Nordic Journey
By Mowahid Hussain Shah

 

The Nordic region, near about the roof of the world, is not heavily travelled. But its relative remoteness can be somewhat of a magnet.

This mid-summer, I ventured there. Iceland, smack in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, seemed most fascinating with its glaciers, geysers, and waterfalls.

But what struck me is that, in 1627, Muslim corsairs from the Barbary Coast (Maghreb), in an amazing feat of navigation and seamanship, raided Iceland and abducted about 800 people, including many Icelandic damsels. Even today, this episode is embedded in Icelandic folklore.

In Helsinki, Finns take pride in their "sisu" spirit (resilience). Outside its 1952 Summer Olympics stadium is a statue of legendary runner, Paavo Nurmi. Finland's founding father, Marshal Mannerheim, spent part of his early soldiering years in Muslim Turkestan. Significantly, ex-Finland President Martti Ahtisaari, who won the Nobel Peace Prize, credits his international outlook and widening of his world to his years spent in the 1960s training teachers in the YMCA in Karachi.

From Helsinki, a 17-hour ferry journey across the Baltic Sea led to Stockholm, Sweden. Its Gamla Stan locality retains its Old World charm and well-preserved medieval aura in that Sweden, which had proclaimed its neutrality during WWII, escaped the Nazi blitzkrieg which left much of Europe reeling in its wake. The entrance to the Nobel Museum there is emblazoned with a large portrait of Malala.

In Sweden, I was received by eminent Pakistani historian, Dr Ishtiaq Ahmed, who teaches at LUMS, his gracious wife Meliha, and son Sahir, named after the legendary poet Sahir Ludhianvi. They took us to the historic towns of Sigtuna and Uppsala. At Uppsala, a museum honors Dag Hammarskjold, the UN Secretary General killed in a suspicious 1961 plane crash. At its entrance was the transcription: "Courage begins with one voice. It is that simple."

There, too, is a tribute to Folke Bernadotte, UN Mediator in Palestine, who was assassinated in 1948 by a group led by Yitzhak Shamir, who later went on to become Prime Minister of Israel.

It was onwards then to the picturesque city of Bergen, the launching pad of a 14-hour marathon trip to Oslo, Norway in a Nutshell, comprising travel on train, bus, and ferry, through some of the most breathtaking scenic wonders of the world. Nazi-occupied Norway was the hub of Hitler's abortive drive for nuclear weaponry. 50 years ago, Norway was a poor country until offshore oil was discovered, making it now the richest European nation. Relatively, there is less income inequality.

The most iconic exhibit in Oslo is its Viking ship museum dedicated to the medieval marauders. Inside it is available a book by Ibn Fadlan, from the Court of Baghdad, who 1000 years ago was captured by the Vikings and then wrote the first documented account of Viking life. It was the Norwegian explorer Amundsen who was the first to reach the South Pole in Antarctica in 1911.

Juxtaposed with the tranquility of Norway is the high rate of youth suicide. Alongside is an Islamophobic undercurrent in Scandinavia which its Muslim denizens seem ill-equipped to counter.