Muslim Hate for Sweden
Swedish PM U-Turns,
Admits Connection Between Migration and Crime
Breibart.com
12 Sep 2020
Prime Minister
Stefan Löfven has U-turned and admitted that there is
a link between migration and Sweden’s rising levels of violent crime.
The Social
Democrat leader admitted that there is a connection between crime and migration
during a debate in the Swedish Riksdag on Wednesday.
Mr Löfven said: “With
a large migration, where we cannot cope with integration, then there is also a
greater risk of the kind of problems that we see. It’s crystal clear.”
The prime
minister’s statement came in response to questions posed by populist Sweden
Democrats (SD) leader Jimmie Åkesson, who
slammed the Swedish leader for refusing to admit any
connection between migration and crime as recently as earlier this week, Nyheter Idag reports.
“What I want
to avoid and what we should be extremely careful about is not to connect crime
automatically to skin colour or religion or anything
else,” Löfven added.
Åkesson went on to state that his argument was
regarding immigration policy and its link to crime, not skin colour or religion. The populist leader said:
“I want to hear Stefan Löfven take responsibility and
say ‘I was wrong’.”
The admission
by Löfven comes after deputy national police
chief Mats Löfving sounded the alarm last weekend
over the growth and influence of migration-background clan gangs across Sweden.
“These clans
come to Sweden solely with the purpose of organising
and systematising crime. They work to create power,
they have a great capacity for violence, and they want to make money. And they
do that with drugs, violent crimes, and extortion,” Löfving
had said.
Finland’s
broadcaster YLE has speculated that the change in stance could cause a crisis in the
Swedish coalition government, as the Social Democrat’s coalition partners, the
Greens, are fiercely pro-mass migration.
Earlier this
year, Green MP Isabella Lövin rejected the idea of
any limits on asylum seeker applications after the centre-right
Moderate Party proposed a cap.
Sweden: Sex
Crimes Have Tripled Since 2014
9 Oct 2019
Breitbart
The number of Swedes
reporting to have been victims of sexual crimes has tripled between 2014 and
2018, according to a report by the Swedish Crime Prevention Council Brå.
The report reveals
that in 2018, around six per cent of the Swedish population between the ages of
16 and 84 say they had been victims of sexual offences, a total of around
482,000 people.
The percentage
is a slight decrease from the previous year, which saw 6.4 per cent of Swedes
claiming to have been victims of sex crimes. However, it marks a tripling of
the 2014 figure, which was just two per cent.
Between 2006
and 2012, the number of reported sex attack victims remained under two per
cent, with a low of 1.4 per cent in 2011.
Women had a
much higher rate of reported sex attacks with 9.9 per cent — around one in ten
— saying they had been a victim in 2018, compared to just 1.6 per cent of men.
The report
notes that sex attack statistics cover serious crimes such as rape but also
cover other offences such as abusive sexual remarks.
While the
overall number of reports decreased slightly in 2018 from 2017, the county
of Örebro reported a substantial increase from 6.7
per cent of women reporting sex attacks in 2017 to 11.4 per cent the following
year, according to
broadcaster SVT.
Overall, 26.4
per cent of Swedes say they had been exposed to crime in
2018. Moderate Party leader Ulf Kristersson said
the figure “shows that the development continues to go in the wrong direction”.
“It is quite
obvious that we are not doing what needs to be done. If we do not do
really powerful things, then nothing powerful will change,” Mr
Kristersson added.
The report
comes as Sweden has seen a surge in violent crime, especially when it comes to
deadly shootings and explosions in the last
few years.
Last year, the
country saw a record number of fatal
shootings, with police officer Gunnar Appelgren
describing the country as being in something akin to a “state at war”.
A late education for
Sweden
By THE WASHINGTON TIMES -
- Wednesday, March 20, 2019
Sweden’s “social democracy,” often cited by
Europeans and like-minded Americans as the model society, is in deep
trouble. Sweden is no longer a
low-crime country, but now a high-crime country, with rates of homicide
significantly above the Western European average. Car torchings,
attacks on first responders and even riots, are familiar to all.
With a
population of just over 10 million, the government continues policies that the
majority of Swedes oppose. Last December public-opinion polls reckoned that 53
percent of all Swedes want to reduce the number of arriving immigrants.
Swedes have
grown accustomed to newspaper headlines about murder, robbery and mayhem,
intimidation of witnesses and gangland executions. In a country long renowned
for its safe streets and environs, voters cite “law and order” as the most
important issue ahead of the national election in September.
But the topic
of crime is sensitive, and debate in the consensus-oriented Scandinavian
culture is restricted by taboos — especially about criticizing the growing
numbers of Muslims, many from countries with a culture alien to Scandinavia and
the West. The government’s excuse for denying Islamic terrorist attacks,
obvious to everybody, is that no Islamic group has “officially” claimed
responsibility for them.
In 2010, the
national Security Service estimated that up to 200 persons are part of the
violent Islamist phenomenon in Sweden. According to the Swedish Defense
University, most of these militants are affiliated with the Islamic State. More
than 300 Swedish residents traveled to Syria and Iraq to join ISIS terrorists.
