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Civic Suspicion and Moral Sorting: Islamophobia, <i>Folkbildning</i>, and the Defunding of Muslim Civil Society in Sweden
<p xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" class="first" dir="auto" id="d3037735e99">Once heralded as a model of egalitarian democracy, Sweden’s welfare state, <i>folkhemmet</i>, “the people’s home,” has undergone a subtle yet consequential transformation. This article diagnoses how the erosion of universal welfare and the rise of neoliberal governance have given way to a racialized “governance of suspicion,” wherein Muslim civic actors are conditionally included only through ideological conformity, cultural transparency, and affective restraint. This transformation reflects not only an institutional shift, but a deeper moral and political reordering of Sweden’s civic contract. Grounded in Islamophobia Studies and interpretive policy analysis, the study argues that this reordering has reconfigured <i>folkbildning</i>, Sweden’s long-standing tradition of popular civic education, from a site of democratic empowerment into a mechanism of normative filtration. What once promised pluralistic engagement now disciplines Muslim visibility through ambiguous tests of “democratic values.” Through close analysis of the defunding of Sveriges Unga Muslimer [Sweden’s Young Muslims] (SUM) and the Ibn Rushd Study Association, the article shows how Muslim organizations are systematically marginalized under the guise of civic neutrality and democratic rights paradigm. These cases exemplify a broader civic realignment, from <i>folkhemmet</i>, the inclusive welfare ideal, to <i>svenskhemmet</i>, a narrowed, ethnonationalist civic order, where the contract of solidarity is narrowed and belonging becomes racialized. The study calls for a critical reassessment of civic inclusion, urging a shift from conditional recognition to genuine pluralist equality. </p>
