Independent Muslim schools and preschools linked to radical Islamist networks have received more than one billion kronor from Swedish taxpayers. Now, key figures are fleeing the country, leaving behind tens of millions in unpaid tax debts.
Over the years, more than one billion kronor in taxpayer funds have been paid to schools and preschools connected to Islamist, Salafist networks. But as police and government authorities have uncovered how these educational institutions were used for extensive fraud schemes, the networks’ key figures have left Sweden—while leaving behind tens of millions of kronor in unpaid tax liabilities. This emerges from an investigation conducted by Expressen.
Several of the schools involved have been shut down by authorities, either following direct recommendations from the Swedish Security Service (Säpo) or by taking the “Al Capone route”: through the Swedish Tax Agency and investigations into financial crime.
Religious motives concealed welfare fraud
In the media, the closures have often been portrayed as isolated measures, frequently accompanied by emotional stories about children being forced to change schools and loud accusations of Islamophobia from parents and school administrators. But police investigations have revealed the truth: effectively hidden behind a smokescreen of religious motivations and concern for Muslim families, these networks were engaged in large-scale welfare fraud worth millions.
A large number of companies in the school and preschool sector were linked through family ties and business relationships in two networks consisting of extremist imams, unscrupulous financial advisers, and an auditor who turned a blind eye to the looting of the welfare system. Several of these school leaders and imams have now left Sweden and are being pursued by Swedish authorities for substantial tax debts, reportedly totaling around 33 million kronor.
– It is like a double loss. The welfare funds disappear, and we do not receive the welfare services that our tax money was meant to pay for. At the same time, someone else takes the money, leaves, and enriches themselves, says Henric Fagher, chief prosecutor at the Swedish Economic Crime Authority in Gothenburg, who led a special project targeting several Muslim schools and preschools.
The imams’ network
One of the two networks, which is connected through business relationships to the activities of former Member of Parliament Abdirizak Waberi, revolves around a group of radical imams. The most prominent are the Gävle imam Abo Raad, the Umeå imam Hussein al-Jibury—currently serving a two-year prison sentence for financial crimes linked to his preschool operations—and the imam and principal of Vetenskapsskolan in Gothenburg, Abdel Nasser el Nadi.
This network of imams, built on family connections and a shared Salafist, radical Islamist worldview, operated schools that received more than 600 million kronor in taxpayer funding. Today, the network reportedly owes Swedish society 27 million kronor.
Imams, ISIS recruiters, and a former parliamentarian
Several of the most prominent figures had previously been identified by the Swedish Security Service as individuals with ties to Islamist environments or as security threats.
The networks were exposed in November last year when police searched for Rabie Karam, who is considered one of the key actors in a nationwide network of independent preschools and schools linked to both Islamist recruitment and the spread of radical Islamism. Karam helped establish both Vetenskapsskolan in Gothenburg and Nya Kastets skola in Gävle.
Today, Karam is in Egypt, where he is reportedly hiding to avoid serving a prison sentence for financial crimes connected to Nya Kastets skola. Rabie Karam is also being pursued by the Swedish Enforcement Authority because he owes more than five million kronor in taxes.
Former Moderate Party parliamentarian Abdirizak Waberi served as principal of the Römosseskolorna in Gothenburg, four licensed schools that received a total of 462 million kronor in school funding. In 2022, Waberi was convicted of diverting 12 million kronor from the schools through fraudulent invoices for IT services. The money was sent to Waberi’s own Islamist political party in Somalia and financed, among other things, visits to sex clubs in Thailand and trips to luxury hotels in Southeast Asia and Nairobi.
Waberi currently owes Swedish society 6.1 million kronor.
Abdel Nasser El Nadi transferred 4.2 million kronor from the school group’s funds—originally school funding financed by taxpayers—to an investment account in Malta. With five million kronor in tax debts, he traveled via Turkey to Egypt.
The Umeå imam Hussein al-Jibury is one of the Islamist extremists who has been considered a threat to national security. During the years he was financially responsible for the Bilaal preschools, al-Jibury systematically transferred millions of kronor to private individuals without supporting documentation.
He is currently serving a two-year prison sentence for financial crimes and has more than one million kronor in unpaid tax debts.
Gävle imam Abo Raad, an Iraqi citizen, has been described as the leader of militant Islamism in Sweden, with connections to both radical and violent Islamism as well as ISIS recruitment. Nevertheless, he was one of the leading figures in the Salafist school network and closely associated with Nya Kastets skola in Gävle.
Abo Raad attracted widespread attention in 2019 when he and his son—who had been convicted of making death threats against the editor-in-chief of Gefle Dagblad—were detained by the Migration Agency pending deportation after Säpo assessed them as an acute threat to national security. The deportations were never carried out, however, because the Migration Agency and the Migration Court of Appeal concluded that they faced threats in Iraq. On May 9, 2022, Abo Raad announced that he had voluntarily chosen to leave Sweden. The trail initially led to Turkey, but his current whereabouts remain unknown.
Convert Eva Freih and her husband Wasin El-Jomaa operated the preschool Lär och lek AB, which received just over 30 million kronor in taxpayer funding between 2016 and 2020. On fourteen occasions, money was transferred from the taxpayer-funded preschool to the nonprofit sports association Andalus IF, only to be immediately transferred onward to the controversial Islamist organization Sveriges förenade muslimer. Preschool funds were also used to pay a well-known Salafist hate preacher.
Both spouses have been convicted of bookkeeping offenses. Wasim El-Jomaa received a ten-month prison sentence and a three-year business ban for three counts of aggravated bookkeeping crimes.
The mastermind continues his activities—in municipal premises
The auditor for both Vetenskapsskolan and Lär och lek AB was Mohammad al-Kotrani. Al-Kotrani is the son-in-law of imam Abo Raad and is described by police as the mastermind behind several of the schemes carried out through the companies and as a so-called facilitator—a person with specialized skills used in organized criminal activity.
The Swedish Security Service claims that al-Kotrani is an individual with “significant influence within the violent Islamist environment.” Nevertheless, his name repeatedly appears in connection with preschools, independent schools, homes for unaccompanied refugee minors, and personal-assistance companies. These businesses have one thing in common: they have either gone bankrupt or been investigated by the Economic Crime Authority for various forms of financial crime and money laundering.
– My impression is that al-Kotrani has primarily functioned as a facilitator and filled a role that was not mainly characterized by the religious or ideological aspect, terrorism researcher Magnus Normark of the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) told Expressen.
In 2024, Mohammad al-Kotrani was convicted together with Rabie Karam for financial fraud involving Nya Kastets skola. According to the ruling, the two men artificially inflated the school’s finances by moving money between companies within the network. The objective was to present a stronger financial position and thereby secure political approval for school funding.
Al-Kotrani received a three-year advisory and business ban, but despite this, he has continued his activities in premises owned by the City of Gothenburg. Information from the Swedish Companies Registration Office shows that he has been involved in around twenty companies since the business ban took effect.
Today, al-Kotrani is reportedly living in Spain. He owes 2.1 million kronor to the Swedish Tax Agency.