Kimmie Ahlen was once seduced by the violent underpinnings of National Socialist ideology, but now, alarmed by the spread of populism, he has a new mission — teaching tolerance to young Swedes.
With a blond buzz cut, piercing blue eyes and beefy shoulders chiseled in the gym and boxing ring, Ahlen makes an imposing impression. The young boy who was once teased by his classmates is long gone, transformed by muscles and tattoos on his fingers and neck.
At an age when most students were enjoying their first flirtations and struggling through book reports, he joined a gang of neo-Nazi skinheads immersed in Nordic mythology and Holocaust denial, convinced of the superiority of the “white race.” Many of them were criminals and drug addicts.
Photo: AFP
However, that was then. Now 27, Ahlen spends his time warning teenage students in Sweden about the dangerous allure of hatred, in a country of 10 million that has taken in almost 300,000 migrants since 2014.
“The world is different today. Donald Trump is president of the United States and the Sweden Democrats may soon take power in our country,” he said in an interview with reporters, referring to Sweden’s far-right party.
A municipal youth councilor, he lives alone in a red-and-white cabin on the shores of Lake Vanern, Sweden’s biggest lake. Three hours southwest of Stockholm by car, it is an ideal spot for meditation and reflection.
As a shy boy, Ahlen was bullied at school by his classmates and even by some teachers. In his free time, he collected objects he found on the ground.
One day, when he was 12, he stumbled across a CD by Ultima Thule, a Swedish white-power rock group popular among neo-Nazis. It was a revelation.
“I loved the music,” he said. “What really appealed to me was the way they spoke about Sweden. It made me patriotic, a National Socialist, without understanding the significance of nationalism at all.”
Soon afterward he joined the local gang of skinheads in Vallberg, central Sweden. There was not a single foreigner among the town’s 3,000 residents at the time, but unemployment, and hopelessness, were rampant.
His conversion began with his appearance: At 14, Ahlen donned the neo-Nazi uniform, suiting up in a bomber jacket and Doc Martens.
“It gave me an identity, the feeling of being someone,” he said.
Between 2006 and 2008, he attended neo-Nazi demonstrations across Sweden.
When he was not beating up left-wing activists, he was giving speeches.
“I remember making up a story about immigrants who barbequed cats and ate them,” he said.
He dropped out of high school, began experimenting with drugs, and repeatedly got arrested for crimes including theft and vandalism.
In the end, it was drugs that led almost surreptitiously his turnaround.
“It was more fun to do drugs,” he said.
He gradually distanced himself from the skinhead crowd, but without abandoning his National Socialist convictions.
Until one day, his boxing trainer forced him to spar with an Iranian-born partner.
“It was either that or not learn to box,” Ahlen said. “It was around that time I stopped hating people because of their appearance.”
During a stint in jail for theft, he met a Swedish teacher who helped him to turn the page on racism for good: For the first time, Ahlen felt as though someone was really listening, and he started talking.
However, it was only during his last stay in jail, a time when his mother was gravely ill, that he decided to change.
He got a job and quit hanging out with his friends to spend more time with his new colleagues — and started writing poetry.
At the insistence of his former boxing instructor, he gave his first speech for young people, the beginning of his social work.
“I wrote down my whole life on 22 A4-size pages. I read from the first to the last page without looking at anyone in the auditorium. The worst speaker in the world,” he said.
He has since removed some of his tattoos — “they weren’t really appropriate at the swimming pool,” he said, declining to say more.
He said that in his eyes, exclusion is what pushes young people toward harmful behavior.
“You have to show them tolerance and talk to them, instead of closing the door and leaving a whole group on their own to burgeon and grow even more hateful and violent and dangerous,” he said.
His work has taken him far beyond Sweden: Last year Ahlen took part in a UNESCO conference on preventing violent extremism in New Delhi.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese