TERROR screamed the Expressen headline about the terror attack in the heart of Stockholm. The other national tabloid, Aftonbladet said 14.53 Sverige under Attack: 14.53 being Friday April 7, when a hijacked beer truck became an improvised terror weapon, careening along Drottninggatan, Stockholm’s central pedestrian mall, killing 4 and wounding many more. An old story now in Europe, but no one here expected an attack like this to hit Sweden.
But the inside pages of both tabloids — one right-wing, one left-wing — told the story of a single country coming together, saying: this is how a functioning democracy meets a terror attack.
My wife and I learned of the attack just after it happened last Friday, when the phone rang. It was my step-daughter calling to see if we were okay.
"Attentat på Drottninggatan i Stockholm: "Flera döda" och stort antal skadade . . . "screamed the online Aftonbladet headline. English: attack on Drottningstreet in Stockholm. A number dead and a large number injured . . .
There were confusing reports of shootings in two other locations (only rumors it turned out). The subway and buses were shut down, so the bridges leading out of the inner city were filled with pedestrians walking home. Traffic became a snarl, the only thing moving beyond a crawl were the police cars whizzing past, blue lights flashing.
Heavily armed police, in flackjackets and helmets were at all the major intersections. With the suspect still at large, police immediately shut down the city and threw up cordons around all the key transportation and infrastructure points in the city.
Yet despite everything, the city remained calm outside the area of immediate attack. As it should be. Swedes refused to panic, letting the police and ambulance crews and hospitals do their job. Within hours police had a tip from alert citizens and shortly after that, they had a suspect, taken in Märsta, a suburb near Arlanda Airport. Our emergency services and hospitals kicked into full emergency response and did their best to repair the broken bodies. Two are still in critical condition. The others should recover. No one will ask the families of the wounded for money or insurance papers, because in Sweden everyone has medical care. The system works.
Sweden is a democracy, dedicated to order and the rule of law and damn it if we were going to surrender to the agents of chaos and terror.
Inside both papers were stories that made me proud of my other country, Sweden. A country that I adopted — a country that has adopted me in turn, even though I am an immigrant in this land. The papers reported on the "Heroes in the Chaos". Those who acted in that moment of terror to save lives, such as the man who grabbed a mother and her child who stood, frozen in the path of the truck; he pulled both to safety at the last minute, reducing the body count from six to four. Others rushed to the sides of the wounded and the dying, doing what they could while they waited for the paramedics.
But there were also the thousands of small personal disruptions that flow in the aftermath of such an event. With no buses or subway, many were trapped, unable to reach home, unable to pick up their children from day care or school.
Strangers stepped in, opening their homes and businesses to those who were stranded. Helping the children of strangers. A hashtag campaign, #openstockholm was launched to match those who needed help to those willing to give it.
"We shall grieve those we lost,"said the Expressen editorial, "but be glad over all those that reached out a hand."
This refusal to panic, while relying on both the institutions of the society and the good will of the citizens, this is what a democracy does, this is what a normal country does when it is attacked. It pulls together and grieves the lost and rejoices in the many small acts of kindness. It refuses a path of mindless vengeance and applies the rule of law to the guilty. It refuses to be cowed or to give up it’s democracy in the face of terror.
The Prime Minister, Stefan Löven, rose to the occasion with these remarks:
ni kan inte kuva oss
ni kan inte styra våra live
ni kommer aldrig att vinna
. . .
Ta hand om varandra
Tillsammans ska vi ta hand om Sverige
You can not subjugate us
You can not control our lives
you will never win
. . .
Take care of each other
Together we will take care of Sweden.
On Sunday Sweden mourned with ceremonies for both the dead and wounded. The event was organized by an Iranian-Swede. An immigrant. It became the de-facto official ceremonyand was held near the place of attack, at Sergel’s Square. It drew tens of thousands. Politicians and celebrities spoke of a democratic society that will not be subjugated by fear.
I attended a ceremony of a different sort, the annual march of the Hammarby Football Club (soccer) to celebrate the opening of its season. Despite the recent terror attack aimed at a crowded street, tens of thousands marched with Hammarby flags flying, filling the avenue, a living statement that we in Sweden will not give in to fear.
While there were the celebratory cheers along with lit flares, the crowd was more somber than normal, because this was a memorial too, and those marching in the street knew it. This was our way of remembering what happened by saying: “ni kan inte kuva oss — ni kan inte styra våra live — ni kommer aldrig att vinna”.
You can not subjugate us — You can not control our lives — you will never be able to win.
We will not shut down our freedoms or our democracy. And we will not blame this on immigrants. After all, much of the Hammarby football team comes from someplace else. Iceland, Denmark and Norway. Also Ghana, Gabon, Gambia and Brazil. And of the Swedish born, many are immigrants, many with Muslim names. Young football players whose parents fled the Balkan wars of the 1990s. They are now a part of the culturally rich Swedish society.
Friday April 7, it was us. Almost a month ago it was Afghanistan, when ISIS terrorists disguised themselves as doctors, attacking a hospital in Kabul where they killed 38 and wounded many more.
It's important that we in the West don't lose sight of the suffering of those on the front lines of the fight against ISIS. The Nazis among us want to make this about immigrants, about Islam. In Sweden, that includes our major anti-immigrant party, Sverigedemokraterna (SD) — the Swedish Democrats, a party that was first a Nazi party before it “rebranded” itself. Together with an assortment of Russian trolls and alt-right neo-Nazis, they are trying to change the debate around terror into an attack on immigration and an open society. There are many Swedes who will fight them.
The Prime Ministers words go for SD and the neo-Nazis as well:
You can not subjugate us
You can not control our lives
you will never win
The SD/Neo-Nazis and ISIS are simply two sides of the same coin. Both are right-wing extremists, both want a world where there is no one who doesn't look like themselves, both hate women and gays and freedom and democracy. And both need each other for this fight to continue. (For the record, there isn’t a dime’s worth of difference between the Swedish Democrats, the Steve Bannons and the Nazis when it comes to their policies).
For me this story ends with some pictures I took last year, of Afghan refugees here in Sweden, on the island of Öland.
I took these pictures on Valborg Day, a national holiday with roots in pagan Spring festivals. Huge bonfires are lit every April 30, across the whole country. This bonfire was lit in the village of Byxelkrok on the northern tip of Öland. There are many refugees from Afghanistan and Syria on the island now, staying in what used to be summer places, but are now a year-round refuge from war. Local Swedes brought them to see the celebration, inviting them into the holiday.
Look at the faces of the children, children who fled war and want peace. This is what an open and democratic and welcoming society looks like.
This is Sweden. This is our Sweden.