Terror Group Al-Qaeda Sends New ‘Extremely Violent’ Threat To Sweden

A new threat has been issued against Sweden by the terror group Al-Qaeda.

In a post last Sunday, August 13, on the Telegram channel of its media and propaganda agency al-Sahab, the organisation made what a top terror expert described as a ‘quite violent’ threat.

Tore Refslund Hamming, a Danish researcher who studies militant Islamism, summarised the al-Qaeda message on X, formerly Twitter, as reported by expressen.se.

He repeated part of the Telegram message: ‘The Koran burnings in Sweden and Denmark are a coordinated attack by the countries’ populations and governments – which have learned nothing from Charlie Hebdo’.

The terrorist organisation was of course referring to the high-profile terrorist attack that was carried out against the French magazine in January 2015, which left twelve people dead and eleven injured.

‘Sweden and Denmark are two small, despicable countries that do not constitute more than two small dots on the world map, and their population does not even amount to a tenth of the population of our nation’, al-Sahab continued in his message, according to Hamming.

The three-page long statement reportedly concluded with: ‘The people of Islam in Sweden, Denmark and all of Europe – the duty of revenge has been placed on you’.

According to Hamming, that final sentence was a quote that ‘captures the mood’ of the lengthy statement, which, he suggested, was becoming increasingly aggressive.

He pointed out that the terrorist organisation was calling for attacks against Sweden and Denmark, against the countries’ interests, and above all, against their diplomats.

🚨Alright, ny og temmelig voldsom udmelding fra al-Qaida, der blev udsendt i går på baggrund af koranafbrændingerne i Sverige og Danmark.

Kort fortalt så er beskeden, at nu er der krig og dette skal hævnes.

En kort 🧵 her pic.twitter.com/scsOA8Y5hc

— Tore Refslund Hamming (@ToreRHamming) August 14, 2023

Magnus Ranstorp called the message ‘extremely violent’

Magnus Ranstorp, an associate professor and terrorism researcher at the Norwegian Defence Academy, also read the message, which he described to expressen.se as being ‘extremely violent’.

‘With references to Charlie Hebdo, it is a disturbing call from al-Qaeda’s central leadership. Then whether they succeed in implementing it is another question, if anyone is listening’, he added.

Al-Qaeda:s central kommitté genom as-Sahab (deras media organ) uppmanar till terrorattacker mot Sverige och Danmark.

Man menar våra länder har inte lärt sig lärdomen från Charlie Hebdo som de nämner som inspiration. Man hyllar terroristerna – Kouachi bröderna och deras… https://t.co/0fmz7TDP4A

— Magnus Ranstorp (@MagnusRanstorp) August 14, 2023

When asked about the likelihood of such attacks being carried out against Denmark and Sweden, Ranstorp responded: ‘It is hard to say. But the more people talk about Sweden and the frequency of Koran burnings, the more negative the image of Sweden becomes, and the more the probability that something can happen increases. But it is impossible to say what’.

Magnus Ranstorp insisted that this was: ‘One of the most explosive and broader threats’ he has seen against Sweden, and stated that the country was in ‘one of the most serious terrorist situations we have had for a long time’.

Sweden’s security services are aware that the threat exists

At the same time, he wanted to emphasise that the Security Service marked the threats and environments known to the authority.

‘It is not as if they are looking for needles in a haystack. They know the shape of the haystack, and know many parts there are to the haystack, but there may still be needles they have not yet discovered’, the terrorism expert explained.

Asked for his opinion on how afraid people should be while travelling on the streets of Sweden, Ranstorp replied: ‘You should act normally. It’s good to know about this, the threat has been realised, but we shouldn’t be alarmist’.