submit a new application next week,” he said.  Danish politician Rasmus Paludan — whose far-right Hard Line party does not sit in government — burned a Quran on Jan. 21 in response to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s hints that his country might block Sweden’s attempt to join NATO. The burning sparked an outcry in Turkey and across the Islamic world. On Monday, the U.S. State Department warned U.S. citizens residing in Turkey to avoid churches and synagogues, as they could be targets for retaliatory terror attacks. “The burning of the Torah scroll was prevented thanks to the leadership of the Muslim community in Sweden,” said Rabbi Moshe David HaCohen, who was formerly the rabbi for the Jewish community in Malmö, in Southern Sweden. HaCohen is now the director of Amanah, an interfaith organization that connects Swedish Jews and Muslims. Both Jewish and Muslim clergy had spoken out against the desecration of sacred texts as a form of protest since the Quran burning.  “It is with deep concern that we once again witness Islamophobic hate manifestations in the streets of Sweden. Once again racists and extremists are allowed to abuse democracy and Freedom of Speech in order to normalize hate against one of the religious minorities in Sweden, by burning the Quran,” Amanah said in a statement.

It is disgusting that a Quran was burnt and it is 100% Islamophobic.

I am very happy that the burning of the Torah was able to postponed thanks to efforts of Muslim leaders in that community.

What I don't understand and can't follow is the specific individual in question's logic. If this is supposed to in response to the burning of a Quran by a Danish politician then what does Israel, Swedish Jews, and Jewish sacred texts have to do with any of it.

It is not even like an argument could be made that about a connection being via the Danish politician being Jewish, because he is not. (But even if he was that would not justify these choices)

Thankfully it was postponed and I can only hope it does not come into fruition.

I really feel for the Swedish Jewish and Muslim communities because this one individual's deranged and inappropriate behavior & response is putting both communities a very difficult situation.

This is in on top of the already precarious reality of life in Sweden for Jews and Muslims. I'm really happy that both communities were able to work together.

[the1975attheirverybest]

Re: religion.

From what I've seen this idea of a state separate from religion seems almost mythical to me? In the sense that you can't actually separate state and religion beyond stating it on paper so long as the culture is very religious.

Like Sweden might be a good example, but all I know about it is from the people I work with and they're all engineers so my dataset is skewed. But most of them are if not atheists then agnostic, and they don't have the time or will to discuss religious topics. It seems very irrelevant to them.

But then you have Croatia, or the US where on paper yes we can claim to be secular, but the people aren't. And what's worse is that it really seeps into politics, and not even in a subtle way.

But when I think about it I do think there is a certain mindfulness you have to achieve to be able to criticise or just think critically of what you've been brought up with/in. And that likely doesn't come as easy to everyone. But I have seen my high school peers turn away from "intense catholicism" in their late twenties. Which gives me hope hope hope that if you just take people out of their very familiar, enabling environment you can provide them with enough space and comfort for them to be able to think openly and mindfully and critically.

Like two of my friends who were pro-life... until the point where each of them had their first "oh shit" moment which took them out of their comfort zone. Suddenly they could see the other side. They're pro-choice now.

Either way religion as a topic is sexy as hell, especially since it has existed alongside us (as in - humanity) probably for as long as we had enough brains to think.

I'm also fascinated with overlaps between different religions but thats anotherre topic.

Yeah, especially when Christianity has been used as a tool of white supremacy. In colonialism and in slavery etc. like even early Europeans trying to form the United States and stealing and killing Native Americans used religion as a tool. So from the very beginning these crusty old white men who wrote the words “freedom of religion” were hella delulu. It’s like… “freedom of religion but you must be Christian. And it must be OUR version of Christianity.”

That said, I think there are periods throughout history where the country has gotten more tolerant and then less tolerant depending on what’s going on. These days…..almost feels like we’re regressing. First with abortion then LGBTQ+ rights, etc. so….it’s just been an abstract idea. Not freedom in practice. Sadly :(

[killsyouwithfire]

while i agree with your overall point i think its important to note that you only got automatically registered at birth if one of your parents was a member of the swedish church. if they weren't, you didn't get registered. you could leave the church without joining another religion or branch of christianity starting 1951 and a lot of people did.

now, supporting your point. the monarch of sweden does not actually have religious freedom even though the rest of sweden does. they Have to be a member of the swedish church to be eligible to rule. (interestingly, this wasnt actually something the church of sweden wanted. when church and state separated in 2000 the then archbishop advocated religious freedom for all. but the current king did not want that and advocated for keeping the clause that you must be a member of the swedish church to inherit the throne).

Just amazing to see people claim that the discourse around cultural Christianity is very America-centric, like "ah yes, America is very Christian, unlike Europe."

Like, Sweden automatically registered its citizens as members of the Church of Sweden at birth until 1996. The Church was officially government-sanctioned until 2000.

Now that membership in the Church of Sweden isn't automatic anymore, and only 18% of Swedes say they believe in God, almost half of newborns are still getting baptized. 75% of funerals still take place in the Church. Swedish kids still attend "confirmation camps." The 3rd largest political party in Sweden insists that Christianity is fundamental to Swedish identity and wants to drive out members of non-Christian religions.

And this is in one of those European countries famous for being "secular."

That is, yes, cultural Christianity.

And don't get me started on England. Or on France.

[phantom-of-the-north]

Info about Flashback Forum. Part 2

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Besides moderators, the forum is moderated through Flashback's own rules and netiquette. According to the netiquette, Flashback "requires both quality and readability. Threads that lack this will be deleted or locked. The forum should also not be used to start or pursue harassment of non-public persons."

Some examples of Flashback's netiquette:

0.01. Rubrik (Heading) A heading should be objective and neutral and give a fair and descriptive image of what the thread is about. If the starting post is mainly a question the heading should end with a question mark.

0.03. Trams och off-topic (Nonsense and off-topic) Posts that are off-topic or nonsense can be deleted without notice and motivation.

(with deleted meaning they'll be moved to the trash bin, which you can read more about later on in this post)

Examples of Flashback's rules:

1.03. Hets mot folkgrupp (Hate speech) It is forbidden to threaten or express contempt against particularly vulnerable groups, that allude to race, skin color, national or ethnic origin, religious beliefs or sexual orientation.

(Something worth mentioning is that it's rare for a Flashback user to get suspended or banished for rule 1.03, it almost never happens, because of the nearly complete freedom of speech that is so characteristic for Flashback. One of the few users to have been banished for 1.03 is Roger Persson, a man with something of a celebrity status on the forum, known for his unique persona and... xenophobic views. There are other "celebrities" on Flashback but Roger Persson probably holds the biggest legendary status. One time, a user even started a thread to wish him a happy birthday and despite not containing a basis of discussion that's normally required for a thread on Flashback, moderators didn't delete it and instead joined in on celebrating Roger P:s birthday)

1.04. Uppvigling och hot (agitation and threats) Agitation and more serious threats are forbidden. It is also forbidden to organize criminal activity from the forum.

1.09. Narkotikahandel (Drug trafficking) All forms of drug trafficking (buying, selling, exchanging, giving away), including through PM, is forbidden.

2.02. Kvalitet framför kvantitet (KFK) (Quality over quantity) Members who counter the free debate in the forum, by systematically publishing posts of poor quality or insufficient basis of discussion, will be suspended or banished.

2.03. Åldersgräns (Age restriction) The age restriction on Flashback Forum is 18 years. Underage users will be suspended.

Number of users and posts

Flashback currently has over 1.5 million members and over 80 million posts have been made on the forum (you can see the number of members and posts at the top of the page when you visit the website as well as the number of visitors that are online).

It's one of Sweden's most visited websites, with over 2 million visitors every week and over 15 000 posts are written on Flashback every day (the article is from 2014 so the amount of visitors and posts per day has likely changed a bit since then, but I couldn't find any recent numbers).

Account and threads

To create a thread or post in an existing thread, you have to be a registered user. When you register your account, an activation email is sent to the email address you stated. After activating your account it takes approximately three days before you can start posting on the forum.

You can't delete your own posts or threads on Flashback. Everything you post on the forum will stay there, unless it breaks a Flashback rule, then it might be removed by an admin. However, threads can be moved to Papperskorgen, the trash bin. You can still read these threads, but they're in the trash bin because they don't live up to the requirement of quality and readability. (It's pretty fun to scroll through Papperskorgen, the threads can have headings like "This is what it looks like when Hitler nibbles on a melon" and "Sex fantasies about ABBA-Agnetha in her prime").

Accounts can't be deleted, even if you get permanently banned from the forum your account will still exist. You can create a new account, or ten if you like, but using different accounts to cross-post or back yourself up in arguments can get you suspended. To avoid this, it's best to only actively use one account.

Sub-forums

Flashback has a wide variety of sub-forums, for everything from politics, science and private economy to drugs, mental health and pornography.

Investigative journalism

Flasback has gained attention for pursuing investigative journalism and have helped expose fraud. It's known that the police in Sweden keep an eye on Flashback because there can be useful information there, even if a lot of the posts are just speculations. Flashback users have been helpful in a number of criminal investigations.