Soviet Sweden UPDATED

What kind of government yanks a child off a plane from a Christian family seeking to flee its tyranny? A totalitarian government, like that of Sweden.

Yes, Sweden. From afar off, it is hard to see anything brutal or totalitarian about Sweden. But its government shows its fangs in its insistence that it, not parents, must educate, really indoctrinate, children.

Last year, the government passed a law banning homeschooling and religious instruction in so-called free schools. All educational institutions will soon be teaching the government curriculum — including the notion that there is no difference between genders.

Families who refuse to turn over their children to government indoctrination are fleeing the country. The Johanssons were among them. But Swedish authorities acted like the old Soviet Union in refusing to let them leave intact.

Almost two years ago, following years of harassment by the municipal social services, the Johansson family made plans to leave Sweden for good. The government had been pestering the parents about putting their young son, Domenic, into daycare. They refused. Later, instead of enrolling the young boy in government school, the parents decided to educate Domenic at home until they left for India, the mother’s homeland. Homeschooling was — despite draconian restrictions — still legal in Sweden, after all.

But as they were sitting on the plane, just minutes before takeoff, armed police stormed onboard and seized the then-seven-year-old boy. There was no warrant, no suspicion of physical abuse — just an angry social-service bureaucracy that couldn’t stand the thought of the Johansson family escaping its iron fist.

Again, what sort of government does not allow a family to flee its secularist tyranny?

Thanks to Mere Comments for bringing this outrage to my attention.

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MORE:
The Friends of Domenic Johansson blog is following this and similar cases.

STILL MORE:
A petition to free Domenic Johansson is here. I’ve signed and urge readers to do likewise.