A former government official has warned that there is a “growing epidemic of young, European men going to fight jihad.”
Annika Hernroth-Rothstein, who was a Swedish government adviser, told an audience of around 80 people at Limmud that the “lack of political will” in Europe to combat extremism has driven her to move her family to Israel.
Ms Hernroth-Rothstein, now a prominent conservative activist, said: “There are literally hundreds of these young jihadists with European passports, free to go wherever they want to go, and the EU is a big factor.”
“They don’t have to go on a plane. They can travel by car or many other ways. If you’re trying to catch these kinds of people, there are no serious border controls in place, no border controls which countries share with each other to track these individuals.”
Citing Mehdi Nemmouche, the French citizen arrested for the terrorist attack in May against visitors to the Jewish Museum in Brussels, as an example of European jihadism, she said: “There are two worlds, at least two. No one is talking about it but the tectonic plates are shifting around Europe, and these Muslims feel on the outside of our world.
“It’s Western culture against their culture. They have this culture within our culture and there’s no pushback against them. They are deeply ideological and committed to their ideas, and unless you accept that’s how they feel you can’t fight it, and no one in post-liberal Europe is willing to do that.”
After saying that Sweden was “doing nothing” to combat the rise in European jihadism, noting that two new mosques in her country were funded by Saudi Arabia and Qatar respectively, she said she was leaving Europe: “I definitely don’t see a future for myself and my children in Sweden. We’re going to Israel.”
Ms Hernroth-Rothstein told her audience that the solution was tighter legislation, saying: “Good fences make great neighbours”, and dismissing one member of the crowd’s suggestion that the solution lay in fostering interfaith relations.
“I’m not a fan of interfaith dialogue. I love other religious people, however I meet them and I don’t believe in reaching a common ground with them. I say: ‘My truth is the truth’. That is very important and I believe that is the real solution for peace between religions. I feel offended when they have interfaith services in my synagogue.”
“But If you try to raise these kind of ideas, you get called a racist, a Muslim-hater.”
To get more news, click here to sign up for our free daily newsletter.