In Nacka, Sweden (a suburb of Stockholm) an existing church building is to undergo an overhaul - the sort of thing which happens all the time. But what makes this project unique is that some additional construction is planned that would eventually see three houses of worship - Lutheran, Catholic and Islam - utilize separate spaces but be connected by common foyers. In other words .... under essentially under one roof. With all of the furor that our Christianist friends have about drawing lines-in-the-sand (or snow) over Islam, this is a powerful statement made .... with bricks and mortar.
(More after the jump).
The current building owned by the Church of Sweden (yet which has space leased by St. Konrad's Catholic Church) was due to undergo an overhaul, anyway: a facelift for the Lutheran church and an increase in space for St. Konrad's. And apparently, all three religious groups have worked together since the 1960's, according to Pastor Henrik Larsson of the Church of Sweden.
But in the wake of 9-11, the local schools in Nacka approached Pastor Larsson and asked about how to teach religious tolerance. During interfaith discussions, the idea of doing something - rather than mere words - emerged.
And this took on even more prominence when, last year, the xenophobic Sweden Democrats - for the first time - won seats in the Swedish Parliament (20 in all). For a sample of this party's standard-bearers: candidate Marie-Louise Enderleit called for the execution of the party's opponents by firing squad.
Not that this party has no limits, mind you: the party asked Mikael Svensson - serving on a municipal council in southern Sweden - to resign after he was convicted of ... assaulting a woman in the face with a motorcycle helmet. And the party was upset with Isak Nygren - a 21 year-old municipal councilor in Katrineholm - who stated in an online forum that he is against "race mixing" and that Europeans have children with "n-words, Asians, etc." A party official explained that Nygren's viewpoints are "contrary to the party's" and can be grounds for expulsion. Finally, and perhaps most amusingly: a local Sweden Democrat councilor wanted to ban all languages other than Swedish from normal instruction in Swedish schools. But the proposal by Arvid Frandsen included an exception for Danish - perhaps unsurprising, because Frandsen himself is an immigrant from Denmark. But his native small-town Danish dialect was so difficult to understand by his fellow councilors ... that he was forced to take Swedish lessons as a result.
Yet it was the party's anti-Islam feelings that (undoubtedly) led to its ascendancy. And that's why after last year's parliamentary elections the Church of Sweden's Bishop Bengt Wadensjö wrote an essay in the leading Swedish daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet - and noted that the leader of the Sweden Democrat party last year claimed that “the Muslims are the biggest foreign threat.” But the bishop wrote that this was not the case in Fisksätra (a district of the suburb of Nacka):
"We see them as an asset. We have worked for several years … towards integration and living together as good neighbors.... The goal of the project is not to blend the faiths and not to proselytize. It strives to give more chances for people of different religious traditions to meet, contribute to a positive development in Fisksätra and demonstrate that religion can be a unifying force in the local society.
World history is created in Fisksätra. World peace begins in Fisksätra."
The planning application for the mosque, to be built on land purchased from the Church of Sweden, has been sent to the local authorities and Pastor Larsson (the project manager for the initiative) is hoping for a decision later this year. "We believe that the mosque will be ready by 2014,” says Larsson, adding that he hopes the project becomes a model that can be followed elsewhere.
Now, among the outrage/complaints made about the project: is a valid one asking about Judaism. And, it's a prescient topic: because over 300 miles away in the city of Malmö there have been (over the past few years) several incidents of anti-Semitism - due in no small part to the actions of the city's Estonian-born mayor Ilmar Reepalu who has made numerous disparaging remarks about Israel in general, and individual Jews in particular. The anti-Semitic incidents seem to been reduced greatly in the past year and Mayor Reepalu appears, belatedly, to have taken efforts to make amends through meetings with Jewish community leaders. Still, there are some high tensions - and it's worth wondering if the efforts in Nacka could include Swedish Jews.
I cannot locate anything in the various articles as to whether (a) there is a synagogue in this particular suburb, (b) either way, were Jewish residents asked to join and (c) if so, did they accept or decline? And so, this project is neither a panacea, nor proof that religious tolerance in Sweden (in general) or the city of Nacka (in particular) is total. If someone feels it's an incomplete project, I couldn't disagree (although in a subsequent comment by a resident of Scandinavia, the Jewish population may well be too small to play a role).
Yet in these times when we see Christianists in our country demanding the right to approve any mosque, anywhere, anytime - I can't help but feel that this project makes an important statement not via words ... but through building materials.