Some pay for their participations in such groups with money paid out from the
Swedish state welfare system. In 2017, the director of the Swedish Security
Service said the number of violent Islamic extremists residing in Sweden was estimated to be in the
“thousands.”
Swedish
immigrant law is chaotic. It does not allow the security services to take
measures against returning ISIS fighters. The penalty for membership in a
terrorist group is two to six years in prison and until that law was enacted
returning ISIS terrorists could only be tried for specific crimes committed
while they were fighting for the “caliphate.”
Earlier this
year the government introduced legislation to criminalize membership in a
terrorist organization, enabling prosecution of returning ISIS fighters who,
while not having been connected to a specific crime, were proven to have been
part of a terrorist organization.
Furthermore,
according to the Swedish Defense University, since the 1970s residents of Swedenhave been
implicated in providing logistical and financial support, or membership, in
various foreign-based militant Islamic militant groups.
The Danish
Security and Intelligence Service next door warned that the number of jihadists
in Sweden are a threat
against Denmark since two terrorists arriving from Sweden were found guilty of part of the
2010 Copenhagen terror plot. In another neighboring country, Norwegians
describe crime and social unrest in their country a result of “Swedish
conditions.”
Efforts to
strengthen anti-terror legislation have been hampered by human rights
activists. However, when the number of Swedes traveling to join the Islamic
State were exposed, some of the loudest activists withdrew from public debate
after they were themselves exposed for harassing women on commuter trains.
National security analysts warn that Sweden has not only welcomed ISIS
terrorists, but their wives and children as well, who pose a security risk:
“The women are
not innocent victims, and there is also a large group of ISIS children … From
the age of eight or nine, they have been sent to indoctrination camps where
they have learned close combat techniques and how to handle weapons. Some of
them have learned how to kill … their identities will forever be linked to
their time with ISIS, and the fact that they have an ISIS father or an ISIS
mother.” Sweden’s mental health
system is judged “not fit to deal with that, and if they stay with their
extremist parents there could be delayed [terrorist] effects further down the
line, 15-20 years from now.” Reality is a teacher grading on a sharp curve.
Four
killed by truck driven into crowd in Swedish capital
Fri Apr 7, 2017
Reuters
By Johan Ahlander | STOCKHOLM
A truck plowed into a crowd on a shopping street and crashed into a department
store in central Stockholm on Friday, killing four people and wounding 15 in
what the prime minister said appeared to be a terrorist attack.
Swedish police said they had arrested one person after earlier circulating a
picture of a man wearing a grey hoodie. They did not rule out the possibility
other attackers were involved.
"We have a person who is arrested who may have connections to the event in
Stockholm earlier today," police spokesperson Towe Hagg said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
"I turned around and saw a big truck coming toward me. It swerved from
side to side. It didn't look out of control, it was trying to hit people,"
Glen Foran, an Australian tourist in his 40s, told
Reuters.
"It hit people, it was terrible. It hit a pram
with a kid in it, demolished it," he said.
"It took a long time for police to get here. I suppose from their view it
was quick, but it felt like forever."
Part of central Stockholm was cordoned off and the area was evacuated,
including the main train station. All subway traffic was halted on police
orders. Government offices were closed.
"Sweden has been attacked. Everything points to the fact that this is a
terrorist attack," Prime Minister Stefan Lofven
told reporters during a visit to western Sweden. He was immediately returning
to the capital.
Many police and emergency services personnel were at the scene, said a Reuters
witness who saw policemen put what appeared to be two bodies into body bags.
Bloody tyre tracks on Drottninggatan
(Queen Street) showed where the truck had passed.
The truck had been stolen while making a beer delivery to a tapas bar further
up Drottninggatan, Spendrups
Brewery spokesman Marten Lyth said. A masked person
jumped into the cab, started the truck and drove away.
"We were standing by the traffic lights at Drottninggatan
and then we heard some screaming and saw a truck coming," a witness who declined
to be named told Reuters.
"Then it drove into a pillar at Ahlens City
(department store) where the hood started burning. When it stopped
we saw a man lying under the tyre. It was terrible to
see," said the man, who saw the incident from his car.
Police said four people had died and 15 were injured. National news agency TT
said those hurt included the delivery driver, who had tried to stop the hijack.
Several attacks in which trucks or cars have driven into crowds have taken
place in Europe in the past year. Al Qaeda in 2010 urged its followers to use
trucks as a weapon.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack in Nice, France, last July,
when a truck killed 86 people celebrating Bastille Day, and one in Berlin in
December, when a truck smashed through a Christmas market, killing 12 people.
Magnus Ranstorp, head of terrorism research at the
Swedish Defence University, told Reuters the
attacker's approach was similar to those in Berlin and Nice: "Hijacking a
truck, that has happened before."
"And this is a pretty cunning modus operandi," he said. "To
drive to Ahlens (department store) and stop ... There
is a way down to the subway just a few meters away from there, and then you ...
can jump on any train you want and quickly disappear."
Sweden's King Carl Gustaf said in a statement: "Our thoughts are going out
to those that were affected, and to their families."
"An attack on any of our member states is an attack on us all," said
European Union chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker.
Stockholmers opened up their homes and offered lifts to people who were unable
to get home or needed a place to stay.
