Claims are spreading online that Sweden has banned Christmas lights because they “offend Muslims”.
Such rumours have spread largely on social media and have appeared on many right-leaning websites including InfoWars and Yiannopoulos.net, and later also on Morning News USA.
What’s true
– The Swedish Transport Administration – Trafikverket – performed a review of their pole network and decided that due to both safety concerns and issues related to legality, they would no longer allow Christmas lights be hung from public utility poles in certain municipalities.
What’s false
– That Sweden has banned Christmas decorations. Christmas decorations are allowed in public spaces, albeit not on certain utility poles.
– That any of this has anything to do with religion or Islam. There has been no suggestion, implication or statement from Trafikverket that this was tied to the Muslim community, nor has there been any recorded complaints from Muslims about Christmas decorations.
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The popular narrative relating to ‘The War on Christmas’ often jumps on this type of news, baselessly asserting that this is yet another example of how Christmas and its traditions are being silenced, due to the “influx” of Muslim immigration.
But ‘baseless’ is the key word here. There is simply nothing to support the claim that this decision to prevent Christmas lights being hung on utility poles in small municipalities within Sweden has anything to do with appeasing the Muslim community. Original reports about the decision from Trafikverket made no mention or suggestion about religion, Islam or immigration, instead citing only safety concerns and legal problems concerning the use of electricity.
Elin Isaksson from Trafikverket stated – (quote translated)
We’re looking at this because we do not have the right to allow others to take electricity from our facility, according to the electricity law. Additionally, the poles are not designed for the weight of Christmas lights, and we have to remove anything from the poles that should not be there. We guarantee safety first.
The rhetoric that Christmas is somehow being silenced is – to most of us – comical, considering just how popular Christmas and the festive holiday culture have become. Every year most of us are met with a plethora of decorations, ‘Christmas specials’, Christmas music and any number of festive traditions that are very much ever-present during the month of December (and often even earlier!) Even the Swedish Transport Adminsitration, who orchestrated the ban of decorations on utility poles, wish their website visitors a Merry Christmas.
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However certain commentators and websites attempt to spin this type of news to fit their existing agenda, and attempt to use this news as proof that Western culture is being “dumbed down” in favour of culture belonging to other religions, despite making many unfounded and unjustified assumptions in the process.
Previous rumours have claimed that UK supermarkets have banned the word Easter (not true,) that the term “Merry Christmas” had been banned (not true,) that England football shirts have been banned (not true) and that remembrance poppies can no longer be sold in city centres (not true) – all those rumours falsely used “offending Muslims” as the apparent reason.
Also, another rumour that Christmas lights in Cardwell in Cairns had been banned due to offending Muslims was also false.
Given the amount of nonsense relating to this subject, we’d think that people would think twice before sharing this sort of nonsense. Alas, if people have a pre-conceived agenda, this is merely further proof that people will share demonstrably false information just to push it.