The Swedish National Defence College has announced a new study that will examine the effects of the radical Islamic ideology Salafism in various cities across the country.
The new project, which is set to last until 2021, was described by Filip Ahlin, an analyst at the Swedish National Defence College, as a way to “describe the problem and develop knowledge that can lay the foundation for action”, Swedish broadcaster SVT reports.
Salafism, an extremist hard-line interpretation of Islam, is often linked to terrorism and to groups like the Islamic State and other terror organisations.
One of the areas selected for the study is the Norrby area in the city of Borås. “Norrby is an area that has had some of the biggest problems. We will take it from there. Then, we have not decided entirely on what other areas we will look at,” Ahlin said.
The researchers say they will also look at other areas labelled by the police as “vulnerable” or “particularly vulnerable”, areas that are commonly referred to as no-go zones where unemployment and crime are much higher than the national average.
In the notorious no-go area of Rosengård in Malmö, it was alleged earlier this year that Islamic State members who had returned to Sweden from the Middle East were attempting to recruit youth in the area in underground mosques.
“The situation here in Rosengård is really bad,” a local mother who works against the influence of jihadists in the area said. A total of 20 Islamic State members allegedly live in the city, according to the National Defence College.
Sweden’s National CentrE for Terror Threat Assessment (NCT) warned earlier this year that radical Islamic terrorism remained the number one security threat in the country.
Head of NCT Linda Thörnell named Islamic State, also known as Daesh, as being the chief inspiration for jihadists, saying: “The inspiration has partly gone down, the enthusiasm for Daesh has diminished, but Daesh continues to inspire attacks and it still happens.”