Response to interpellation 2024/25:748 on Islamic influences in school
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns Islamic influences in schools. L argues that the government is working to clarify the school law so that principals can deny leave and that the school should focus on the children's knowledge rather than other interests 1 2. L emphasizes that children should not be forced to follow religious customs and that the school should not maintain or impose confessional elements 1 2 3. L also argues that integration begins in school and that the government is shifting school policy after a Social Democratic failure 4 3. SD argues that Islam has gained an advantage over Swedish law 5 6 7. SD believes that the school is being Islamized and that the government must carry out a mapping 5 7. SD argues that the school should be secular and free from religion 8. SD emphasizes that the school obligation should be superior to religious traditions 9.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Utbildnings- och integrationsministern Simona Mohamsson (L)
Madam Speaker! Nima Gholam Ali Pour has asked me how I intend to act to prevent the activities of Swedish preschools and schools from being influenced by Islamic influences in conflict with the Education Act. The member has also asked me if I consider it a problem at all that Islam is gaining greater influence over Swedish schools and if there is an intention from the government to take measures against this problem. The member has also asked me how I view the fact that so many Muslims follow Islamic law and tradition over Swedish law, in this case the Education Act.
All children have a right to education. Children residing in Sweden have a compulsory school attendance, which means they have an obligation to attend school and participate in the activities organized to provide them with the intended education. The responsibility for a child fulfilling their compulsory school attendance rests on several parties. The guardian is responsible for ensuring that the child fulfills their compulsory school attendance, and every head of a school shall ensure that pupils in its school or schools fulfill their schooling. Each municipality shall also ensure that all children covered by the compulsory school attendance are in school, and the municipality has an obligation to ensure that children who have compulsory school attendance receive the education they are entitled to. Shorter leave may be granted due to, for example, certain trips, family holidays, or religious holidays. It is the principal who decides whether the pupil may be absent or not. When it comes to compulsory school attendance, school absence is not a problem only for a certain group of pupils, but school absence constitutes a major problem for pupils generally in Sweden. Therefore, the government decided on 31 July that a special investigator shall analyze and propose how the provisions of the Education Act regarding leave, fulfillment of compulsory school attendance in other ways, as well as the termination of compulsory school attendance upon prolonged stay abroad, can be changed (dir. 2025:77). The purpose is to clarify the provisions and how they should be applied.
Swedish education shall convey and anchor respect for human rights and the fundamental democratic values upon which Swedish society rests. Children and students shall, based on their right to freedom of religion, have the opportunity to express both their faith and to abstain from participating in confessional elements in education. I want to be very clear that children and students shall not be forced to practice a belief or follow religious customs and traditions against their will. All staff in the school system are obliged to report suspicions that a child is being harmed to the social welfare committee, regardless of how it manifests.
The Government has made several interventions to promote education's fundamental democratic mission. For example, since 2023, the Swedish Schools Inspectorate has been tasked with strengthening its supervision of schools with a confessional orientation and other schools where the authority assesses that there is a risk profile for extremism and Islamism or regarding students otherwise being exposed to influence aimed at opposing fundamental freedoms and rights or the democratic system of government.
Nima Gholam Ali Pour (SD)
Madam Speaker! The starting point for my interpellation is, among other things, that a large proportion of Malmö's Muslim students chose to skip school this year to attend an Islamic holiday. This is something that is recurring in Malmö due to the large Muslim population in the city.
The fundamental problem is that in the cities where the Muslim population is large, Islam has begun to influence the school's activities to a greater extent. It has become unclear which rules apply. Is it the school's rules that apply or Islam's rules?
Another area where this conflict between Islam and the school's rules occurs is the Muslim fast. There, some students have started fasting in school despite we all know that students need to eat to take in the teaching. Even there, some schools and school administrations have provided space for the fast despite that it does not benefit the student's education.
A few years ago, Göteborgs-Posten conducted a review where it emerged that almost seven out of ten municipal preschools in vulnerable areas in Gothenburg, Stockholm, and Malmö could consider actively monitoring and forcing veils on children against their will, even though it may violate the law. There is a pattern here where a certain religion is taking up more and more space in schools and preschools.
The problem here is not only that Islam is beginning to take up more space in the schools, but that we have politicians who refuse to take a stand on the legislation that prevails. We have politicians and staff who yield and give Islam more space in the schools so that certain Muslims do not feel offended.
Even worse is that when staff in some cases take a stand for the prevailing legislation, they are not backed up by the politicians. This leads to an Islamization of the education system where students are schooled into certain traditions that are not even perceived as Swedish traditions by the majority of Swedes.
