Stop Islamisation of Norway (Norwegian: Stopp islamiseringen av Norge, SIAN) is a Norwegian anti-Islamisation organisation which was established in 2008, although its history goes back to a group started in 2000.[1] Led by Arne Tumyr, the organisation currently has thousands of members and sympathizers.[2][3]
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The predecessor to SIAN was started in early 2000 as Aksjonskomiteen mot bønnerop (lit. "Action Committee against prayer calling"), originally to protest against a request by the Islamic Cultural Centre to broadcast the Adhan at a local Oslo mosque using loudspeakers.[1][4] On 11 September 2000, the group changed its name to Forum Against Islamisation (Forum mot islamisering, FOMI). As a new series of "Stop Islamisation" groups started to get established around Europe, the name was on 16 February 2008 changed to its current name, Stop Islamisation of Norway.[1][5] By mid-2011, it was reported that the organisation had close to 13,000 members or "likes" on its Facebook group,[2] although it gathered only a modest attendance at its meetings and demonstrations.[3] The organisation itself had in excess of 3,000 members, mainly based in Oslo but followed by Stavanger.[2] These figures makes it by far the biggest national "Stop Islamisation" group in Europe, also beating Stop Islamisation of Europe.[6]
In November 2000, about a dozen members of FOMI held a demonstration against Adhan from mosques in Norway and Islamisation.[7] Legislation to ban Adhan by loudspeakers was proposed in parliament by Carl I. Hagen and the Progress Party, but was voted down by all other parties.[7] In 2004, the two Jewish founders of the Norwegian Israel Centre were expelled from the Mosaic Religious Community (Jewish community of Oslo), after they joined FOMI and the Democrats party for the annual commemoration of the Kristallnacht.[8]
SIAN was joined by anti-immigration activist and former Norwegian resistance fighter Erik Gjems-Onstad, and the leader of the Norwegian Patriots, Øyvind Heian in May 2009[9] for an anti-Islamism demonstration in Oslo. They were heavily outnumbered by counter-demonstrators. Tumyr also compared immigration to Norway with the Nazi invasion of Norway in 1940.[10] In June 2009, SIAN was again joined by Heian for a demonstration in Oslo. The Blitz movement[11] and the Red Party in turn held an illegal counter-demonstration, against what they called "Nazis and racists".[12] Both demonstrations developed into minor street clashes.[10][11]
Speeches were held by Tumyr and the leader of the Democrats, Vidar Kleppe when SIAN held an arrangement in Bergen in August 2010.[13] SOS Rasisme held a counter-demonstration at the event.[13] On 11 September, SIAN held a commemoration of the September 11 terror attacks, and were joined by Anders Gravers Pedersen of Stop Islamisation of Europe.[14] Some groups of SOS Rasisme and Blitz movement activists tried to disrupt the event.[14]
The leader of the local Nordstrand chapter of the Socialist Left Party in Oslo, Morten Schau, joined SIAN to much controversy in January 2011.[15] He resigned from the Socialist Left Party later the same day, after the leader of the Oslo chapter deemed membership of SIAN as "incompatible" with being a member of the party.[16]
In February 2011 Walid al-Kubaisi joined a meeting hosted by SIAN, where he held a speech.[3] The Blitz movement demonstrated outside the arrangement, and al-Kubaisi needed police escort to get to the meeting.[3] When questioned about the organisation's relation to the newly emerged Norwegian Defence League, Tumyr stated that their ideology, intent on "stopping Islam", was the same, although their means of expression differed.[3]
In a comment in Aftenposten in 2004, Jahn Otto Johansen called the former FOMI "extremly Muslim-hostile."[17] The then general secretary of the Norwegian Humanist Association, Lars Gule, has also stated that the organisation "uses a hateful and vulgar language with a clearly discriminating content."[18] At the same time as Gule was chairman of NHA, the NHA was convicted of libels against the leader of SIAN, Arne Tumyr, after it publicly had characterised a letter to the editor from Tumyr as "racist".[19] Ingunn Økland of Aftenposten has critizised the use both by SIAN and its opponents of labelling each other "Nazi" in the Islam-debate.[20]
On the other hand, Iraqi refugee and writer Walid al-Kubaisi has made appearances in the organisation, and in the feature story "Norway for Norwegians" (Norge for nordmenn) in Klassekampen in 2005 stated that "the forum showed a variation of thoughts and opinions within the frame of fear of Islamism. The fear of Islamism is healthy and legitimate for the population of Europe, and in the Muslim world."[21]