ABSTRACT
Sweden has become obsessed with its Muslim population. Blogs, newspapers, TV shows, debaters, artists, politicians, interfaith activists, academics in the social science fields, school personnel, comedians, right-wing Christians and, of course, people with a Muslim family history are active participants in an endless discourse about Muslims. Integration, criminality, honour, sexism, undemocratic thinking, rape, nativity, radicalization, etc. – everything is given a Muslim angle. And, of course, Islam and Islamophobia are hotly debated issues. This is quite remarkable when the highest estimation of the number of people in Sweden with a Muslim family history is 400,000, a mere 4.5 per cent of the total population of 9 million; there are roughly as many Muslims as there are schoolteachers in Sweden. Everyone has an opinion, though seldom a very informed one. This was not the case when I began studying Arabic, Islam and the Middle East in 1984. What has happened, and why all these strong opinions?
