Kultur, värdlandets förmåga att integrera denna diaspora samt religiös extremism har samspelat och kommit att sätta dessa i en riskzon i att riskera bli smittade av Covid 19som kunde ha undvikits.

1. When Religion and Culture Kill: COVID-19
in the Somali Diaspora Communities in
Sweden
Anne Speckhard, Othman Mahamud & Molly Ellenberg
As published in Homeland Security Today:
In Sweden there is a small diaspora community of Somali immigrants who fled war and poverty
who make up just .69 percent of the total population.1
Normally, this diaspora group fades into
the background, but now, suddenly, a chilling new statistic brings them to the fore, as 40
percent of the reported COVID-19 related deaths occurring in Stockholm involve the Somali
diaspora communities. Other Swedish medical experts estimate 18 percent of the COVID-19
deaths country-wide are from the Somali community.2
This disproportionately high
representation of deaths occurring among only one subsection of society is unusual. Therefore,

2. the International Center for Violent Extremism’s [ICSVE] Junior Research Fellow, Othman A.
Mahamud, a Somali who lives in Australia, conducted an Internet research foray into the Somali
Facebook global diaspora and Somali communities to explore the possible explanations for this
disturbing phenomenon. This article details the explanations he received in Facebook
discussions over the last week of March 2020 when reaching out in Somali on Facebook, asking
the Somali global community for their opinions regarding this startling and grim statistic.
Stubborn Disregard for Health Warnings
45-year-old Ahmed Farah3
from Stockholm blames the community for failing to heed health
warnings as well as misinformation from religious scholars,
Somalis are stubborn people who do not listen to the messages of health and
institutions of health and government institutions. They also listen to wrong information
with extremist ideas from religion scholars. This is not a people who read and learn
about health awareness and who are careful. Somalis are not the ones who take what is
going to be taken as history and learn from it.
37-year-old Somali Mohamed Omar who lives in Garowe, Somalia agrees on the stubborn and
resistant nature of Somali diaspora populations stating, “The main reason is that they have not
followed the health instructions given to them. Everywhere Somalis have that problem.”
31-year-old Abdulahi Said, who is part of the Somali diaspora in Melbourne, Australia, jumped
into the conversation astutely suggesting that the winter cold in Scandinavia likely causes too
many Somalis to crowd indoors together:
Somalis have their own restaurants. They kill time there. They play cards, and pool, and
hands are exchanged. In addition, Somalis are not afraid from disease. This is not
braveness; it is stupidity, since they have been told that the disease transmits through
physical contact and sitting close to each other. Most of those people who got affected
by COVID-19 mostly were unemployed and are now trapped in the queue of death.
39-year-old Samatar Hassan, a Somali living in Ethiopia, agrees, stating, “I think the biggest
issue is that they don’t realize the seriousness of this illness and that is why they ignored it.”
Language Barriers Causing Ignorance
While stubborn unwillingness to heed health advice is certainly cause for concern, not being
informed and aware of health advice is also consequential. In that regard, some blamed
language barriers as being part of the problem. University educated, 25-year-old Swedish
Somali Abdirahman Sayid states, “I think the best way to spread the health messages and the
best ways that everyone remains protected is that public health agencies spread the
information through local Somali radio and social media.” He goes on to explain that there are
also gender differences in who becomes most at risk from either ignorance or willful disregard

3. of health messages. “Mostly, men are less informed, and they are also those who do more
socializing, meet in cafeterias, mosques, soccer fields, as well as those who are taxi and bus
drivers.”
In this regard, 23-year-old Faduma Ahmed, one of the two females who participated in this
discussion, who is of Somali origin and lives in Gothenburg, Sweden comments, “They had no
information about this disease, as they have a language barrier for news (Swedish newspapers
and TV) and most of them they do not listen.”
To this, Othman asks if new immigrants are not required to learn Swedish upon arrival, if
language incompetence is a major factor, and if men and women have the same difficulties.
Faduma from Gothenburg, Sweden replies, “They are taught, and it is important that you learn
the language, but our Somali people are not as committed as other ethnic groups.” She adds as
a caveat, however, “Now many multilingual publications for awareness are available, which will
make it easier for everyone to understand health information and guidelines in the future.”
25-year-old Somali Swedish Abdirahman Sayid echoes others’ comments about language
barriers in the Somali diaspora community, “They do not know the language and most of them
are able to read in the Somali language only.” Likewise, he points out that, “The Somali person
prefers to be told information, not to read information.” He also references an observation that
Somalis have apparently continued to ignore or are unaware of quarantine restrictions.
Yesterday a former colleague called me, who had a cold and flu and COVID-19
symptoms. He was told to remain in the house, but yet went out and visited restaurants
in Bellevue, Gothenburg to relax and socialize. My friend said, the Somalis were still
there. He took no advice, and the health prevention measures of the restaurants are
also still the same; no precautions at all. After the Somali death toll reached
disproportionate to the percentage number of those living in Sweden, the authorities
decided to interpret all useful information into Somali language.
Abdirahman Sayid explains. “But it’s up to the people, whether they follow or not. People
cannot be forced. Here it’s a free country you know.”
Large Families, Overcrowding, Economic Factors and a Culture of Social Gathering
22-year-old, Somali Swedish Mustaf Salah from the small town of Falköping, Sweden lists
stubborn disregard, large families living in close quarters and frequent social gatherings as the
problems to which he attributes the high COVID-19 death rate in the Swedish Somali
community:
First, we refused to follow the guidelines and the awareness to remain home and not to
meet with a large number of people in restaurants, community centers, mosques,
barbershops. Often Somalis are gathering socially. Every single weekend there is a

