For decades, the Nordic countries’ collaboration with Saudi Arabia has triggered fierce criticism from an ethical standpoint. The recent nomination of 31-year-old Muhammad bin Salman, who is known for his hawkish behavior, as Saudi Crown Prince and potential heir to the throne, has once again stirred fears of the Saudis sponsoring hardline Islam.

Peaceful Nordic countries have for years had no qualms about cooperating with (or even selling weapons to) the Gulf states, which they themselves view as dictatorships. However, the Saudi sponsorship of hardline Islam has recently triggered concern across Scandinavia.

In fierce competition with its regional archenemy, Shia-dominated Iran, the Saudis have used enormous resources to spread their influence across the globe. Not least through generous contributions to the building of mosques around the world, the education of imams and the spread of the only form of Islam the Arab country allows, namely the ultra-conservative Wahhabism, the Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet wrote.

The exact amount of money the Saudi kingdom and their allies have used to promote Wahhabism is a subject of debate. In 2012, the official Saudi magazine Ain al-Yaqeen wrote that King Fahd (1921-2005) had built no fewer than 210 Islamic centers financed entirely or partly by Saudi Arabia, 1,500 mosques and 202 schools to offer Muslim education in Europe, the Americas, Australia and Asia.

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