Award-Winning Swedish Journalist Carries Out Terrorist Attack
The perpetrator responsible for carrying out a June 6, 2017 terrorist attack at the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris was an “award-winning journalist” who previously worked as a freelancer for Swedish public radio,” according to an Algemeiner article by analyst Ben Cohen (“Islamist Perpetrator of Attack at Paris Cathedral was Award-Winning Journalist in Sweden,” June 7, 2017).
That journalist turned terrorist, Farid Ikken, used a hammer to attack a French police officer outside of Notre Dame, a popular tourist spot and place of worship. Ikken reportedly yelled, “This is for Syria” during the attack. He was subsequently shot by an armed police officer. In addition to the hammer, two knives were found on his person. Ikken was taken to the hospital for treatment and questioning by French authorities.
An Algerian national, Ikken moved to Sweden to 2004 and studied journalism at Uppsala University. He worked as a freelance journalist for several Swedish media outlets, including Swedish national public radio (SR). In 2009, Ikken won a European Union (EU) journalism award for a report on healthcare and asylum seekers in Sweden.
Sweden itself has experienced several Islamist terrorist attacks in recent years. On April 7, 2017, Rakhmat Akilov, an asylum seeker from Uzbekistan, used a hijacked truck to run over men, women and children in a shopping center in Stockholm. The attack murdered five people and injured 15. Akilov had expressed support for the terror group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Vehicular assaults are a common terror tactic used by Palestinians against Israelis, as CAMERA has noted. Despite the shared threat presented by Islamist terrorism, some Swedish officials have chosen to attack the Jewish state. Among other acts, Sweden has previously granted visas to members of Hamas, U.S.-designated terror group whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel and the genocide of Jews (“Senior Israeli Official: Sweden is the Country Most Hostile to Israel,” CAMERA, April 27, 2006).
As CAMERA has highlighted, Swedish schools have also been caught distributing schoolbooks that praise anti-Jewish violence and depict all of Israel as “Palestine (“School in Sweden Teaches Pupils Israel Doesn’t Exist,” Feb. 1, 2016).”
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