My 'smear' campaign against the Johannson family

I recently posted on the Badman Review Action Group list, sounding a note of caution about support for the case of Domenic Johannson, the boy taken into care in Sweden. As it is presented, this case is one of a home educated child taken from his parents by the state just because he was being educated at home. As is usually the case with real life; things are a little more complicated than that. My post from BRAG was then sent to somebody running a website in support of Swedish home educators and the result was this:

http://freesweden.net/smear_campaign.html


My original post on BRAG was mild enough. I said;

'Questions have been raised as to just how happy and normal this child's life was
before he was taken into care. His father is heavily involved with the Vaken
website, which specialises in anti-semitic conspiracy theories. Domenic was not
taken into care just because he was being home educated. I think that the
Swedish authorities were genuinely concerned for his welfare and when they heard
that his parents had given away all their belongings and were taking him to
India so that he could live with them while they started an orphanage; I think
that they were worried.'

let us go through this point by point and see how it could be said to be part of a smear campaign. I said;

'Questions have been raised as to just how happy and normal this child's life was
before he was taken into care.'

They have indeed been raised.


'His father is heavily involved with the Vaken
website, which specialises in anti-semitic conspiracy theories.'

Christer Johannson certainly is heavily involved with this site. When Domenic was taken into care, his father believed and told others, that the refusal to allow him to home educate had been based upon his involvement with Vaken. See, for instance;

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:s8wxovV4tzsJ:www.renewamerica.com/columns/hank/090910+


This is by a very strong supporter of Christer Johannson, who told him that it was his connection with Vaken had made the authorities refuse him permission to home educate. this is referred to in the article when the author says;

'But in the meantime, some locals decided that these parents should not be allowed to do this. The reasons for this are no more clear than they are legal, but Christer was once involved in an alternative on-line news mag that expressed politically incorrect ideas and as near as anyone can tell, this was the reason his home schooling plans were opposed.'


Is Vaken anti-Semitic? It is obsessed with the idea of the Jews taking over the world. They are held to be responsible for all sorts of things, particularly the 9/11 attacks. They are usually referred to as 'Zionists' rather than 'Jews'; readers are expected to understand this code. It is like a modern day version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Believe me, this is anti-Semitic all right. I went on to say;

'Domenic was not taken into care just because he was being home educated.'

This is also accepted by the families supporters. Jonas Himmelstrand, the
president of the Swedish National Association for Home Education, (ROHUS),
says of this case;

'Homeschooling was not the only issue regarding taking Dominic Johansson in
custody by the social services. But having read the court verdict with all the
issues, there stills seems to be no reason for this severe action. The young boy
has most likely been much more hurt by the custody action than the conditions in
his family. One cannot avoid the thought that the prejudices and lack of
knowledge about homeschooling, could have been the pivotal reason for the
custody action.'

I have not really got room to go into this further here, but I shall be posting more about this case tomorrow. The support for this case is being orchestrated from the USA by right-wing, Christian groups who are stridently pro-spanking and militantly anti-gay. Obviously, it is no affair of mine if people in this country wish to align themselves with such groups, but they ought to know with whom they are getting into bed before they do so. The fact that such a restrained post of mine on a private home education list could provoke such a strong response, accusing me of running a smear campaign and being an agent of the Swedish government, is interesting and causes me to think that there might be even more to this than I have guessed. As I say, I shall be posting more extensively tomorrow.