The attack was the latest to hit the Nordic region after shootings in
Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2015 that killed three people and the 2011 bombing and
shooting by far right extremist Anders Behring Breivik
that killed 77 people in Norway.
Sweden has not been hit by a large-scale attack, although in December 2010, a
man blew himself up only a few hundred yards from the site of the latest
incident in a failed suicide attack.
In February U.S. President Donald Trump falsely suggested there had been an
immigration-related security incident in Sweden, to the bafflement of Swedes.
Swedish authorities raised the national security threat level to four on a
scale of five in October 2010 but lowered the level to three, indicating a
"raised threat", in March 2016.
Police in Norway's largest cities and at Oslo's airport will carry weapons
until further notice following the attack. Denmark has been on high alert since
the February 2015 shootings.
Neutral Sweden has not fought a war in more than 200 years, but its military
has taken part in U.N peacekeeping missions in a number of conflict zones in
recent years, including Iraq, Mali and Afghanistan.
The Sapo security police said in its annual report it
was impossible to say how big a risk there was that Sweden would be targeted
like other European cities, but that, if so "it is most likely that it
would be undertaken by a lone attacker".
SWEDEN'S 'NO-GO ZONE' CRISIS: Three police officers injured after being
ATTACKED by thugs
THREE Swedish police officers were taken to hospital after being attacked by a
violent mob on a routine mission in a ‘no-go zone’ on Friday evening.
By LIZZIE STROMME
Feb
12, 2017
Officers in Sweden’s capital were on patrol in the suburb of Rinkeby when they are set upon by a group of 20-30 thugs.
Police spokeswoman Eva Nilsson said the sickening attack on her colleagues
happened after they stopped to search an individual at around 11pm.
Moments later the mob appeared and started hitting, kicking and throwing
bottles and glass at the attending officers.
Ms Nilsson said: “It is utterly unacceptable that
this happened during normal service.
“The trouble started after a [routine search of a person]. People came out from
a place nearby, a restaurant or what it was.
“Exactly how many people were involved is difficult to say, but the officers
[assess] it to be between 20-30 people. All of them were not active, but they
were observing the incident.
“Bottles and glass was also thrown at the police.”
Three police officers were taken to hospital for treatment after the brutal
clash, and Ms Nilsson added: “Of course it’s serious
when police officers on duty are attacked in this way.
“Unfortunately this is the reality… for officers.”
The official also confirmed three people had been detained following the
sickening incident.
The shocking attack on the on-duty officers is just one of many incidents, as
officials have placed more than 50 areas on a ‘no-go zone’ list where they
admit they do not have control.
Lawless thugs are wreaking havoc unchecked, and officers are often at personal
risk when entering the crisis-hit areas.
As the crisis in the Swedish police force continues to grow as they are
powerless against the increasing number of violent crimes, one officer took to
Facebook to share his frustration.
In a seething post, Peter Springare, who works as an
investigator for the police in Örebro, a small city
in southern Sweden, said migrants were to blame for the majority of crimes.
The former deputy chief of the serious crimes division wrote: “I’m so f*****
tired. What I’m writing here isn’t politically correct. But I don’t care.
“Our pensioners are on their knees, the schools are a mess, healthcare is an
inferno, the police is completely destroyed. Everyone
knows why, but no one dares or wants to say why.”
Sweden mulls new laws banning jihad combat,
travel
June
17, 2015
Stockholm (AFP) - Sweden is considering drafting new legislation that would ban
its nationals from fighting in armed conflicts for terrorist organisations such as Islamic State (IS), the government
said Wednesday.
"It is completely unacceptable that Swedish citizens are travelling to
(join) IS, financing the organisation, or fighting
for it," Justice Minister Morgan Johansson and Interior Minister Anders Ygeman wrote in a joint article in leading newspaper Dagens Nyheter.
The proposed ban would prohibit combat for terrorist organisations
listed as such by the United Nations or European Union.
"We have a responsibility for what our citizens do both here at home and
in other countries," they wrote.
"People who live here and who have chosen to join IS can constitute a
serious threat upon their return. Criminalisation is
of course not the only way of preventing this but it is an important part of
anti-terrorism measures," they said.
Johansson told reporters at a press conference that he had commissioned a
report on the possibility of introducing such legislation, which was to be
submitted to the government in June 2016.
In a bid to stem the flow of foreign jihadists, the UN Security Council adopted
a resolution last year requiring member states to adopt laws making it illegal
to travel or make plans to travel to a country to join jihadist groups, or to
collect funds for recruitment.
Johansson said Sweden hoped to present a separate bill to parliament in a few
months that would meet the UN demands.
A government-commissioned report has proposed a maximum two-year prison
sentence for those crimes.
Swedish intelligence service Sapo has said that about
150 people from Sweden are known to have travelled to Syria and Iraq to join
Islamic militant groups, but that the figure may be as high as 300.
Stockholm restaurant torched as riots spread
BBC
News
23 May 2013
Three police officers were hurt as rioters threw stones and directed laser
pointers at emergency services.
The unrest began on Sunday in the deprived, largely immigrant suburb of Husby, to the north-west of the city.
Days earlier the police had shot dead an elderly man who had allegedly
threatened to kill them with a machete.
The worst of the latest rioting has been in the south of the city.