4. meeting or wedding going on and sometimes people are not obligated to follow
preventative procedures. Second, people who succumb to the flu and pass it on to at-
risk groups often happens while a person with symptoms has a family number of 4, 6, 7,
up to 12 people in the area. They are not separated from one another because they are
a big family unit. Lastly, the quarantine aim was for everyone to stay at home, but
Somalis invite each other over to their homes and they play all night play-station games
and so forth. Most of the time that is how they contracted the COVID-19 from each
other.
29-year-old Somali Nur Abdi, who lives in London and belongs to the large Somali diaspora in
the United Kingdom, comments about economic factors saying, “Somalis live in large
overcrowded housing units and most of them are lively to be out engaging on the doorstep.”
The Independent newspaper also references the difference in housing between mainstream
society and the Somali minority group, stating that more than half of Swedes live one per
household, compared to the Somalis typically living in large family units.
Nur also comments about the health situation and lowered immune system in the aged saying,
“People are living with three generations in the same house, since using a nursing home is not
part of our culture.” Likewise, Nur explains that he has observed a poor diet among many
Somalis, possibly contributing to increased susceptibility to the virus, and that Somali culture is
very social, that, “If someone only lives by his or herself, Somalis see that as someone who is
actually crazy.” He also comments on the issue of the language barrier, “The unknown language
and the radio stations in Sweden are not working for them.”
30-year-old British Somali, Deeqa, who lives in London and is the other femal Somali to respond
in these Facebook discussions, blames ignorance, ill-health in the elders in the community and
that Somalis are concentrated and like to gather socially. She states,
Even if the person is COVID-19 positive, he or she believes that it is normal flu and they
don’t self-isolate. Second, the Somalis in Sweden are concentrated in community center
areas, where older people know each other and frequently visit one another. Likewise,
the mosques and restaurants are not yet closed. Lastly, most of the Somali people over
are 50 have diabetes or high blood pressure.
Although this observation is anecdotal, the United States Center for Disease Control and
Prevention reports that Somali refugees in the U.S. indeed have higher rates of hypertension
and diabetes than the general population, and other studies have found PTSD in Somali first-
generation immigrants to the U.S. who were tortured at home with one center finding me
having unexplained heart attacks at relatively young ages.4
40-year-old Ibrahim Guled who lives in Stockholm, Sweden also asserts, “Somalis in Sweden are
the least educated community among the Somali diaspora in the world, so a lack of low
awareness and self-correction happened to them.”5
In addition to that, Ibrahim Guled states.
“Somalis are unpopular in this country and therefore, are unlikely to receive real health care

