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Muslim immigrants make anti-Semitism an issue for Sweden
Published: 04 May, 2010, 13:19
Edited: 19 June, 2010, 21:16
TAGS: EU, Hate crimes, Human rights
Sweden is normally considered to be a peaceful haven in Europe. But this Scandinavian stability is being shaken up by a wave of anti-Semitic attacks.
Malmo was once the very face of socially-inclusive and tolerant Sweden. But the country's third-biggest city has turned into a hotbed of ethnic and religious violence.
The windows of a local synagogue are bulletproof. Whenever there is a religious service, there is heavy security, and during big holidays there is actually a police cordon.
Officially, there were 80 hate crimes committed against Jews last year in Malmo, but local religious leaders say the real number may have been several times higher.
With nearly a third of Malmo's population born abroad, Sweden's tolerance may have welcomed the intolerant. The majority of immigrants are Muslims, many are from Palestine. Police blame them for several recent fire-bombings, desecrations and assaults on Jews.
“It's not just any Muslims that feel resentful. It is those who themselves come from the Middle East, and they bring their conflicts with them,” Director of the Islamic Centre Bejzat Becirov says.
Many of Malmo's immigrants have settled in the virtual ghetto of Rosengard. Incomes and education levels are lower here, crime rates are higher and anti-Israel sentiments run high.
The Jewish Center's Frederick Sieradzki pins the blame for the attacks not just on radical Islamists, but local authorities.
At the height of last year's Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the left-wing Mayor Reepalu claimed attacks on Jews were a natural consequence of Israel's actions.
“Since we have had this mass immigration from countries where these values are not held, we have to accept, we have to understand, and we felt this is a downhill slope for Swedish values,” Sieradzki says.
Like for thousands of others during World War II, Sweden became a safe haven for Judith Popinski when she was escaping Nazi persecution.
“This is a different country to the one that saved me. Before I used to come to schools to talk about my experience of the Holocaust, but now the schools where there are a lot of Muslims are not interested. We don't feel safe here,” Popinski says.
Judith's children have left Malmo, and the community grows smaller all the time. But it is not just Malmo's 700 remaining Jews, but Sweden's reputation that is under threat.
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1 comment
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"Sweden's tolerance may have welcomed the intolerant." Let us hope that the great tolerance and good nature of the Swedish generally does not prevent them from seeing the fact that not all cultures are equal. They came to Sweden, if they refuse to intigrate into normal Swedish society and give up firebombing Jews, the Swedes will need to start being a bit less tolerant. Watch those freedom of speech laws. So long as people don't have a right not to be offended you're good (unfortunately I'm not sure that is currently the case there).
Sweden didn't give these people refugee status so that they could bring their ignorance and hatred into Sweden. No country expects this, and no country should accept it. Anyone caught doing this should be immediately deported to whatever country it is that they came from. I have fond memories of times in Scandinavia, and I can tell you one thing: Scandinavians are not going to take this. I'm sure that the ones doing this think that, because Scandinavia is almost too politically correct, the locals will just put up with whatever they do. On that they are dead wrong. Scandinavians make great friends, but mess around in their house and you get one tough enemy.
The authors of the article (and apparently also the Muslims interviewed) make the assumptions that (1) these attacks could not be the work of non-Muslim and non-Middle Eastern people, even Swedes who are not fascists, and (2) that they could not have been staged by supporters of the State of Israel, trying to gain sympathy by the same old means, namely, playing on commendable sympathies for the past plight of the world's Jews. Many millions of people around the world are deeply upset by the murderous piracy conducted by the Israeli military and the way the State of Israel uses false propaganda and calls anyone antisemitic if they criticize Israel's genocidal policies against the Palestinians. It is an historic fact that Zionist elements worked with the fascists of Germany and Italy to prevent the Jews of Europe from finding any safe haven outside Palestine. I am appalled that Russia Today would run this story without taking note of the world outrage against Israel. If the Jews suffer a new wave of hatred, it is the fault of their bourgeois ruling class in Israel and the United States, and of the utter degeneracy of Zionism—which has now morphed into a new version of Hitler's fascism. Jews, wake up! Yidn, vacht oif! Decolonize Palestine! My most heartfelt hope that the Jews of Sweden remain safe and unharmed!