In the past several years Sweden has welcomed thousands of new citizens from Arab lands who have repaid their hosts by making their quarters "no go areas" for Swedish police, recreating their culture of hatred and violence at the expense of their hosts. The city of Malmö is specifically plagued. About 7 percent of Malmö's 285,000 inhabitants are of "Middle Eastern origin" (a Western society can bear as much as a 3 percent Muslim population without suffering damage) and, according to the Malmö police, of 115 hate crimes reported in 2009, 52 were antisemitic. And that in spite of the fact that the number of Jews in Malmö is about 700 and shrinking.
Different from Denmark, where police, state and authorities take the issue of Muslim violence seriously, Jews get little support from their Swedish counterparts. Malmö's left-wing Mayor Ilmar Reepalu, for one, thinks that antisemitism comes from the extreme right. He also thinks, that the Jews have brought it unto themselves because they didn't distance themselves from the Israeli campaign in Gaza.
So what else is new.
Now yesterday's bomb blasts that shattered the Swedish capital have triggered really strong and principled responses from Sweden's top politicians, after they had assessed that there was really terrorist intent behind it and not just a wardrobe malfunction of a guy who wears bombs strapped to his body and a Palestinian headrag just for fun. PM Fredrik Reinfeldt called them 'unacceptable' and foreign minister Carl Bildt said in a Twitter message (no less) that it was the "most worrying attempt at terrorist attack in crowded part of central Stockholm". That'll teach them!
Yes, he really said "attempt"! And here am I, thinking that a terrorist attack was something that terrorizes people. But who knows, maybe all Swedes are as sanguine about the Evil of Islam as the mayor of Malmö and it takes much more than a piddling bomb blast with a dead terrorist -- alright, make that "bomb carrier" -- and two injured to terrorize them.
A fish rots from the head down.
19 comments:
Some people said of this incident that Muslim suicide bombings in Europe has begun, or "It's begun" to be exact. I guess 7/7 in London doesn't count since it's not on the continent, but then Sweden is rather detached from the continent, too. It reminds me of Americans who think of each new terrorist bombing or shooting as something new. Is is the state of shock that makes them forget the previous bombings and shootings?
There is a certain reluctance in some quarters to admit that Third World types are more than capable of barbarism. We seldom hear of post colonial guilt, but rationalizing mindless violence seems rooted in guilt trips.
Interesting question. Shock, yes maybe, but I'd say it's more a sort of, mostly unconscious, avoidance strategy. We/they've let all the Muslim immigrants in and the consequences, and specifically what do do about it now, are so daunting that nobody wants to face them.
I guess you have a point there, Beak!
Hold on a second there is a link to the UK. This is a much larger problem than earlier assumed.
Clearly, this incident is all Sweden's fault. When you build on the West Bank, fire Predator drones at the Taliban and Al Queda and occupy Iraq and Afghanistan, and refuse to recognize Sharia law, you leave the poor, oppressed Muslims no choice but to retaliate.
Okay, that's what I always what hear by the apologists for Islam - it's the USA and Israeli policy causing this. So how do they explain Sweden? Maybe the bomber was geographically challenged, and didn't realize he was in a country that has nothing to do with Muslims and the Middle East whatsoever.
I'm waiting for the excuses. The press may instead skip over and minimize the incident as much as it can, since it defies the politically correct mantra.
Der Spiegel says "there are no terror-free islands." This is news?
It is our existence that they can't deal with...just the fact we exist at all.
I have an online Swedish friend who is in most ways a conventional, even sentimental contemporary liberal type. But his experience of Sweden is such that every time he speaks of his father's country he turns into a mix of Robert Spencer and Debbie Schlussel. Sweden, in his experience, is authoritarian, incredibly dishonest, dominated by a Social Democrat party that was - especially under Olof Palme - blindly in love with Communism (and he quoted some incredible remarks on East Germany done at the time by Swedish TV), capable of total self-blinding and guilty of an extraordinary mixture of reverse racism towards Catholic Europeans and complete blindness towards Muslims. He is particularly furious about the way that the Swedish elite, including the newspapers, have completely abandoned and ignored the native Swedes of Malmoe and Goeteborg, who are being victimized and steadily driven out by "immigrants" under the benevolent eye of such political whores as the mayor you quote (whose name suggests that he is not Swedish but some sort of Finn, so possibly with a grudge of his own). And I can tell you one incredible feature of Swedish life: Swedish elections have no secret ballot. You take your voting form from a party representative and put it in the ballot box in their view. No bloody wonder that the Swedish political elite is so unmovable.
Anne and 'gator, yes, they hate you for what you ARE, not for what you DO. They hate you for your best qualities and nothing will change that as long as Islam exists. They CAN NOT HELP hating you.
