"We don't want any Somalia in Sweden". The message on social media reaching Fatima Nur is just one of many hateful messages she has received over the years. She is polished.
- I replied that I, my children and grandchildren live here. The Somalis are politicians, doctors, journalists, she says.
For three decades, Fatima Nur has been a politician. Until now, when she leaves the Liberals after approaching the Sweden Democrats. She has been critical of SD's policy and thinks that it has eaten into the bourgeoisie.
- The parties that were previously so curious about the immigrants' way of thinking have now lost their minds. I leave politics with sadness and fear for the generations that come after me. They are young and the parties do not support them. We have now seen examples of that, she says.
Voter turnout increased in the country's vulnerable suburbs. But instead of seeing it as a victory march for democracy, there has been talk of vote cattle, clan voting and "organized influence", as the SD think tank Oikos described it.
Several Swedish Somalis that DN spoke to say that the election was existential.
- In prime time, Jimmie Åkesson (SD) said that it is the Muslims who will decide the election. I think it wasn't just the Somalis and the Muslims who got to vote. They stood up and said "Now we're going to show you everything," says Fatima Nur.
Shortly afterwards, the discussion about suspected electoral fraud broke out in Borlänge and Järva. Fatima Nur believes that the suspicions need to be investigated, but she also thinks that something has happened.
- Ali is accused of being Somali. It is not the Left Party that is being blamed. It pisses me off.
The Somali group is generalized on social media and in the debate about electoral participation and electoral fraud, according to Swedish Somalis that DN spoke to.
In the Kista mall, DN meets the students Naimo and Zara, who both testify that the use of language against Somalis has hardened.
- It affects us that people talk about Somalis as a group and I feel that the hatred is growing against us so I am afraid when I go out. I'm more alert and don't use headphones on the subway, says Naimo.
Zara, who does not feel the same fear, says that the image of Somalis has been tarnished by the incident of the suspected election fraud.
- Somalis have been portrayed as people who cannot be trusted. It's a very pity.
A Husbybo that DN talks to does not want to come forward for fear of being hanged and exposed to hate in social media, he says.
- The electoral fraud has triggered already existing prejudices, but it has increased much more. Now I feel sick and get anxiety when I surf the net and social media. I can't bear to see it anymore, he says.
He says that Mohamad Abdukardrir Ali has already been sentenced before the investigation is complete, with the consequence that all Somalis are branded.
- If he is convicted, it is he who has done wrong and must therefore be convicted - not his skin color or ethnicity.
Member of Parliament Leila Ali Elmi (MP) has experienced a similar situation when she, as the first Swedish-Somali, was crossed into the Riksdag in 2018 and accused of clan voting.
- I was thrown back to that time. For me, being accused of clan voting was a very traumatic experience. Having a background in a clan society, I know that this system is a racist system, but also an incredibly sexist system. That this system would have brought me to the Riksdag was terrible to hear, she says and continues:
- From a political perspective, it is problematic that it is interpreted by right-wing debaters that it is about clan voting when people in the suburbs organize themselves. It is a way of stifling democracy for people in the suburbs by making their political participation suspect.
Leila Ali Elmi, like other Swedish-Somalis, describes a feeling that one is doing wrong, regardless of whether one is lying on the couch or voting. It risks having consequences, she believes.
- I think it can have negative consequences, partly because those who get involved politically do not dare to do so. I myself have had many moments where I have felt like throwing in the towel. But I also think it will affect people's participation in various elections because they feel that "the system still doesn't want my vote".
She shares the fear and anxiety that Naimo in Kista galleria testifies to.
- The hatred and open racism directed at Somalis, where you say "where is the laser man when you need him" or that Somalis are equated with different types of pests such as cockroaches, parasites It is a reality. I understand that young Swedish Somalis feel a fear, says Leila Ali Elmi.
