We are determined never to let the values that we treasure — democracy, human rights and freedom — to be undermined by hatred.”<br />Sweden’s fidelity to humanitarian values resulted in its accepting more than 80,000 asylum seekers in 2014<br />and more than 160,000 in 2015, before tightened procedures led the number to fall to fewer than 30,000 last year.<br />Well before Friday’s attack, a vigorous debate was underway on the best way forward,<br />and not all Swedes are happy: Support for the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats grew from just under 3 percent of the vote in 2006 parliamentary elections to just under 13 percent in the 2014 elections.<br />Clearly, Sweden must do better keeping tabs on people who have — as the police believe Friday’s attacker had — “sympathy for extremist organizations.”<br />But it will never be possible to stop every random madman from getting his hands on a truck and turning it into a weapon.<br />Sweden’s Wisdom on Terrorism -<br />By THE EDITORIAL BOARDAPRIL 12, 2017<br />Each terrorist attack tests anew the values of openness and tolerance essential to free societies.<br />This will no doubt add grist to the arguments of those — the autocrat Viktor Orban, the French right-wing presidential candidate<br />Marine Le Pen — who conflate terrorists with immigrants in search of a better life and refugees fleeing deadly conflict.<br />A version of this editorial appears in print on April 12, 2017, on Page A22 of the New York edition with the headline: Sweden’s Wisdom on Terrorism.
