ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF TOTALITARIAN IGNORANCE

One of the biggest reasons why Sweden is in such trouble with its new FRA act is that its government is stuffed with people who have a poor understanding of the distinction between right and wrong. This is a problem throughout Swedish society, but it is present in high concentrate at the higher levels in government.

An op-ed in the daily Aftonbladet illustrates this with clarity. It is about a Kurdish woman from Iran who came to Sweden as a refugee in 2005 and applied for political asylum. Her life was in danger under Iranian shariah laws, but also because of her involvement in a banned Kurdish political group. Kurdo Baksi, a Kurdish journalist living in Sweden, has the story.

The 31-year-old mother Roonak Shahbaz Panahy is a hunted woman without legal protection and whose life has been threatened in her native Iran as well as in Sweden where she has sought refuge. ... During her two marriages in Iran she was beaten badly by her husbands. Roonak's son, born in 2001, lives with his father in Iran. After the divorces both men have harassed Roonak and threatened her life. Despite filing police reports the authorities have not taken any steps to protect her beacuse her problems with her husband are not "the concern of society". ... The Swedish immigration agency has turned its back on Roonak, who is in desperate need of protection. The Immigration Bureau says that she has the upport she needs from the Iranian authorities ... .

Sweden has a track record of repatriating political refugees from Iran. Not long ago a homosexual man was sent back to an all too certain death. This startling respect for the Iranian government and its way of running its country is unusual in Europe and disturbing, at the very least.

The Iranian judicial system can in no way be compared to the Western [judicial systems] ... . In the case of honor related violence against women [shariah sanctioned violence/ExpSw] women are completely stripped of rights. You do not have to be an expert on the regime in Tehran to realize that the legal system in Iran always sides with the men. Sweden's immigration agencies should take Roonak's situation and pleads for help more seriously. Since Fadime Sahindal was killed by her father in Uppsala in January 2002 we have in Sweden had a vibrant debate about honorary [shariah] killings and the equal value of all men and women.

Despite all this, he continues, Sweden is not living up to its promises.

With the Roonak case Sweden's immigratio agencies one more time appear to be letting women down when they flee from their countries due to [religiously driven] honorary violence.

It is quite possible that this unwillingness to help women like Roonak is founded in a misguided belief that the regime in Iran is about as open and tolerant as any European government. But it is more likely that the Swedish government simply is afraid of the Iranian government. They know that Iran is the biggest sponsor of terrorism in the world, and that such sponsorship can be used against regimes that displease the mad men who run Iran. If this is the case, then Sweden is in grave danger itself. It is run by a government that is willing to sacrifice people - in this case Roonak - to pander to the terrorists and avoid being the target of the next attack.

It is scary that a government in a democratic country can be so quick to shine the shoes on totalitarian dictators. It tells us that the Swedish political leadership lacks the ability to tell right from wrong - and will easily sacrifice people to maintain its cowardice.

How can such cowards be trusted with such vast powers over its own people as they were given with the FRA Act? It is well known that cowards are afraid, and that fear is a motivating factor behind totalitarianism.