No Swede pays tax for schools to let children go hungry so that they can fast according to Islamic tradition. That is not the idea behind education in Sweden. That might be normal in Afghanistan, but the idea is that schools in Sweden should create the best conditions for children to acquire knowledge. In that case, it is not appropriate to fast because someone named Allah says that one should fast.
We also know that Islamic traditions, for example the wearing of the veil, enable honor culture. Islamization of the Swedish school makes the Swedish school a place where honor culture can be maintained. This is a problem that today exists in Sweden's areas with high immigrant density. Every time one has even looked at this problem, the islamization of the Swedish school, one has been shocked by how extensive the problem is. This is something that the government should take action on. Among other things, a mapping of the islamization in the Swedish education system is needed.
Until now, this problem has been documented in various ways by journalists. A more comprehensive mapping is needed so that we can see how large the problem is. Can the Minister for Education and Integration imagine taking the initiative for such a mapping to find out how extensive the Islamization of the Swedish education system is?
Sara Gille (SD)
Madam Speaker! The Swedish school has for generations been one of the cornerstones of our society. It is there that children have learned our language, our history, and our traditions. The school has been the place where we have passed on our culture and our values to the next generation. But that role is threatened today when Islamist influences are allowed to grow ever stronger in the classrooms.
On March 31, over 9,000 students in Malmö were absent from school during Eid. This corresponds to more than a quarter of all the city's students. In districts such as Rosengård, the absence was over 60 percent. It shows in black and white that Islamist traditions have in practice gained the upper hand over Swedish law.
Islam has great demands. It governs children's everyday lives down to the smallest detail. It regulates clothing. It regulates food, holidays and social relations. It leaves no room for freedom and equality. When it gains influence in school, a conflict arises that cannot be ignored. The Swedish School Act is based on the principle of a secular, non-confessional school, and Islam wants the opposite.
We have seen the consequences. It is about small girls who are forced to wear a veil in preschool, which goes against everything we stand for regarding children's rights and women's freedom. We have seen children who are forbidden from participating in Lucia and Christmas celebrations, which deprives them of the community with their classmates. We have seen municipalities that have developed specific guidelines for children who fast, which in practice means that Islam is institutionalized in the school's activities.
This, Madam Speaker, is not individual instances, but it is the result of a policy that has been pursued for decades. The Social Democrats have time and again chosen to turn a blind eye, and they have placed multiculturalism ahead of children's right to education. It was the Social Democrats who opened up for girls in preschool to be forced to wear a veil, and it was they who allowed children to be excluded from Lucia and Christmas celebrations. It was they who remained silent when municipalities began to develop guidelines for Islamic fasting.
It is therefore, Madam Speaker, that we see today how classrooms stand completely empty during Eid, in a country where there is actually compulsory schooling. But now the responsibility actually lies with this government.
The Sweden Democrats' line is clear: the school must never become an arena for Islamist control, and it shall be neutral, secular, and governed by Swedish law, nothing else. Children's right to education and freedom is not negotiable. We do not accept separate rules. We do not accept mandatory veiling. We do not accept guidelines that make religion a part of the school's activities.
It is also a question of integration. If children are kept away from education from the very beginning due to religious mandates, we cement the segregation. Then parallel societies are created that never meet.
It is also a question of equality. We know that it is primarily girls who are affected.
Madam Speaker! I want to conclude by asking the Minister for Education: Is the government prepared to truly defend children's right to education and stand up for the Swedish School Act, or does one intend to continue on the Social Democrats' path, where Islam is allowed to promote its positions in the classrooms?
Utbildnings- och integrationsministern Simona Mohamsson (L)
Madam Speaker! I completely agree that we have a problem in Sweden when parents believe they are above Swedish law and, more specifically, above the Education Act. That is also why this government, together with its coalition partners, is doing something that is incredibly important, namely ensuring that the provisions that give principals the possibility to say no to leave of absence will become much clearer. Today, we see far too often tendencies where parents who apply for leave but do not have the leave approved take the leave anyway. This is a major problem. It requires that principals alone should have to stand up against parents. It is a problem.
No parent is above Swedish law. Therefore, the government decided on July 31 to have a special investigator analyze and propose which changes we should make to the provisions of the Education Act to clarify how we can help principals to withstand.
Both members raise an important point regarding the culture of honor and the oppression we see has been entrenched in Sweden after eight failed years, where the Social Democrats have turned a blind eye to the fact that there are important values in Sweden that we must dare to fight for and stand up for. This we have now changed in this government together with the coalition parties.