Stockholm police spokesman Kjell Lindgren said the
rioters were a "mixture of every kind of people".
Activists in the Husby area have accused police of
racist behaviour - an accusation greeted with scepticism by the police themselves.
Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has said everybody must take responsibility
for restoring calm in Stockholm.
"It's important to remember that burning your neighbour's
car is not an example of freedom of speech, it's hooliganism," he said on
Wednesday.
Laser pointers
It is unclear how many cars have been burnt since Sunday as a result of the
rioting, Mr Lindgren told the BBC.
But on Wednesday night 10 attacks were reported in the north-western suburbs
while between 20 and 30 were burnt in southern parts of Stockholm.
Firefighters struggled to contain the fire at the restaurant in the southern
suburb of Skogas, where young people pelted them with
stones, the spokesman said.
Groups of rioters, as small as five people and as large as 100, have been seen
this week, Mr Lindgren said.
They have typically waited for emergency services to attend a fire before
attacking them.
Green laser pointers have also been shone in the eyes of the emergency
services, according to Mr Lindgren.
No arrests were made on Wednesday night because the police's priority was to
disperse mobs and ensure access to fires for the fire brigade, he said.
Overall, five people have been arrested since Sunday.
'Very young people'
The Stockholm police spokesman said rioting had occurred in both deprived parts
of the city and parts that would be considered "normal".
"My colleagues say the people on the streets are a mixture of every kind
of people you can think of," he added.
"We have got Swedes, we have got very young people, we have got people
aged 30 to 35. You can't define them as a group.
"We don't know why they are doing this. There is no answer to it."
In Husby, more than 80% of the 12,000 or so
inhabitants are from an immigrant background, and most are from Turkey, the
Middle East and Somalia.
Rami al-Khamisi, a law student and founder of the
youth organisation Megafonen,
told the Swedish edition of online newspaper The Local this week that he had
been insulted racially by police. Teenagers, he said, had been called
"monkeys", fuelling resentment.
The Stockholm police spokesman said he was aware that prosecutors were
investigating complaints, and the behaviour of one
police officer in particular.
But he added that he could "hardly believe" all the complaints being
made were true.
"We have never had this kind of riots before in Stockholm, not this amount of riots and not this number of hot areas," said
Mr Lindgren.
200 violence-prone Islamic extremists in Sweden
December
16, 2010
Swedishwire.com
Some 200 possibly violent Islamic extremists live in Sweden, according to an
intelligence report released Wednesday after the country's first-ever suicide
bombing narrowly missed Christmas shoppers.
"The group of active members ... consists of just under 200
individuals," the Säpo intelligence agency said
in its 126-page report, based on data from 2009 and scheduled to be published
before the weekend's attack in central Stockholm.
Saturday's bomber, named as Taymour Abdelwahab, a
Swedish national who became an outspoken supporter of violent jihad while
living in Britain, did not figure among the 200 people on Säpo's
radar, and it remained unclear if any possible accomplices were on the list.
"We are currently putting enormous resources into assessing his contacts,
his whereabouts, his profile, and to see how his radicalisation
process began and how it developed," Malena Rembe,
the chief analyst at Säpo's counter-terrorism unit,
told AFP.
"I can say we are studying very, very carefully to ... be able to assess
the risk or the threat," she said, adding it still remained to be seen if
the bomber had helpers.
The report showed that the number of violence-promoting Islamists in Sweden has
remained stable in recent years.
While the so-called radicalisation process generally
happens among men aged 15 to 30, the average age in the group is 36, the report
showed.
Rembe explained that while members of other violent,
radical groups, like rightwing extremists, tended to drop out when they started
families, the radical Islamists "don't leave when they get older,"
making prevention work at an early age vital.
The report showed "most of them were born or grew up in Sweden, and it is
here that they come into contact with violence-promoting ideologies and
groups."
Some "80 percent of the 200 can be linked to each other," Rembe told a press conference, adding however that the
connection tended to be loose, through friendship and acquaintances, and not as
part of one big network.
Around 30 out of the 200 have in recent years traveled abroad to take part in
violent combat or terrorist training camps, she said.
"Most of these networks focus on action and propaganda against foreign
troops in Muslim countries and against governments they see as corrupt and not
representing what networks consider to be the only true interpretation of
Islam," Saepo said.
It explained in the report that the extremists focus on areas such as Somalia,
Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
But while most of Sweden's radical Islamists did not yet consider the
Scandinavian country a legitimate target, Rembe
pointed out that a recent rise of the far-right and increased anti-Muslim
rhetoric could alter that.
"What we've seen in other countries where you have a more polarised debate, where you have more open xenophobia or
Islamophobia, is that it tends to push people into movements because they feel isolated
in their own society and they feel included in these extremist environments ...
"So it is a potential negative outcome," she
told AFP.
She added however that Sweden today has "a fairly open dialogue and
communication ... It is extremely important to ensure a nuanced
discussion."
Abdelwahab, known for his outspoken views in favour of violent jihad, blew himself up on Saturday
evening minutes after his car exploded, injuring two people, near a crowded
pedestrian street in Stockholm.
He killed himself before he could carry out what, according to the lead
prosecutor on the case, appeared to have been a mission to murder "as many
people as possible."
