Lawen Redar, a Kurdish Social Democrat, is attacking the ethnic origins and shared history of the Swedish people. At the same time, she herself has fought for the Kurds’ right to their own country. She is now being criticized for denying the Swedish people and for applying double standards.
The Social Democrats' spokesperson on integration policy, a Kurd Lawen Redar, faces harsh criticism after a opinion piece in Expressen. There, she criticizes the Sweden Democrats” view of Swedishness and links the idea of a Swedish people with a shared origin and history to what she calls ”extreme ethnonationalism.”.
”But it is clear for all to see that extreme ethno-nationalism—the notion of a common people with a shared ethnic origin and historical continuity—lives on in the party’s view of what it means to be Swedish.”, she writes.
She also rails against the fact that party representatives such as party leader Jimmie Åkesson and chief ideologist Mattias Karlsson (the man behind ”open Swedishness”) have refused to acknowledge immigrant soccer players Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Yasin Ayari as ”Swedes.”.
”Deny the Swedish people”
On X, several commentators are reacting to Redar’s views on the ethnic background of Swedes. They accuse her of effectively denying the existence of the Swedish people, even though she herself has fought for the rights of the Kurds.
Riks Profile Mira Klang highlights the contradiction between Redar's criticism of the Sweden Democrats and her support for Kurdish self-determination:
”Is it an extreme ethno-nationalist notion to believe that Kurds exist as well?”
SD leadership Richard Jomshof answers:
”This debate is getting more and more ridiculous.”
The Nationalist Profile Fredric Morenius launches a fierce attack on Redar and accuses her of denying the existence of the Swedish people. Emelie Ekstedt suspects that Redar is trying to provoke SD supporters into harsher reactions, so that she can then label them as extremists.
Wanted to grant the Kurds the right to self-rule
In 2014, Redar signed a motion in the Riksdag calling for Sweden to support a referendum on self-rule in Iraqi Kurdistan. The motion described how, after World War I, the Kurds lost the opportunity to form their own state.
Redar has thus herself supported the Kurds—her own people—in their right to self-determination and their recognition as a distinct people. It is this discrepancy that critics are reacting to now that she is labeling ethnic arguments about Swedishness as ”extremism.”.
The Criticism: Different Rules for Different People
Redar’s article has raised new questions about why different groups of people are treated by different standards. Critics point out that she defends the Kurds’ right to preserve their identity, but attacks similar arguments when it comes to Swedes.
The recurring question in the criticism is why the Kurds’ shared history and identity can be used to recognize them as a people, while the existence of the Swedes becomes a contentious issue when it is raised in the political debate.
The visitors are a source of enrichment. She can go to hell.
Yeah. She can go to Kurdistan, where she belongs.
Since she is fighting for the rights of the Kurds, she is not loyal to the Swedish people and is probably not ethnically Swedish. (Being a “cereal-box Swede” is just a label bestowed by a corrupt system.)
One protects one's own people.
HMF—so much of it that it's splashing everywhere.
Throw that foreigner in jail.
Yes, except against ethnic Swedes, unfortunately.
She is inciting hatred against the country that has taken her in, where she can feel safe. Inciting hatred against an ethnic group is a criminal offense under the law. So why was a law created that is NOT being enforced? Social Democrats ARE a peculiar ethnic group.
That corrupt Social Democrat, Laven Redar, should never have been allowed into Sweden; now she’s throwing mud at the people who pay her far-too-high salary—a one-way ticket home is the solution.