5. service. Beside the foods they eat do not have enough nutrition to defend their health and
immune system.” In reference to unpopularity, Ibrahim Guled is likely referencing prejudice and
the fact that Somalis have also been overrepresented in Swedish statistics for those who joined
ISIS and the fact that Swedish international workers have been killed by extremists in Somalia.
Religious Misdirection
There are reports from all over the world of fanatical religious preachers representing fringe
elements of most of the major faiths telling their communities to continue coming to worship,
even to take religious pilgrimages, that God will not allow them to fall ill. A Christian preacher of
a mega-church in the United States, for instance, was arrested after holding large church
services repeatedly during the U.S. quarantine.6
Similarly, ultra-Orthodox Haredim in Israel have
disregarded quarantine orders broadcast largely through the secular media, with leaders
encouraging the community to continue attending large gatherings such as weddings and
funerals.7
In Israel, the ultra-Orthodox are estimated to make up 12 percent of the population
but are now turning up as 60 percent of the COVID-19 deaths, showing a similar trend to the
Swedish Somali population.8
Extremist Muslim religious leaders around the world have also advised their followers to
continue going on religious pilgrimages and to ignore health warnings from the authorities,
stating that COVID-19 is a punishment for the unbelievers and will not touch Muslims.9
For
instance during March when Shia visit shrines in Iraq, controversial Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada al-
Sadr opposed closing the shrines, and Sheikh Ali al-Samawi promised believers they would not
be infected by the virus under any circumstances while encouraging them to attend. “Bring any
infected person to me and let me kiss them and I’m quite sure that I won’t contract the virus, if
he is a true follower of Imam Hussein [the third Shiite Imam and grandson of the Prophet
Muhammad], Samawi announced in one of his sermons. An uptick of COVID-19 cases was
therefore expected in Iraq during the Shia feasts as a result of Iranian pilgrims crossing the
border without medical health checks and believers flocking together believing that they
cannot be infected while on a religious pilgrimage.10
Othman queried about this as well: “Is there any public confidence that this disease would not
occur to them, because they are Muslims?”
Somali Swedish Mustaf Salah answers,
Very much so. Many people said that this disease is only meant to kill for non-Muslims
thus, it cannot affect Muslims. Until today many people believe that myth. I’ve watched
shows from Somali National TV televised where the reporter asked people playing and
socialising at Lido beach in Mogadishu [Somalia] if they are unaware of corona virus. So
many of those people answered, ‘We are Muslims! This disease will only kill non-
believers.’ But they are wrong. If you are not careful COVID-19 will not differentiate
between anyone based on their religion.

6. 25-year-old Somali Swedish Abdirahman Sayid, who is university educated, refers to the
widespread Islamic belief in God-ordained fate:
In my view, the reason why they did not take the government’s advice was that they
intuitively listen to Somali clerics when it comes this intense wide spread of sickness and
they say, ‘What is meant to happen to my health, it’s already ordained by Allah.’ But,
the Quran never said, ‘Don’t look after yourself.’ They are misinterpreting the Quran.
Abdirahman goes on to state, “A man we used to pray together with at the mosque called me
and told me that the mosque is still open and that the café in the mosque is still working as
well!!! It was amazing!”
In Iraq, doctors reported that some Iraqis who were diagnosed with COVID-19 took it as a social
and religious disgrace, mixing the contagious aspects of COVID-19 with former ideas about the
sexual spread of AIDS. As a result, Iraqi doctors found that patients who had COVID-19
responded to their health care workers with threats about their honor, and fled the hospital,
refusing to be quarantined.11
In this vein, 22-year-old Somali Towfiq Shire Muuse, who lives in
Amsterdam, remarks about the general Somali ignorance of the Swedish quarantine but adds
that social gathering seems to be preventing this type of stigmatization in the community:
The Swedish government has ordered closures of businesses and mosques, but it
appears that some Somalis are still going to mosques and making social gatherings. On
the other hand, Somalis visit each other and share the pain with the sufferer so they
avoid the patient feeling discriminated against or to feel that they are not to blame later
on.
Of course, this can have dire results if those transmitting the illness do not take responsibility
for infecting others in their communities.
One Somali sheikh listened to by some in the global diaspora, of particular concern for giving
bad advice over the Internet, is Mohamud Abdi Umal. He broadcast in a YouTube video on
February 28, 2020 the following message, translated below in its key points, to his followers
throughout the world:
The world today is in a state of panic, fear, shock, and despair, because today Allah sent
a small army of His troops into the world called corona virus. The. Men who made the
missile and made the navy, went to the moon, and reached the medical sciences very
advanced levels in the world. [But,] in that world there was an invasion of a virus that
the eye didn’t catch. Where is the Chinese power? Where is the power of the USA? Why
don’t you get rid of the small virus? If you were arrogant yesterday, feel the pain today,
which, you have made in your own hand.
Mohamed Abdi also references religious faith, “Somalis pride themselves, and believe if they
read some Quranic verses, they can avoid this disease, which is also told to them by the clerics

