Liberal sexual mores present a 'threat' to Swedish Muslims

STOCKHOLM (JP): Ninety-nine percent of Swedish people have sex before marriage, says senior journalist Ann Lagerstrom at Svenska Dagbladet, the second largest newspaper in Sweden.

Lagerstrom, who said she cohabited for 10 years before she finally married her husband 17 years ago, did not name the source of the statistics. But sexual education experts Maria Andersson and Lena Persson of Riksforbundet for Sexual Upplysning (the Swedish Association for Sex Education) agree that attitudes toward sex have becoming increasingly relaxed.

"Most people now think it's OK to have sex before they get married," said Andersson.

Sex education in schools is compulsory here, and its approach has shifted with time. While in the beginning, sex education basically dealt with questions about pregnancy and promoted abstinence, it is now more focused toward youth sexuality.

"Kids are encouraged to talk about their sexuality, about why they should use contraceptives, about what they want sexually," Andersson said. "It helps young people to decide whether to have sex, whether they should use contraceptives."

Condoms and other forms of contraceptives are freely available in youth clinics and in schools. Abortion has long been legalized under virtually all circumstances, and prostitution is not a crime, although pimping is illegal.

Such an attitude scares the Muslims. Khairuddin, whose Swedish name is Tommy Somrani, thinks that free sex in Sweden is among the most serious problems facing the approximately 500,000 Muslims.

"I am probably fortunate at the moment because my children are still very young, but yes, media pornography is disturbing," said Khairuddin, 58. "This is aggravated further by the fact that there are not enough Islamic schools for our children."

There are 30 Muslim schools across Sweden, mostly concentrated in Gotheburg, but most Muslim children are accommodated in public schools, where sex education is compulsory and free condoms are wrapped in attractive packaging.

"In some schools, the proportion of Muslim children is as high as 30 percent," said Farhad Udin Ahmed, chairman of the Islamic Political Union of the Islamic Council of Sweden. "In those schools, we campaign for certain treatment for the Muslim children" so that they can grow up more in the Islamic way.

Ahmed pointed at the campaign to allow Muslim girls to wear headscarves in schools. The campaign succeeded in some schools, not in others, Ahmed acknowledged.

"I suppose that bathil (evil) is ever-increasing, while the haq (the good, or truth) is suppressed," Khairuddin said. (swe)