Children and pupils should not have to be forced to wear a veil against their will in preschool and school. Girls and women should decide for themselves what they wear. Controlling and limiting children's and pupils' choice of clothing can be an expression of precisely honor-related violence and oppression.
Honor-related violence and oppression and all its forms of expression, which violate the individual's freedom, is a serious societal problem and must not occur in our preschools and schools. The staff at schools and preschools are obligated to report suspicions regarding children who are harmed to the social welfare committee. Neither is this negotiable.
The government has taken several measures to counteract honor-related violence and oppression and all its forms of expression that violate an individual's freedom. Something that I believe is even more important in many parts of our country is to strengthen knowledge and competence in this area, so that people dare to stand up against it and can also identify these markers and proceed with the cases.
As said, we are making major changes regarding ensuring that the Swedish school returns to its foundations – to have a focus on the children's knowledge and not on other interests, whether it concerns parents or other, negative forces in society that want to use our Swedish school as their own arena.
Nima Gholam Ali Pour (SD)
Madam Speaker! This problem needs to be described more in order to get a picture of how serious it is. In a report published by Malmö City's preschool administration in 2021, where conversations were held with 18 work teams in municipal preschools in Malmö, it appears, among other things, that the concepts halal and haram have become a normalized language even among children who have Swedish as their mother tongue and are not Muslims themselves.
Let me explain: According to Islam, halal is what is permitted, and haram is what is not permitted. It appears in the report that there are children in preschools who are afraid to eat pork because it is considered haram. There are children who mock others who eat pork. Some children say that they cannot play with the children who eat pork, and children who eat pork are teased.
In the report, one can also read that for some children it is also haram to participate in celebrations and holidays such as Lucia, Christmas and Easter. Muslim children are not allowed to sing Christmas carols or accompany others to church. In the same report, the labor law argues that the approach to the Muslim veil is a dilemma, as in some cases the children do not want to wear it even though the parents have decided that the children should wear it.
Despite the fact that reports such as these have been available for a long time, one has not really looked more closely at this problem. I mean that one must see how extensive the problem is.
In these areas with high concentrations of immigrants, the schools are influenced by Islam. The schools in these areas are already Islamized today.
The problem here is that the path to parallel societies begins already in these Islamized schools and preschools. In these schools and preschools, Swedish norms are no longer conveyed, but rather Islamic norms. In Islamized schools and preschools, students are communicated to that they are primarily Muslims and not Swedes.
If the government does nothing about this, we will have a society where children are indoctrinated into separatism as early as preschool. This is a problem where politicians clearly must take a stand. Right now, school staff are uncertain and are waiting for a decision on what applies. We have had Social Democratic governments, and we have Social Democratic municipal boards that are not so clear about which norms should apply in school. They are not even clear about whether one should counteract the Islamization of the Swedish school.
Therefore, it is important that it is acknowledged from a national level that this is a problem, but also that measures are taken against the Islamization of the Swedish school system. Mapping the problem is a measure to be able to see how widespread the issue is. A mapping can also serve as a basis for knowing which measures should be taken. It is important that the Minister for Education clearly signals that Islam should not influence the Swedish school system. Many among the school staff who prioritize the child's best interests need politicians who can stand behind them and put a stop to the Islamization of the Swedish education system. A clear signal is needed from the political side, and preferably from the Minister for Education.
Sara Gille (SD)
Madam Speaker! The school's mission is crystal clear. It shall be secular and remain free from religion. Yet we see how this principle is being undermined step by step. When schools and municipalities adapt their activities to religious mandates, religion moves in where it never belongs. It is a bit like with a leaking boat. First, a few drops seep in. One thinks that it doesn't matter – the boat is still floating. But if one does not seal the crack, the boat will sooner or later sink. So it is also with the school. Every concession for Islam may seem small for the moment, but together they risk sinking the very idea of a secular and common education.
Madam Speaker! We only need to look at other countries to understand where this development is leading. France has seen how religious demands have pushed back both education and equality in certain suburbs. Therefore, the country has introduced a clear ban on religious symbols in schools to defend secularism. In Germany, courts have ruled that the compulsory school attendance always takes precedence over religious wishes. Sweden cannot be the country that backs down when other European countries clearly defend their laws.
When schools adapt to religious requirements, parallel systems arise where children's rights are no longer equal. It reinforces segregation and makes integration impossible.
Madam Speaker! I would like to ask the Minister if she shares the concern that religion is being allowed to rule over Swedish school.
Utbildnings- och integrationsministern Simona Mohamsson (L)
Madam Speaker! This government is restructuring the entire country's school and integration policy. I am often asked why we have moved integration issues to the school. I am happy to say that the reason is that I believe integration begins in school. We vaccinate against exclusion best in school, and then the school must be equal, regardless of whether one lives in Bromma or in Botkyrka.