7. who prevent community integration.” These clerics, according to Mohamed Abdi, encourage
separation through business and schooling in Islamic madrasas. Mohamed Abdi says, “They
encourage people not to hear the infidel statements – guidelines, which they say could lead
Muslims astray.” These clerics, also according to Mohamed Abdi, encourage people to doubt all
the government advisory measures about hand washing and other methods of prevention.
Summary
From this small informal polling in the Somali language on Facebook of the Somali global
community and diaspora, it appears that there are four main factors to which the over-
representation of the Somali Swedish community in COVID deaths in Sweden can be attributed.
These include: 1) a culture of stubborn disregard of advice from authorities; 2) ignorance due to
language barriers when that advice comes in languages other than Somali.” Likewise, 3) the
Somali diaspora’s tendency for large multi-generational families living in close quarters in a cold
climate where some may wish to escape to cafes, outdoor stoops, mosques or other places to
gather, or have to work. Thus, the community finds it harder to practice the necessary social
distancing to protect from COVID-19. Moreover, some not that elders are nearly always cared
for at home and that many Somalis over the age of 50 have significant pre-existing health
conditions including diabetes and high blood pressure. Somalis also have a strong tradition for
social gathering and a vibrant culture of mosque going; near constant family celebrations,
especially weddings where large groups gather; and a strong belief in God. In this last regard, 4)
extremist preachers on the Internet and on the ground have unfortunately encouraged
disregard for Swedish prevention recommendations and social distancing, saying instead that
one’s fate is ordained by Allah and that only non-Muslims will contract COVID-19.
Most of these issues are likely also active in other Muslim diaspora communities that have not
integrated well across Europe and elsewhere, particularly those who may be religiously
conservative and have members who follow religious preaching advising them to ignore
government health advisories in relation to COVID-19. These likely can be addressed with good
public policy measures that can first reach their target audiences by appealing to the diaspora
communities in their own language. Likewise, they can gain better traction by educating and
motivating religious influencers to speak up against extremists who wrongfully preach that
Muslims (and other “true believers” in the cases of other religious groups) will not be harmed
by COVID-19. Likewise, as the death-toll mounts, using multiple channels of communication,
even Facebook and other social media platforms, to spread this news among the various age
groups in the community, in their own language, can help a community that is very socially
oriented, but also cherishes their elderly enough to refrain from social gathering for a time and
to use hand-washing, masks and social distancing to better protect the vulnerable among them.
This case example in Sweden teaches an important lesson that diaspora and religious
communities may need special attention in times of pandemics. Furthermore, when religious
extremists preach against government health advisories, measures need to be taken to counter
their detrimental influence, before it is too late to prevent severe damage both to the diaspora
community and the wider society.

8. About the author:
Anne Speckhard, Ph.D., is Director of the International Center for the Study of Violent
Extremism (ICSVE) and serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown
University School of Medicine. She has interviewed over 700 terrorists, their family members
and supporters in various parts of the world including in Western Europe, the Balkans, Central
Asia, the Former Soviet Union and the Middle East. In the past three years, she has interviewed
239 ISIS defectors, returnees and prisoners as well as 16 al Shabaab cadres and their family
members (n=25) as well as ideologues (n=2), studying their trajectories into and out of
terrorism, their experiences inside ISIS (and al Shabaab), as well as developing the Breaking the
ISIS Brand Counter Narrative Project materials from these interviews which includes over 175
short counter narrative videos of terrorists denouncing their groups as un-Islamic, corrupt and
brutal which have been used in over 125 Facebook campaigns globally. She has also been
training key stakeholders in law enforcement, intelligence, educators, and other countering
violent extremism professionals on the use of counter-narrative messaging materials produced
by ICSVE both locally and internationally as well as studying the use of children as violent actors
by groups such as ISIS and consulting foreign governments on issues of repatriation and
rehabilitation of ISIS foreign fighters, wives and children. In 2007, she was responsible for
designing the psychological and Islamic challenge aspects of the Detainee Rehabilitation
Program in Iraq to be applied to 20,000 + detainees and 800 juveniles. She is a sought after
counterterrorism expert and has consulted to NATO, OSCE, the EU Commission and EU
Parliament, European and other foreign governments and to the U.S. Senate & House,
Departments of State, Defense, Justice, Homeland Security, Health & Human Services, CIA, and
FBI and appeared on CNN, BBC, NPR, Fox News, MSNBC, CTV, and in Time, The New York Times,
The Washington Post, London Times and many other publications. She regularly writes a
column for Homeland Security Today and speaks and publishes on the topics of the psychology
of radicalization and terrorism and is the author of several books, including Talking to
Terrorists, Bride of ISIS, Undercover Jihadi and ISIS Defectors: Inside Stories of the Terrorist
Caliphate. Her publications are found here:
https://georgetown.academia.edu/AnneSpeckhardWebsite: and on the ICSVE website
http://www.icsve.org
Follow @AnneSpeckhard
Othman Mahamud, B.S. is a Somali Australian who has a BS in Security and Counter Terrorism
from Swinburne University in Melbourne Australia and is embarking now on a Master’s degree
in Psychology at Monash University, Melbourne. Othman works as a Junior Research Fellow
with the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism [ICSVE] helping to produce the
Breaking the ISIS Brand Counter Narratives in Somali and to campaign with them on Facebook
to fight ISIS’s and al Shabaab’s online and face-to-face recruitment. He has worked at the AMNI
Centre providing analysis and advice on issues pertaining to security and stability in Somalia and
the surrounding region as well as a security consultant to the Puntland Ministry of Security.
Othman also has worked as a Public Relations Officer for the Australian Federal Police in
community engagement to prevent and recognize radicalization in the Somali Australian
community. He is fluent in English, Arabic and Somali.

