In Sweden today, people can talk openly about religion, and faith is being normalized. Swedes can thank immigrants for these changes, according to Rev. Karin Wiborn, General Secretary of the Christian Council of Churches in Sweden, and member of the Inter-religious Council.

The Inter-religious Council (SIR) was created in 2009 on the initiative of the Archbishop of Church of Sweden, Anders Wejryd. The Council meets on a regular basis.

During the violent events this spring with riots in metropolitan areas, the Council made a statement in form of a letter to participants from different religions and denominations, thanking them for taking part in peaceful activities to prevent violence during the events in Husby and other suburbs in Sweden.

“We decided to react as a consequence of what was happening. We [learned] that people of different faiths and denominations had been active during the riots by trying to prevent violence, for example by organizing peaceful walks, or simply by being out in the streets. Our decision was then to thank participants taking part in those activities by publishing an open letter,” says Karin Wiborn.

SIR consists of members from a number of religious communities in Sweden. The initiative to create the group came from the Church of Sweden, a Lutheran church. SIR gathers leaders from Christian churches as well as Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, Sikhs, Hindus and Bahai´s.

Sweden's government has also initiated a council, “The government’s council for religious denominations.” In the governmental structure delegates are nominated by their respective religious councils.

The governmental organization meets regularly, but, says Wiborn, “much depending on the interest and engagement of the person in charge at a governmental level”. SIR, on the other hand, is an organization which grew out of the need from religious groups to meet and to discuss common matters. The initiative was taken by religious leaders, which is the main difference with the government´s council.

“We wanted to get to know each other. Our main goal is to enhance understanding and tolerance. My dream is that SIR could provide means for this understanding,” says Rev. Wiborn and points out that slowly, things are about to change in Sweden regarding religion.

Visible differences

The change in Sweden on how mass media speak of and refer to religion is already visible:

“Only some years ago a religious person would be considered as 'crazy' or at least stupid. Today this is not the case. There is a discussion about spiritual needs, and the tone in this discussion is mature, far from the somewhat naïve new age-beliefs some years ago,” Wiborn says.

Another difference relates to how the media may describe events related to religion.

“For example, I am quite sure that if this year’s spring riots would have occurred some years ago, media would immediately have written about 'Muslims' as causing trouble. But this did not happen during the events this spring,” says Rev. Wiborn.

“Sweden is and will continue to be a multicultural country,” she asserts. “Questions on integration will be part of everyday life. Religious identity affects the way people relate to Swedish society and also the integration process, and there are possibilities as well as problems related to religious identity,” says Wiborn.

Secular society creates homelessness?

“Many immigrants coming to Sweden are anticipating Swedish society to be Christian. But when arriving they meet a secularized society, where religion belongs to the private sphere. The situation creates a kind of homelessness.”

But as things are beginning to change in Sweden – much due to the immigrants – they, too, will feel more at home.

“And then, it is again possible to talk about religion in Sweden. On the other hand, there are issues that are more problematic in the Swedish society, for example, questions on halal meat and circumcision – issues that many Swede’s cannot relate to as a part of Swedish society.”

The main question for SIR is to create an understanding for religions, and, primarily, to show that religion itself does not create conflict.

“It is a challenge to create understanding of religions as not creating conflicts. In SIR, we want to show that it is possible to meet across borders. We do not pray together, but we are aware of the 'golden rules' that exists in one form or another in all religions regarding peace and respect.”

Besides the work of SIR to enhance understanding between religions, there are many initiatives taken by local organizations.

“Much work is done by churches on a local level. They organize groups for women, language studies and other activities...In the future, I would wish that SIR had more resources, so that we could inspire this work on a broader level,” says Wiborn.

In other Scandinavian countries like Denmark and Norway inter-religious work is better organized and the organizations get more economic support from the authorities, Wiborn said.

“If integration is becoming an important issue during the next elections in Sweden, which is predicted, I think this is something good. To discuss the issues openly is the best way to prevent xenophobia and racism.”

Photo credit: Katarina Church and Stockholm mosque image from Wikipedia Commons.