Two independent Muslim schools forced to close doors over Islamist ideology ━ European conservatives
Following a ruling by an administrative court, two independent Muslim schools in Sweden that operate outside the state’s traditional education system will not be allowed to continue their operations after Swedish security services warned that students risk being radicalized by Islamist ideology contained in the course material.
The pair of schools – located in Stockholm and Uppsala – both have to close their doors after the court ruled that they do not meet the suitability requirements set out in the School Act, Sveriges Television AB (SVT) reports.
Eva Furberg, lawyer at Stockholm’s administrative court, reported on the verdict. said: “The shortcomings in the respective management circles are serious and of such a nature and extent that the supervisory authorities have had the authority to revoke the foundations’ approvals as principals.”
Såpo, the Security Police responsible for, among other things, the fight against terrorism, had observed the two schools for some time and warned the School Inspectorate, the state authority tasked with inspecting schools and assessing applications to run independent schools, that students were influenced by Islamist ideology and risked radicalization .
Earlier this year in May, the School Inspectorate withdrew the permits for both schools following warnings from the Security Police. In its decision to revoke the permits, the inspection found that the principals of Stiftelsen Framstegsskolan and Stiftelsen Imanskolan were unfit to run schools due to their personal connection to Römosse’s schools in Gothenburg, which were also rejected by the inspection.
After the inspection’s decision, both schools appealed and were allowed to continue their operations pending the administrative court’s ruling last week. One school, the Imam School, had about 200 students, while the other, the Progress School, had about 80 students.
The school in Uppsala has swore to appeal the administrative court’s decision. Maged Ashkar, one of the school’s board members, said in a statement: “The board thinks it is an unfair decision. There is no evidence for what we are accused of.”