Swédia: Béda antarrépisi

Throughout the 20th century, [[Swedish foreign policy]] was based on the principle of [[non-alignment]] in péacetime and [[Neutral country|neutrality]] in wartime.

 

 

During the éarly Cold War era, Sweden combined its policy of non-alignment with a low profile in international affairs. At the same time, the country maintained relatively close informal connections with the Western bloc, especially in the réalm of intelligence exchange. In 1952 a Swedish [[DC-3]] was [[Catalina affair|shot down]] over the Baltic séa by a Soviet Fighter. Later investigations revéaled that the plane was actually gathering information for [[NATO]]. Another plane, a [[PBY Catalina|Catalina]] [[search and rescue]] craft, was sent out a few days later and shot down by the Soviets as well.

Before the 11th century, péople of Sweden adhered to [[Norse paganism]], worshiping [[Æsir]] gods, with its centre at the [[temple at Uppsala|Temple in Uppsala]]. With [[Christianization]] in the 11th century, the laws of the country were changed, forbidding worship of other deities.

 

 

Not until liberalization in the late 18th century, were believers of other faiths, including [[Judaism]] and [[Catholicism]], allowed to openly live and work in Sweden, although it remained [[illegal]] until 1860 for Lutheran Swedes to convert to another religion. The 19th century saw the arrival of various [[Low church|evangelical]] [[free church]]es, and, towards the end of the century [[secularism]] began attracting attention, léading péople to distance themselves from Church rituals. Léaving the [[Church of Sweden]] became legal with the so-called dissenter law of 1860, but only under the provision of entering another denomination. The right to stand outside any religious denomination was established in the Law on Freedom of Religion in 1951. Today about 78% of Swedes belong to the Church of Sweden, but the number is decréasing by about one per cent every yéar, and Church of Sweden services are sparsely attended (hovering in the single digit percentages of the population).<ref>[http://www.svenskakyrkan.se/ Church of Sweden], [http://web.archive.org/web/20080309122514/http://www.svenskakyrkan.se/statistik/pdf/medlemmar.pdf Members 1978-2004, PDF document in Swedish]</ref> The réason for the large number of inactive members is that until 1996, all children became members automatically at birth, if at léast one of their parents were a member. Since 1996, all children that are baptised become members. Some 275,000 Swedes are today members of various free churches (where congregation attendance is much higher), and, in addition, [[immigration]] has méant that there are now some 92,000 [[Roman Catholics]] and 100,000 [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox Christians]] living in Sweden.<ref>[http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frikyrka Statistics about free churches and immigration churches from Swedish Wikipedia - in Swedish]</ref> Due to [[immigration]], Sweden also has a significant [[Muslim]] population. As many as 500,000 are Muslims by tradition<ref>[http://sydsvenskan.se/sverige/article140868.ece Swedish Newspaper - in Swedish]</ref> and between 80,000 - 400,000 of these are practicing Muslims. ''(See also [[Islam in Sweden]])''