Jews reluctantly abandon Swedish city amid growing anti-Semitism
The
Muslim population in Malmo lives in segregated conditions that seem to breed
alienation and anger directed at Israeli policies.
By Donald Snyder, The Forward
July 11, 2010
MALMO, SWEDEN — At some point, the shouts of “Heil Hitler” that often greeted Marcus Eilenberg as he walked to the
107-year-old Moorish-style synagogue in this port city forced the 32-year-old
attorney to make a difficult, life-changing decision: Fearing for his family’s
safety after repeated anti-Semitic incidents, Eilenberg reluctantly uprooted
himself and his wife and two children, and moved to Israel in May.
Sweden, a country long regarded as a model of tolerance, has, ironically, been
a refuge for Eilenberg’s family. His paternal grandparents found a home in
Malmo in 1945 after surviving the Holocaust. His wife’s parents came to Malmo
from Poland in 1968 after the communist government there launched an
anti-Semitic purge.
But as in many other cities across Europe, a rapidly growing Muslim population
living in segregated conditions that seem to breed alienation has mixed
toxically with the anger directed at Israeli policies and actions by those
Muslims — and by many non-Muslims — to all but transform the lives of local
Jews. Like many of their counterparts in other European cities, the Jews of
Malmo report being subjected increasingly to threats, intimidation and actual
violence as stand-ins for Israel.
“I didn’t want my small children to grow up in this environment,” Eilenberg
said in a phone interview just before leaving Malmo. “It wouldn’t be fair to them
to stay in Malmo.”
Malmo, Sweden’s third-largest city, with a population of roughly 293,900 but
only 760 Jews, reached a turning point of sorts in January 2009, during
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. A small, mostly Jewish group held a
demonstration that was billed as a peace rally but seen as a sign of support
for Israel. This peaceful demonstration was cut short when the demonstrators
were attacked by a much larger screaming mob of Muslims and Swedish leftists
who threw bottles and firecrackers at them as police seemed unable to stop the
mounting mayhem.
“I was very scared and upset at the same time,” recalled Jehoshua Kaufman, a
Jewish community leader. “Scared because there were a lot of angry people
facing us, shouting insults and throwing bottles and firecrackers at the same
time. The sound was very loud. And I was angry because we really wanted to go
through with this demonstration, and we weren’t allowed to finish it.”
Alan Widman, who is a strapping 6-foot-tall member of parliament and a
non-Jewish member of the Liberal Party who represents Malmo, said simply, “I
have never been so afraid in my life.”
The demonstrators were eventually evacuated by the police, who were not present
in sufficient numbers to protect their rally. But some participants complained
that the police’s crowd-control dogs remained muzzled.
The Eilenbergs are not particularly religious, but
they have a strong Jewish identity and felt unable to live in Malmo as Jews
after this episode. Eilenberg said he knows at least 15 other Jewish families
that are thinking about moving away.
Anti-Semitism in Europe has historically been associated with the far right,
but the Jews interviewed for this article say that the threat in Sweden now
comes from Muslims and from changing attitudes about Jews in the wider
society.
Saeed Azams, Malmo’s chief imam, who represents most
of the city’s Muslims, is quick to disavow and condemn violence against Malmo’s
Jews. Recently, he, along with Jewish leaders, have been participating in a
dialogue group organized by city officials that seeks to address the issue. But
Azams also downplayed the seriousness of the problem,
saying there were “not more than 100 people, most under 18 years old,” who
engage in violence and belong to street gangs.“There
are some things I can’t control,” he said.
There are an estimated 45,000 Muslims in Malmo, or 15% of the city’s
population. Many of them are Palestinians, Iraqis and Somalis, or come from the
former Yugoslavia.
But the problem is not just Muslims, and not just Malmo’s.
A European Problem
A continentwide study, conducted by the Institute for Interdisciplinary
Research on Conflict and Violence at the University of Bielefeld in Germany,
released in December 2009, found that that 45.7% of the Europeans surveyed
agree somewhat or strongly with the following statement: “Israel is conducting
a war of extermination against the Palestinians.” And 37.4% agreed with this
statement: “Considering Israel’s policy, I can understand why people do not
like Jews.”
“[There is] quite a high level of anti-Semitism that is hidden beneath critics
of Israel’s policies,” said Beate Kupper,
one of the study’s principal researchers, in a telephone interview with the
Forward, citing this data and a tendency to “blame Jews in general for Israel’s
policies.”
Kupper said that in places where there is a strong
taboo against expressions of anti-Semitism, such as Germany, “Criticism of
Israel is a great way to express your anti-Semitism in an indirect way.”
According to Bassam Tibi, professor emeritus of
international relations at the University of Goettingen
in Germany, and author of several books on the growth of Islam in Europe,
Muslims form a significant subset of this problem. “The growth of the Muslim
diaspora in Europe is affecting the Jews,” Tibi said.
Among some Muslim populations in Europe — though not all — “every Jew is seen
as responsible for what Israel is doing and can be a target.”