We are reforming large parts of both school policy and integration policy following the Social Democratic failure. We do this because it is crucial that all children are given the opportunity to grow up in a Sweden with the same rights and values.
For me, there are three parts that characterize this government's entry into school and integration. It is about language, school, and values. All these three need to be upheld.
The government has, within the school area, made efforts concerning increasing the control over the occurrence of confessional elements in education, among other things through a mandate to Skolinspektionen. The agency has also been given a mandate to strengthen the supervision of other schools where it is assessed that there is a risk profile for extremism and Islamism, or where students risk being exposed to influence aimed at opposing the fundamental free and basic rights that we are standing and talking about here today or our democratic system of government.
We have also ensured that there is a suitability assessment of individuals who apply to become principals within the school system. We are also expanding the controls regarding democratic conditions. Regardless of whether those who apply intend to conduct activities with a confessional orientation or not, they must fulfill the democratic conditions.
The government has also stepped up the fight against honor-related violence and oppression. Many measures have been taken recently. One part of the work against honor-related violence and oppression is to ensure that the legislation is comprehensive and provides purposeful protection. The government has, among other things, given Skolverket several assignments aimed at countering honor-related violence and oppression in schools and preschools, which I believe is crucial for countering these forces.
The government also decided this spring on the investigation Increased efforts to counter honor-related violence and oppression in preschool, school, and after-school care. The investigator shall, among other things, propose measures to counter honor-related violence and oppression and the maintenance of honor norms in those activities. The investigator shall also propose how staff can receive stronger support to prevent, detect, and counter this. School health also has an important role to play here. This needs to be specifically clarified.
Madam Speaker! I want to remind that this government, as stated, is making a reorganization of Swedish integration and school policy. That reorganization, I believe, is welcomed by many children, but perhaps not by as many parents. What it is about is upholding – or opposing – the democratic values that we have in Sweden.
Nima Gholam Ali Pour (SD)
Madam Speaker! I would like to thank the Minister for Education and Integration for the debate.
In Sweden, school attendance is mandatory. It must take precedence over religious traditions, and it must take precedence over Islam. This must become clearer. Today it is not clear, at least not for many parents and guardians and not in certain areas.
When thousands of students are absent due to an Islamic holiday, the principle of equal education is undermined. This is happening today. It is a problem that exists.
Guardians' religious requirements must not take precedence over the children's right to a good education that creates a sense of belonging with the rest of society. This is fundamentally about whether we should accept parallel norm systems or stand firm on Swedish law, Swedish norms, and Swedish values in school.
Things that the government does must also be visible in reality. One must see the results of these things. It is not enough to just give assignments. One must see what the outcome becomes.
I hope that I have succeeded in conveying my concern, and I hope that the Minister for Education and Integration takes a closer look at the problem. There is already material that describes the problem. Different municipalities have produced reports. One can always speak with staff who work in schools with a high proportion of immigrants. They know a lot about the problem. This is a serious problem, and the big losers are the children who attend these schools with a high proportion of immigrants and that are islamized, and are thus funneled into parallel societies.
It is time to take back the Swedish schools. We have freedom of religion in Sweden, but freedom of religion does not mean that Swedish preschools and schools should be Islamized and that children should be forced to follow Islamic traditions.
Utbildnings- och integrationsministern Simona Mohamsson (L)
Madam Speaker! I hope it has emerged clearly in today's debate that we are making major changes in Swedish school and integration. We are doing it after eight lost years of Social Democratic rule, and we are doing it with great consideration for the children specifically.
School is for all children to have the opportunity to have new life dreams. All children shall be covered by the same rights in the country we live in. These are unique rights that we need to defend every day. The school we have in Sweden today is not for parents or parents' wishes but must be based on what is best for the children.
Swedish education shall convey and anchor respect for human rights and the fundamental democratic values that Swedish society rests upon. It must be a self-evident matter for every school, regardless of the zip code.
Children and students shall, from their right to freedom of religion, have the opportunity both to express their faith and to abstain from participating in confessional elements. Above all, the school shall not uphold or impose such elements.
I want to be very clear again that children and students shall not be forced to practice religious beliefs that they do not share. The school shall also not uphold them. All staff in the school system have a non-negotiable duty to report if they suspect that a child is being harmed. They do this to their social welfare committee regardless of how it manifests.
I believe we share the view that we need to do more so that everyone's opportunity to participate in a school characterized by knowledge and faith in the future is what should be at the center – not other elements or other interests.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.