The Islamic Nyans Party are looking to cause an upset in upcoming municipal elections in the notorious Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby after recruiting a popular member of the local Somali community.
Nyans party leader Mikail Yüksel announced that Mohammad Hagi Farah, a popular member of the no-go zone’s Somali community, would be running as a local candidate in the area for the party in the upcoming local elections in 2022.
Described by local press as “Rinkeby’s mayor” and “the father of the town” by local media, Mohamed Hagi Farah has been involved in the Somali community in Rinkeby for years and was praised last December when he went into retirement.
Johan Westerholm, the author of a book on Islamism in Sweden, told news website Nyheter Idag that the candidacy could pay off for the Islamic party and could threaten the Social Democrats.
“Mikail Yüksel has been smart. He has sat down and calculated on which cities you have the chance to get in and so he has invested there,” Westerholm said.
Westerholm noted the influence of local mosques and clans on voting in areas like Rinkeby that have high migration-background populations and stated that the Social Democrats would not be able to respond to such a party.
“They call themselves a suburban party,” Westerholm said and added, “It’s the classic Islamist rubber language.”
The Nyans party emerged in January this year, saying they wanted Muslims in Sweden to become recognized as a “special minority” in the same way the country recognizes Sami people and Jewish people.
Party chairman Mikail Yüksel was formerly a member of the Centre Party but was kicked out after it emerged he had links to the Turkish ultranationalist Grey Wolves, a group that was recently banned in France after clashing with police and vandalising an Armenian genocide memorial.
The Grey Wolves participated in a protest in the southern Swedish city of Malmo earlier this month following the French ban.
Swedish-Kurdish author Kurdo Baksi commented on their appearance, saying: “I’ve checked and I don’t know that it’s ever happened before. It’s unusual. This is an organisation that in the ’80s hid in laundromats because they did not want to expose themselves.”