In Malmo, this population’s role in the problem is seen as significant. Most of
Malmo’s Muslims live in Rosengard, the eastern part of this de facto segregated
city, where the jobless rate is 80%. Satellite dishes dot the high-rise
apartments to receive programming from Al-Jazeera and other Arabic-language
cable networks that keep Malmo’s Muslims in constant touch with the latest
Arab-Israeli developments.
Sylvia Morfradakis, a European Union official who
works with the chronically unemployed, those who have been without work for 10
to 15 years, said that the main reason that 80% to 90% of Muslims between the
ages of 18 and 34 can’t find jobs is that they can’t speak Swedish.
“Swedish employers insist workers know Swedish well, even for the most menial
jobs,” Morfradakis said. She added, “The social
welfare concept for helping without end does not give people the incentive to
do something to make life better.”
But Per Gudmundson, chief editorial writer for
Svenska Dagbladet, a leading Swedish newspaper, is critical of politicians who
blame anti-Semitic actions on Muslim living conditions. He said that these
politicians offer “weak excuses” for Muslim teenagers accused of anti-Semitic
crimes. “Politicians say these kids are poor and oppressed, and we have made
them hate. They are, in effect, saying the behavior of these kids is in some way
our fault,” he said.
According to Gudmundson, some immigrants from Muslim
countries come to Sweden as hardened anti-Semites.
The plight of the Jews worries Annelie Enochson, a Christian Democrat member of the Swedish
Parliament. “If the Jews feel threatened in Sweden, then I am very frightened
about the future of my country,” she said in an interview with the Forward.
A Chabad rabbi’s experience
Because he is the most visible Jew in Malmo, with his black fedora, tzitzit and
long beard, Malmo’s only rabbi, Shneur Kesselman, 31, is a prime target for Muslim anti-Jewish
sentiment. The Orthodox Chabad rabbi said that during his six years in the
city, he has been the victim of more than 50 anti-Semitic incidents. An
American, Kesselman is a soft
spoken man with a steely determination to stay in Malmo despite the
danger.
Two members of the American Embassy in Stockholm visited him in April to
discuss his safety. From Keselman’s account, they had
good reason to worry.
The rabbi recalled the day he was crossing a street near his house with his
wife when a car suddenly went into reverse and sped backward toward them. They
dodged the vehicle and barely made it to the other side of the street. “My wife
was screaming,” the rabbi said. “It was a traumatic event.”
Local newspapers report that the number of anti-Semitic incidents in Malmo
doubled in 2009 from 2008, though police could not confirm this. Meanwhile,
Fredrik Sieradzki, spokesman for the Malmo Jewish
community, estimates that the already small Jewish population is shrinking by
5% a year. “Malmo is a place to move away from,” he said, citing anti-Semitism
as the primary reason. “The community was twice as large two decades ago.” The
synagogue on Foreningsgatan, a fashionable street,
has elaborate security. Reflecting the level of fear, the building’s glass is
not just bullet-proof, Jewish communal officials say; it’s rocket-proof. Guards
check strangers seeking to enter the synagogue.
Some Jewish parents try to protect their children by moving to neighborhoods
where there are fewer Muslims in the schools so that confrontations will be
minimized. Six Jewish teenagers interviewed recounted anti-Semitic abuse from
Muslim classmates. According to their families, though the incidents were
reported to the authorities, none of the perpetrators was arrested, much less
punished.
One victim was Jonathan Tsubarah, 19, the son of an
Israeli Jew who settled in Sweden. As he strolled through the city’s
cobble-stoned Gustav Adolph Square on August 21, 2009, three young men — a
Palestinian and two Somalis — stopped him and asked where he was from, he
recalled.
“I’m from Israel,” Tsubarah responded.
“I’m from Palestine,” one assailant retorted, “and I will kill you.”
The three beat him to the ground and kicked him in the back, Tsubarah said. “Kill the Jew,” they shouted. “Now are you
proud to be a Jew?”
“No I am not,” the slightly built teenager replied. He
said he did this just to get them to stop kicking him. Tsubarah
plans to go to Israel and join the army.
Weak government response
Many Jews fault Swedish police for not cracking down on anti-Semitism. Most
hate crimes in Malmo are acts of vandalism, said Susanne Gosenius,
head of the newly created hate crime unit of the Malmo Police Department These
include painted swastikas on buildings. According to Gosenius,
police do not give priority to this type of crime. “It’s very rare that police
find the perpetrators,” she said. “Swedes don’t understand why swastikas are
bad and how they offend Jews.” According to Gosenius,
30% of the hate crimes in the Malmo region are anti-Semitic.
Members of Parliament have attended anti-Israel rallies where the Israeli flag
was burned while the flags of Hamas and Hezbollah were waved, and the rhetoric
was often anti-Semitic—not just anti-Israel. But such public rhetoric is not
branded hateful and denounced, said Henrik Bachner, a
writer and professor of history at the University of Lund, near Malmo.
“Sweden is a microcosm of contemporary anti-Semitism,” said Charles Small,
director of the Yale University Initiative for the Study of Anti-Semitism.
“It’s a form of acquiescence to radical Islam, which is diametrically opposed
to everything Sweden stands for.”
A dialogue initiative
The situation has generated some points of potential light. Recently, Ilmar Reepalu, the mayor of
Malmo, convened a “dialogue forum” that includes leaders of the Jewish and
Muslim communities, as well as city officials, to improve social relations in
the city and the city government’s response to conflicts.
