Via AFP:
Some 200 possibly violent Islamic extremists live in Sweden, according to an intelligence report released Wednesday after the country's first-ever suicide bombing narrowly missed Christmas shoppers.
"The group of active members ... consists of just under 200 individuals," the Saepo intelligence agency said in its 126-page report, based on data from 2009 and scheduled to be published before the weekend's attack in central Stockholm.
Saturday's bomber, named as Taymour Abdelwahab, a Swedish national who became an outspoken supporter of violent jihad while living in Britain, did not figure among the 200 people on Saepo's radar, and it remained unclear if any possible accomplices were on the list.
(...)
While the so-called radicalisation process generally happens among men aged 15 to 30, the average age in the group is 36, the report showed.
Rembe explained that while members of other violent, radical groups, like rightwing extremists, tended to drop out when they started families, the radical Islamists "don't leave when they get older," making prevention work at an early age vital.
The report showed "most of them were born or grew up in Sweden, and it is here that they come into contact with violence-promoting ideologies and groups."
Some "80 percent of the 200 can be linked to each other," Rembe told a press conference, adding however that the connection tended to be loose, through friendship and acquaintances, and not as part of one big network.
Around 30 out of the 200 have in recent years traveled abroad to take part in violent combat or terrorist training camps, she said.
(source)
These 200 people focus on fighting the presence of foreign troops (SE) in Muslim countries, corrupt regimes and insults of Islam. They are mostly interested in going on Jihad abroad but pose a threat to Sweden as well.
More figures:
* Most are men, women's role is to support the men
* Most were recruited in Sweden
* Most do not come from radicalized homes
* About half live in the Stockholm area
* Sweden is the third most common country of birth.
* Around 60% are Swedish citizens and have been citizens on average for 12 years.
* A third have police records. Nearly 30% were sentenced for crimes.