9. Molly Ellenberg, M.A. is a research fellow at ICSVE. Molly Ellenberg holds an M.A. in Forensic
Psychology from The George Washington University and a B.S. in Psychology with a
Specialization in Clinical Psychology from UC San Diego. At ICSVE, she is working on coding and
analyzing the data from ICSVE’s qualitative research interviews of ISIS and al Shabaab terrorists,
running Facebook campaigns to disrupt ISIS’s and al Shabaab’s online and face-to-face
recruitment, and developing and giving trainings for use with the Breaking the ISIS Brand
Counter Narrative Project videos. Molly has presented original research at the International
Summit on Violence, Abuse, and Trauma and UC San Diego Research Conferences. Her research
has also been published in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Trauma. Her previous research
experiences include positions at Stanford University, UC San Diego, and the National
Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of
Maryland.
Reference for this article: Speckhard, Anne, Mahamud, Othman, & Ellenberg, Molly (April 3,
2020). When Religion and Culture Kill: COVID-19 in the Somali Diaspora Communities in
Sweden. Homeland Security Today
1 Statistics Sweden. (2019, December 31) Foreign-born by Country of birth, sex and year of immigration. Retrieved
from https://www.scb.se/en/finding-statistics/statistics-by-subject-area/population/population-
composition/population-statistics/
2 Personal communication with the authors’ sources from a medical worker in Stockholm, Sweden. See
also: The New Arab (March 25, 2020) More Somalis are dying of corona virus in Sweden than any other
group. https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2020/3/25/somalis-are-dying-of-coronavirus-in-
sweden; Radio Sweden (March 24, 2020). Swedish Coronavirus deaths increase, with concerns about
Somali-Swedes in particular
https://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=2054&artikel=7437072
3 All names in this paper have been changed to protect the subjects’ privacy
4 Somali Refugee Health Profile. (2018, August 9). Retrieved from
https://www.cdc.gov/immigrantrefugeehealth/profiles/somali/index.html
5 This statement is supported by: Carlson, B., & Chambers, S. (2017, May 23). A Tale of Twin Cities and Somalis
being Trumped. Retrieved from https://www.minnpost.com/community-voices/2017/05/tale-twin-cities-and-
somalis-being-trumped/; Landes, D. (2012, November 5). Somalis fare better in the US than Sweden: report.
Retrieved from https://www.thelocal.se/20121105/44236
6 Burke, D. (2020, March 30). Police arrest Florida pastor for holding church services despite stay-at-home order.
Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/30/us/florida-pastor-arrested-river-church/index.html
7 Halbfinger, D. M. (2020, March 30). Virus Soars Among Ultra-Orthodox Jews as Many Flout Israel’s Rules.
Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/world/middleeast/coronavirus-israel-cases-orthodox.html
8 Estrin, D. (2020, April 1). Israel Faces Challenges in Fighting Coronavirus in Ultra-Orthodox Communities.
Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2020/04/01/825260941/israel-faces-challenges-in-fighting-coronavirus-in-
ultra-orthodox-communities
9 Al-Qaeda Central: COVID-19 is Divine Punishment for Sins of Mankind; Muslims Must Repent, West Must
Embrace Islam. (2020, April 1). Retrieved from https://www.memri.org/reports/al-qaeda-central-covid-19-divine-
punishment-sins-mankind-muslims-must-repent-west-must
10 Kirkpatrick, D. D., Fassihi, F., & Mashal, M. (2020, February 24). ‘Recipe for a Massive Viral Outbreak’: Iran
Emerges as a Worldwide Threat. Retrieved from
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/24/world/middleeast/coronavirus-iran.html
11 Personal communication with the authors’ sources in Iraq