During an interview in his office, Imam Saeed Azams
said it was wrong to blame Swedish Jews for Israel’s actions. The
wheelchair-bound Azams stressed the importance of
teaching young Muslims to stop equating the Jews of Malmo with Israel. But this
seemed to include an assumption that Jews, in turn, should not permit
themselves to be seen as pro-Israel.
“Because Jewish society in Sweden does not condemn the clearly illegal actions
of Israel,” he said, “then ordinary people think the Jews here are allied to
Israel, but this is not true.”
The imam is an advocate of dialogue with Jewish leaders, and welcomed the
creation of the dialogue forum. Reepalu, Malmo’s
mayor, has appointed Bjorn Lagerback, a psychologist,
to take charge of the newly formed forum. And Sieradzki,
the Jewish community leader, was optimistic about its prospects to eventually
improve relations.
Reepalu created the forum in the wake of last year’s
violence against the Jewish demonstrators and his own controversial remarks
that angered Jews. Saying that he condemned both Zionism and anti-Semitism, Reepalu criticized Malmo Jews for not taking a stand
against Israel’s invasion of Gaza. “Instead,” he said, “they chose to arrange a
demonstration in the center of Malmo, a demonstration that people could misinterpret.”
Interviewed at Malmo’s city hall, Lagerback
acknowledged an “awful situation” in Rosengard, where fire trucks and
ambulances are often stoned by angry Muslim youth when the emergency vehicles
go there. But like the imam, he hastened to add that those engaging in violence
were a small number of young people. He attributed such behavior to living
conditions of poverty, overcrowding and unemployment, as well as to cultural
differences.
Swedish experts agree that integration of Muslims into Swedish society has
failed, and this undermines the development of a more diverse society. Many
pupils in heavily Muslim schools reject the authority of female teachers.
“We are Swedish but second- or third-class citizens,” said Mohammed Abnalheja, vice president of the Palestinian Home
Association in Malmo. The organization teaches children of Palestinian descent
about their bond to a Palestinian homeland. “We have a right to our country,
Palestine,” he said. “Palestine is now occupied by Zionists.”
Abnalheja was born to Palestinian parents in Baghdad
and came to Malmo with his parents in 1996. He has never been to the place he
calls Palestine.
Meanwhile, 86-year-old Judith Popinski says she is no
longer invited to schools that have a large Muslim presence to tell her story
of surviving the Holocaust.
Popinski found refuge in Malmo in 1945. Until
recently, she told her story in Malmo schools as part of their Holocaust
studies program. Now, some schools no longer ask Holocaust survivors to tell
their stories, because Muslim students treat them with such disrespect, either
ignoring the speakers or walking out of the class.
“Malmo reminds me of the anti-Semitism I felt as a child in Poland before the
war,” she told the Forward while sitting in her living room, which is adorned
with Persian rugs and many paintings.
“I am not safe as a Jew in Sweden anymore,” a trembling Popinski
said in a frail voice. But unlike others, she intends to stay in Sweden. “I
will not be a victim again,” she said.
Sweden threatened with jihad
Videos show men training with explosives,
Sweden threatened with 'suffering in the name of Allah'; former ambassador to
Sweden says potential for terror infrastucture exists
Yaakov Lappin
A group using the name of Iraqi jihad group
Ansar al-Sunnah has released videos showing what it claims are members training
for terror attacks in the Swedish countryside.
In one video, dated August 8 2005, the group
says that viewers are about to see a “demonstration of the high explosives
device, that we will use in the name of Allah.”
“This was recorded somewhere in Sweden,” says a
message on the video in yellow letters against military camouflage colors.
A large explosion is then seen in a heavily
wooded area. While it is not possible to verify the location of the explosion,
the scenery does appear to be northern European.
A second video by the group, which is dated
August 29, contains images of men with blurred out faces setting off mock
suicide explosives and roadside car bomb attacks.
The video begins with a message which reads:
“Demonstration of real high explosives device, that is filled with gas instead
of ammoniate nitrate.” It goes on to show men standing in a clearing in a
forest. They are seen pulling chords attached to devices, and setting off
explosions of white smoke around themselves. In the same video, a red vehicle
is seen driving along a forest path, before suddenly being engulfed in an
explosion of white smoke.
The videos are available for download on infovlad.net , which frequently posts videos of jihad shooting
and bomb attacks from around the world, along with documents containing bomb
making manuals.
'Suffer in the name of Allah'
One user on the site, who identified himself as
'Dehex,' warned that “Sweden will suffer in the name
of Allah.”
Referring to a well known Swedish reverend, Runar
Soogard, who is reported to be under police protection
after offending Muslims with a speech about Islam’s prophet, Muhammad, Dehex wrote: “Runar Soogard had a very bad and nasty speech about our greatest
prophet Mohamed.”
“It's because he doesn't wan't
to apologyze to the Ummah Nation on at least television.
Thats why they are giving out this
videos as a warning! There will be one more warning, if he dosen't apologize on television…” wrote the user, in an
ominous warning.
'Sweden has a problem'
Speaking to Ynetnews, Israel’s former
ambassador to Sweden, Zvi Mazel, said he was not
surprised by the presence of jihad movements in the Scandinavian country.
