Allison Pearson

The lessons Britain must learn from Sweden

It took a female Muslin Peshmerga fighter to challenge liberal orthodoxy on immigration

On the face of it, Amineh Kakabaveh is an unlikely Right-wing Islamophobe. An Iranian Kurdish girl, Kakabaveh fought for the rebel Peshmerga group. She was sentenced to death before seeking asylum in Sweden in 1992. Illiterate when she first arrived, Kakabaveh studied social work at university and, after joining the Left Party, became an MP in 2008. You may say it’s the perfect immigrant success story but, ironically, immigration has seen Kakabaveh become a hate figure who needs security service protection.

Kakabaveh’s crime was to challenge the liberal orthodoxy on immigration. Sweden may see itself a humanitarian superpower but, as the 47-year-old pointed out, its “naive” handling of the 400,000 asylum seekers taken in since 2012 has opened a door to the far-right. “Sweden has been having integration problems for 20 years,” Kakabaveh said. “This is why Sweden Democrats (SD), a racist party, is [poised to become] the second biggest party. This multicultural society has been poorly constructed … and that has led to a separation of communities.”

As Kakabaveh points out, the issue of mass immigration, and the failure of integration, has become so “infected” that it’s taboo. Into this excruciating, pained silence barrelled the SD, who became popular heroes simply because other parties didn’t dare express what millions of people were worried about.

Did Sweden heed the warning issued by an impeccably liberal Muslim feminist immigrant? Kakabaveh, who campaigns for a ban on young girls wearing the headscarf, became a double-whammy pariah: reviled by her own side for her outspokenness and threatened by Islamists. The Left Party refused to put her on their list of recommended candidates because they considered her a racist.

Seriously, you can’t make this stuff up. You now have a situation where white liberals shun a brown woman for warning that their misguided management of immigrants (like her) is endangering their tolerant society.

Sadly, this is not a thousand miles away from the appalling bind in which Britain now finds itself. Like many, I recoiled at the news that Isil recruiter, Anjem Choudary, is to be released from jail next month after serving half of a 66-month sentence for poisoning impressionable young minds against the country. I will never forget a longago edition of Newsnight in which Choudary told Jeremy Paxman that “Britain belongs to Allah”. Paxman’s magnificent, snorted reply, “Come off it, matey!” was matched by the other guest, Ann Cryer. The then Labour MP for Keighley – who got into trouble with her party for talking about the issue of gangs of Asian men sexually abusing children in Yorkshire – said, with steely good manners: “You’re a very, very rude man, Mr Choudary.”

At Pearson Towers, “You’re a very, very rude man, Mr Choudary” entered the family lexicon. We use it any time some cheeky blighter comes on telly to explain what a ghastly bunch of fascist Islamophobes we are. When, in fact, and given the extreme provocation, we are insanely tolerant.

One case is that of Rubana Akhtar, Choudary’s wife. Scotland Yard has just dropped an investigation into Akhtar, who was filmed leading a secret group of women supporting Isil. The mother, who lives on benefits, admitted leading the female wing of Al-muhajiroun, Choudary’s banned terror group, and was overheard by an undercover reporter abusing “filthy Jews”.

As shocking government figures reveal that one terrorist is released from jail nearly every week, police said that the 18-month inquiry into Akhtar found “no evidence of terrorism”. That’s a relief. She is just a thoroughly unpleasant piece of work who claimed, in front of children, that what the Government calls “extremism” was simply being a good Muslim. Oh, and she’d like to see Britain turned into a caliphate. Get the grindstone out for those hand-choppers, Marjorie!

The problem with Akhtar is not any danger she may pose personally. It’s the rancid despair that infects ordinary people when they witness the impotence of the Government in the face of this vile, treacherous behaviour. Far from responding, the authorities dig in behind the failed creed of multiculturalism, seeking out “racism” where none exists.

So, as Choudary – called “genuinely dangerous” by the prisons minister – prepares for release, a senior Met Police officer may be facing the sack for using the phrase “whiter than white”. The officer has been placed on restricted duties because, as we know, using common English phrases presents a far greater danger to the public than inciting jihad. An extreme example, perhaps, but it feeds into hardline attitudes towards immigration. A study this week showed only 15 per cent felt the government had managed immigration competently, and just 13 per cent trusted MPS to tell the truth on the issue. What a grim indictment of our pusillanimous politicians.

The research was led by the National Conversation on Immigration and carried out by ICM on behalf of British Future, a think tank and anti-prejudice campaign group. While a majority held a favourable view of migration, with 65 per cent saying migrants contributed valuable skills, people were worried about the impact on their communities, with 52 per cent saying immigrants placed public services under strain.

This is conveniently ignored in every report about shortages of housing and maternity places and waits to see a GP. A doctor friend who works in a prison told me yesterday that patients inside get a much swifter, better service than those outside, where the NHS is “falling apart under the strain whose cause no one wants to talk about”.

Well, as the example of Sweden shows us, not talking about it doesn’t make the resentment go away. On the contrary. It fuels the far-right, which can then claim that people are being kept in the dark and stigmatised when they express their fears. Whatever happens with Brexit, the facts to which our liberal ruling class should urgently address itself are these: 58 per cent want the number of immigrants “reduced a lot”, a further 25 per cent say “reduced a little”. The three people who want to see immigration increased are Sir Vince Cable, Natalie Green Thingy and Diane Abbott.

It took a female Muslim Peshmerga fighter to challenge liberal orthodoxy on immigration in Sweden, which may yet become the first culture to die of humanitarianism. Let the wretched Choudarys go and build their caliphate elsewhere: we need more truth-tellers like Amineh Kakabaveh here.