This is how tolerance makes nations more fragile

2023-08-20 10:51:00, Blog Elisabeth Braw

What Sweden is experiencing this summer, after a series of violent protests against the burning of the Koran, is a nightmare for any liberal democracy. Individuals driven by foreign ideologies and regimes are using Sweden's social tolerance against itself.

Other nations seeking to learn from this disaster would do well to start reading the philosophy of Karl Popper. A society that believes so much in tolerance that it is unwilling to defend tolerance against the onslaught of the intolerant risks destroying tolerance itself, Popper argued in his book The Open Society and its Enemies. her).

When the Austrian-born philosopher wrote his most famous treatise during World War II, he could not have known the extent of intolerance that would hit Western countries decades later.

Of course, he could not foresee the battle currently taking place between a symbiotic alliance of some attention-seeking Koran-burners in Scandinavia, and a group of regimes and individuals who are desperately seeking a war between the West on the one hand and tolerant Sweden on the other. other.

At the end of last month, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (IOC) convened, at the behest of Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, to condemn the latest 3 Koran burnings in Sweden and Denmark.

"The IOC deplores the repetition of acts of desecration of Al-Mus'haf esh-Sharif (Quran), and also deeply regrets the continued issuance by the authorities of a permit that allows such an act to be carried out" - it says in the leaders' final communiqué.

But they forgot to mention the fact that Saluan Momika, who sparked this summer's anti-Swedish outrage by burning a Koran in Stockholm on June 28, is an Iraqi refugee in Sweden. Momika previously led a militia linked to Iran in Iraq.

This is how tolerance makes nations more fragile

In fact, motivated individuals and Middle Eastern states seemed ready to attack Sweden the moment Momika burned his Koran. "The volume of disinformation against Sweden escalated greatly after that incident," says Markus Berg, deputy head of operations at Sweden's Psychological Protection Agency (MPF), which monitors the flow of disinformation coming from abroad.

"Actors associated with the government in Muslim countries started to communicate very quickly about this issue, and so did the Russian media" - he adds. Their main message - according to which the Swedish government approved the burning of the Koran - was simply incorrect.

Because protest permits in Sweden are not issued by the government, but by local police authorities, who cannot reject an application for protests for ideological reasons alone.

Por ata që synonin të nxisnin zemërimin anti-suedez, nuk ishin aspak të shqetësuar për saktësinë e informacionit. Sipas MPF, menjëherë pas incidentit, vëllimi i informacionit të rremë në gjuhën ruse për Suedinë u rrit me disa herë, ashtu si ndodhi edhe me informacionet në gjuhën arabe mbi këto ngjarje.

Ndërkohë përdoruesit e zakonshëm të mediave sociale, e përforcuan informacionin pa e kontrolluar saktësinë e tij. Në Irak, qytetarët u tërbuan aq shumë, sa sulmuan deri edhe diplomatët suedezë. Dhe është harruar imazhi i Suedisë, vendit që ka mirëpritur dhjetëra mijëra refugjatë myslimanë gjatë 2 dekadave të fundit.

This is how tolerance makes nations more fragile

Fushata synonte që gjithçka të dukej si një shprehje e zemërimit popullor. Në fakt gjithçka ishte i koordinuar nga grupe dhe individë që përpiqeshin të shkatërronin një komb liberal. Udhëheqësit e Suedisë, ashtu si ata në shumë vende demokratike perëndimore, besojnë se toleranca gjeneron më shumë tolerancë.

Por siç e përshkroi Poper në librin e tij, një hapje e tillë i bën këto vende të prekshme ndaj sulmeve nga intolerantët. Ndërsa Inteligjenca Artficiale gjeneruese po përparon si teknologji, do të bëhet edhe më e lehtë përhapja e gënjeshtrave me synime dashakeqe.

Monitoring disinformation coming from foreign countries, as Sweden is doing today, is very important. But monitoring alone is not enough. Liberal democracies should learn from Poper that to support tolerance means to treat the intolerant with intolerance./ Adapted from CNA