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DN has previously written about the Nya kastets school in Gävle. As early as November last year, Säpo submitted a report to the Swedish School Inspectorate warning that children who go to school are at risk of being exposed to radicalization.
According to the Säpo Groups with violent extremists have had meetings on the school premises, among other things, a man who fought for a group linked to ISIS in Syria must have organized meetings for the network at the school.
Independent school children “are at risk of being exposed to radicalization and recruitment in environments that accept violence or crime as a method of political change,” Säpo wrote in its report to the Swedish School Inspectorate, which now, a year after the opinion was submitted, he decided to revoke the independent school permit.
There are still “serious deficiencies in the manager’s ownership and management circle.” The school has links to religious extremism and students are at risk of radicalization, according to the Swedish School Inspectorate.
DN has requested the management of the school for a comment on the new decision but without success. When Säpo gave his earlier opinion on the school in January, Rabie Karam, who was then the owner and CEO of the independent school, denied that the school had any connections to radical settings.
It is an ordinary independent elementary school with “science” as its focus, he told DN.
Today is another owner. But according to the Swedish School Inspectorate, Rabie Karam still has influence over the business.
According to the Security Police, he has “contact with several important people in a violent Islamist environment.”
Three of them are under investigation by the Swedish authorities and have been found to pose a threat to national security.
There must still be connections between the school and the violent environment, which the new owner must have tried to hide.
– The fact that the Security Police is involved in matters having to do with Swedish schools shows that we need to address this and that new regulations are necessary, says Education Minister Anna Ekström (S).
It refers to the new rules on ownership and management that the Swedish School Inspectorate has used in this case.
The Social Democrats went to the polls to want to ban independent religious schools but have not found enough support in the Riksdag.
On the other hand, they have agreed with the January parties that they want to prohibit the new establishment of independent religious schools.
The problem is that schools like Nya kastet in Gävle choose not to call themselves denominational.
– Therefore, there is a proposal in the research that has been consulted, that it must be clearly established what a school with a denominational approach is, and that it should not be the owner who defines it, says Anna Ekström.
Liberals School Policy Spokesperson Roger Haddad criticizes the fact that the New Cast school did not stop earlier.
– It is incomprehensible that this activity has been allowed to continue despite repeated criticism and obvious links with radical Islamist circles.
There are too many gaps that still make it possible for extremists to run schools, he says.
Decision of the Swedish school inspection applies from the change of year. But the school can appeal the decision and then it can continue pending a decision in the next instance.
– I sincerely hope that the decision of the Swedish school inspection will be implemented.
