Government Surrenders Free Expression

Only five days ago, I wrote favourably about Laila Freivalds, the Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs. For a while, I actually believed Mrs Freivalds would manage to stand up against the militant Muslims who threaten our freedom of expression. Today she proved me wrong by forcing the Security Service to shut down the website of a political party after it had published the Danish caricatures of the prophet Muhammad. I cannot regard this as anything but a complete surrender to religious totalitarians.

A result of the actions taken by the Government is that Swedish publishers of all kinds are bewildered and scared of expressing their opinion. Dick Erixon—perhaps the most prominent blogger in Sweden—has decided not to publish any of the caricatures even though he expresses a will to do so. However, one blogger refuses to give in to government pressure. Mr Hans C. Pettersson runs a blog entitled Jihad i Malmö, which is one of very few Swedish websites where the Muhammad cartoons can still be seen.

Shame on you, Freivalds! Shame on the Swedish Government! May today’s decision come back to haunt you.