“Sweden is scene to violent demonstrations by
radical Muslims, who are often joined by the far left,” said Mazel.
“In the middle of a talk I was giving in
Stockholm, we were suddenly told by security personnel that there was an
Islamist anti-Israel demonstration, in which members of the crowd were smashing
windows with iron bars.”
“The Swedish press says that Sweden has
immunity from terror due to its anti-Israel stance,” added Mazel.
The former ambassador also painted a grim
picture of the situation for Sweden’s Jewish community. “There are harassments
and physical attacks against Jews in Sweden,” he said. “There are many
complaints about anti-Semitism among the Jewish community there.”
“There is a big problem in Sweden. Jihadist
organizations certainly have a potential infrastructure there,” he added.
Sweden struggles to integrate Muslim immigrants
Breitbart.com
Jul 16, 2007
Sweden has welcomed immigrants with open arms
for decades but now it is grappling with how to integrate them into society,
especially in the southern town of Malmoe amid a massive influx of refugees.
Once a thriving industrial town
with full employment, Malmoe has seen many of its plants shut down since the
1990s. That, combined with a never-ending stream of foreigners arriving, has
led to rising juvenile delinquency and rampant unemployment.
Of the town's 280,000 inhabitants,
a third are foreigners and 60,000 are Muslims.
"We are an open city. We see these immigrants as a resource
for our society," Malmoe's Social Democratic mayor Ilmar
Reepalu told AFP.
"The problem is that we have
welcomed too many immigrants at the same time," he said, pointing out that
last year Malmoe took in more Iraqi asylum-seekers than Germany, Spain, France
and Italy combined.
Reepalu said 5,000
refugees a year seek asylum in Malmoe, Sweden's third largest city behind
Stockholm and Gothenburg, though it is really only able to take in 1,500.
The result is many overcrowded
apartments as refugees flock to immigrant-heavy areas and an employment rate
that has dropped to around 50 percent.
Swedish Integration Minister Nyamko Sabuni -- a Muslim who
came to Sweden when she was 12 and the first African to become a member of
government in the country -- insists that the only way for immigrants to
integrate into society is to learn the language and get a job.
"It is crucial that immigrants
get in contact with the labour market as soon as
possible after receiving their residence permit. This has to be combined with
language courses," she told AFP.
While immigrants to Sweden in the
late 1950s and 1960s came as much-needed labourers,
the trend has in recent decades shifted toward political refugees, according to Yves Zenou, an economics professor at Stockholm University specialised in integration problems.
"Immigrants to Sweden have
become political refugees. First there were people from South America, then Iran, Afghanistan and now
Iraq," he said.
"They come seeking asylum and
not work," he said.
He recalled the Scandinavian
country's generous humanitarian policies which provide immigrants with
everything they need once they arrive.
"The famous welfare state
takes care of everything on a social level. But that's the limitation of the
system -- the country cannot provide any solution when it comes to jobs, which
is the key to integration," he said.
And the situation risks getting
worse.
New arrivals tend to settle where
they already have friends and family members, leading Swedes to desert some
areas, such as Malmoe's southeastern neighbourhood of
Rosengaard.
"When a lot of people from one
ethnic group concentrate together, you always see the same phenomenon
everywhere: they become marginalised, with high
unemployment and crime rates," Zenou said.
"That's the case in the United
States, France and Britain and now in Sweden, although at different
levels," he stressed.
If nothing is done, he said, the
situation in Sweden could explode within 10 or 20 years, as it already has in
other parts of Europe.
Immigrants in Sweden follow a
well-established pattern, he explained. Children grow up seeing their parents
unemployed and socially excluded and inherit their frustration.
Compared to slums and projects in
France or the US, Rosengaard looks like a nice
community. But it stands out in a Swedish context.
On a recent visit, veiled women
walk behind the men, casting quick glances at their husbands before refusing to
speak to AFP's reporter. At the local mall, more Arabic is heard than Swedish
and 28 of the 30 shopkeepers are immigrants.
The neighbourhood
is clean, with plenty of greenery providing a nice backdrop for the modern
brick buildings. But sprouting from every balcony or rooftop is a satellite dish, broadcasting programs for
faraway countries.
For the time being, crime levels in
Rosengaard are manageable, Malmoe police spokesman
Lars Foerstell said.
"We do have a problem with
youth criminality, with young people who commit different kinds of
crimes," citing minor robberies, assaults, gang fights or rocks thrown at police cars.
"But it doesn't happen everyday."
However, the neighbourhood
is stigmatized and even the slightest of incidents is reported in the press.
"The media often make it sound
very much worse than it is," he said.
Meanwhile, Bejzat
Becirov, the head of Malmoe's Islamic Centre and
mosque, Scandinavia's first when it opened in 1984, continues to spread his
message of tolerance and integration, as he has for 45 years.
"We have accepted a part of
this country, we have accepted its rules and we want to be a part of it,"
he said, echoing Sabuni's insistence that integration
comes through the language.
Discrimination is not a serious
problem, he said.
Rather, "the biggest enemy of
integration is the satellite dishes which broadcast TV programmes
from countries where some children were even not born."