“The issue is being used by Islamic activists who want to make Muslims feel victimized and thus further radicalize their followers.”

The same tactic is used in slightly different ways against Israel and all over the world.

“The LVU campaign is Sweden’s Muhammad images,” translated from “LVU-kampanjen är Sveriges Muhammedbilder,” by Mathias Bred, Mariestads-Tidningen, February 11, 2022 (thanks to Medforth):

A current Islamist campaign is trying to stir up hatred against Sweden, which has, among others, put the Swedish Emergency Management Agency (MSB) on the spot. On social networks, activists and preachers spread the image of Sweden as a racist state that kidnaps Muslim children to turn them into infidels.

The spread of such rumors is not new. As terrorism expert Magnus Ranstorp commented on SVT, the issue has been simmering for a long time. Basically, there is a misunderstanding and anger about social services in Sweden taking care of children who are doing badly at home. These so-called LVU (Youth Welfare Unit) cases have for several years led to protests outside social services and threats against decision-makers in many municipalities (SVT 9/2).

The difference now is the widespread international coverage. The issue is being used by Islamic activists who want to make Muslims feel victimized and thus further radicalize their followers.

According to the Doku Foundation, which investigated Islamism in Sweden and was the first to detail the hate campaign, there are private Facebook groups with tens of thousands of members in which Sweden is portrayed as a racist and fascist state at war against Islam (Doku 27/1).

Through the Arabic language, stories about the abuse of social welfare offices have spread all over the world. In the autumn, the news channel Al-Jazeera devoted a long report to the forced care of Muslim children in Sweden. Strangely, it does not seem to have provoked any major reactions in Sweden.