Do popular campaigns stop the removal of Muslim children from their families in Sweden?

The Swedish government's removal of children from their families - 90% of them are Muslims - an issue that troubles Arab and Islamic popular circles

Muslim children kidnapped in Sweden

The issue of the Swedish government's extortion of children from their families - especially Muslims - has resurfaced strongly in Arab and Islamic popular circles, after a great interaction on the communication platforms in the Islamic world during the past few days.

The movement intensified after the Egyptian blogger Abdullah Al-Sharif published an episode on his YouTube account on the phenomenon of removing Muslim children from their families in European countries.

The episode shed light on Muslim families who said that the Swedish Social Services Corporation withdrew their children from them without providing an acceptable and illogical justification for that.

After the episode, the hashtag “ Stop the kidnapping of our children” spread widely on social media , followed by demonstrations denouncing “violations” in Swedish cities to withdraw children from their families.

The Swedish government did not comment on the demonstrations that came out to condemn the withdrawal of children, while it denied the accusations leveled against it by the families.

Sweden's Minister of Integration and Immigrants, Andrei Yegyman, has previously denied what is being circulated on social media platforms that his country is extracting children from Muslim and immigrant families.

Yegeman considered that these allegations are incorrect, pointing out that there is a dialogue with Muslim civil society organizations about raising awareness regarding how institutions work in Sweden.

The Swedish law relating to the care of minors (under 18 years) - which was established in the seventies of the last century - gives the social services institution "Social" the right to extract children from their parents if investigations prove that they are not qualified to raise them and commit abuses against them, and then place them in a social care institution until they are transferred to a new family.

The law may allow the Social Foundation to withdraw all children of the family if one of them is exposed to conditions that the social service considers inappropriate within the family framework, such as violence or the inability to provide the child with the basics he needs.

However, many immigrants complained about the existence of “discrimination” and lack of compliance with the law in the process of withdrawing children from their parents in relation to this category, noting that withdrawals are sometimes made without verifying the fact that there are harms to children, and therefore most of the participants in the demonstrations were immigrants, Especially Muslims, most of whom are Arabs.

Fruitful movement

For his part, the Moroccan thinker and writer Idris Al-Kanbouri considered that the popular movement in the Islamic world has recently borne fruit by re-putting the issue of children removed from their families in a forceful way.

Al-Kanbouri told Anadolu Agency, "I think that the recent campaign went beyond even the popular circles to reach the relevant countries and beyond."

He added that "these popular movements in the Islamic world were countered by other movements on the ground - especially in Sweden - by the parents whose children were taken from them, and they went out in several demonstrations in Swedish cities."

According to Al-Kanbouri, the popular movement - whether on the ground or on the communication sites - began to bear fruit and moved the stagnant water through the exit of Swedish officials to comment and interact with the issue.

"There are now Swedish associations and organizations that have joined the movement, and this will contribute to pushing for an investigation into what is being published about the forcible abduction of children from their families without any justification," he said.

Islamic pressure

In addition to the escalation of the popular movement, Al-Kanbouri believes that the issue also requires the intervention of international organizations to pressure European countries to investigate these incidents and put an end to the abuse.

According to al-Kanbouri, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation is called in particular to intervene, given the high number of children being removed from their parents, noting that 90% of them are Muslim children.

He added that "the Organization of Islamic Cooperation should pressure Sweden to investigate the alleged abuse of the parents' rights, and demand the need to research and provide justifications for the high rate of Muslim children alone."

According to “Social” data, according to what Anatolia reported, the number of children cared for by the Social Services Department during the year 2020 amounted to 27,300 children, 19,000 of whom were placed in alternative families, 8,300 in care homes, 58% males and 42% females, in Latest stats.

Unprecedented movement

In turn, Yasser Abu Geheisha, Deputy Director of the Islamic Center in Uppsala (southern Sweden), considered that the popular movement - whether in Sweden or abroad - is unprecedented, and can contribute to resolving this issue and prompting the authorities to reconsider their practices.

Abu Gehaisha added in an interview with Anadolu Agency that "the movement, despite its importance, must be exercised with caution, not exaggerating without evidence, so as not to cause harm to the oppressed families by exploiting the campaign by terrorist parties and extremist right-wing parties that want to destabilize Swedish internal security."

He stressed that Islamic centers in Sweden, along with human rights organizations, have been trying for some time to open channels of communication and knock on the doors of institutions and associations in order to find a solution to this issue.

Abu Geisha continued, "We confirm that there are abuses in the processes of removing children from their families," explaining that "despite the fact that the centers and human rights organizations continue with the Sosial administration and its demand to investigate the abuses claimed by the families, the institution did not respond to the demands."

He added that "communication was not limited to centers and organizations only, but a number of Swedish politicians submitted to the Social Foundation a request to clarify the criteria it relied on when withdrawing children from their families."

However, "their request was rejected, claiming to preserve the privacy and confidentiality of information related to children, although such arguments are not used in Swedish official departments."

Humanitarian issue

Abu Juhaisha stressed that the issue of removing children from their parents is humanitarian par excellence, and interference in it is far from any religious or ethnic reason.

He added, "Although the removal of children applies to everyone in Sweden, regardless of religion or race, the Social Affairs Authority itself indicates that foreign children are separated from their parents in greater proportions, and this may be justified by the racism of some workers in the service, especially those affected by Islamophobia." .

He continued, "There are mistakes committed in these operations, and we do not claim that there is a lobby behind this, but these abuses call us to ask the competent authorities to open channels of communication with the people and investigate many cases about which a number of questions are raised."

Regarding their future steps, Abu Gehaisha said, "Today, in cooperation with the Youth Welfare Authority of the Uppsala municipality, we formed a committee that will present its services to the Social Foundation to communicate with the parents, link bridges of communication between it and the Foundation and play an awareness role on children's rights."

He added, "The committee also seeks to be part of the investigations that Social Media will carry out in the future in the event that it intends to withdraw children from their families, to ensure the presence of an independent third party that contributes to the non-abuse of such procedures."

He concluded by saying, "Today we are going through an exceptional and critical situation that requires everyone to use reason and law and take seriously what is being promoted in the arena."