I will soon post a review of Wafa Sultan's book.
Fabio, interesting information. I have only been to Sweden once as a tourist, which gave me no real insight of the country. However, from what I know, I am not amazed by anything you say, not even by the fact that Sweden's ballots are not secret, which I didn't know.
FP
I remember when the Euros would point at America for its crime rates.Even today some Euros still talk about the rates of incarceration amongst Blacks in the USA.
I am waiting for some American to notice and hear a lecture from the condescending Euro socialists. Black Americans want better jobs and at worst disagree on policies.
There is more apt to be riots in Europe than in the USA and the riots don't ever last weeks.
Beakerkin: the riots are because an alliance of vile politicians and incompetent banking robbers are trying to make our society more like the USA. Which we can do without. Edictrix: another nice item about Sweden: it has been condemned even by the UN, not the world's boldest or most moral body, for turning down twenty requests for asylum from Iraqi Christians even after the whole world was forced to notice their persecution. Britain, apparently, also behaved badly in this matter. Compare and contrast with the swelling slums full of... hmmm. Well, it really is about Christianity, isn't it.
I like F.P.Barbieri's comment. While I'm not a leftist in thought since I'm quite religious, the idea of making Europe more like America is repulsive. Here, for example, a dad in the US had two children with a rare genetic disorder from which they eventually died, said he had to fight even for basic medical care for both of them, much less advanced procedures, and he even had medical insurance the whole while:
http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2010/12/moments-at-christmas.html
My wife and I were talking about the Bethany/Erin effect on our lives. We had to battle for the most basic care for both of them. Medical insights were difficult to get across to the medical people, and the helping professions were often in the way, too.
Gentlemen
Europeans are not Americans as our essence is quite different. We have a different narrative and our expectations are quite different.
Little Ahmad is expected to work and if he has a decent ethic he will find work. Ultimately, the ability to work is more humane than the nanny State. Working people do not riot.
That is perfectly absurd, Beak. So it is the essence of America that children die a horrible death because the state is too cheap and too uncaring to provide for them. And what gives me a really creepy feeling is that you are probably right. Yes, America is hated in Europe, mostly, but not exclusively, for the wrong reasons and if I see a cavalier "Europeans are not Americans as our essence is quite different" uttered from an imagined great height I want to puke my guts out. What makes you so arrogant to think that you have nothing to learn from us?
To provide basic healthcare has nothing to do with the nanny state, but everything with charity. Yes, healthcare is not a human right, but it comes damn close. (Gosh, DO I hate Libertarianism!) Those dead children felt, I am sure, very relieved that they had the right to free speech and to practise any religion they fancied -- while they were alive, that is.
P.S. This is not an endorsement of Obamacare because I haven't the necessary insight to form an opinion, let alone an informed opinion. And yes, the British NHC leaves a lot to be desired and ought to be reformed, but the basic concept is alright. I've once been treated under its rules in an emergency and will be forever grateful. Besides, one can always opt out and get private insurance. In Germany, people are fleeced witless for their (semi-compulsory) health insurance. Nanny state my arse.
Editrix
The USA has always opted for smaller safety nets than Europe. As far as people not being treated for illness
it is a larger problem with the working poor who can not afford premiums that are out of control.
The non working poor do not go untreated.
The USA has different priorities and people are expected to pay their own freight as much as possible.
We have a different set of priorities and a different history.
Let Europe find solutions that fit with their traditions and America stay true to keeping smaller safety nets.
"We have a different set of priorities and a different history."
Beak, I'm afraid you'll have to understand one day that some of your priorities are, put plain and simply, shit. Thinking Europeans concede that some of our priorities are shit, so why can't you? The ethno-centricity of a certain sort of Americans (to which you belong) will drive not just me, but any thinking and fairminded person up the wall. The fact that those priorities are YOUR priorities doesn't make them in any way better, let alone sacrosanct.
Hi Beakerin. As an American who was in the military a good bit, and is a conservative Lutheran (of German descent, BTW), I was immersed in the patriotic populism--same as Beakerkin, and I even voted Republican more often than not. I wasn't convinced of their message, but the people holding the alternative philosophy were rather godless and anti-religious. However, Democrats are starting to "get God," and Evangelicals are starting to wean themselves away from Republicans with their big business and banking mentality, either because they're on the internet and have become informed, or they read books like God's Politics (2005) by Jim Wallis.
What will really cure Americans of populist thinking is America is going to suffer a crisis of realization of its non-competitiveness. It's already become apparent to many that if we went the green route like other industrial countries are doing, we'd be totally uncompetitive. We love our cheap coal, for example.
Europe is coming into its own right now with the expansion of the EU, which is why Europe is nearly out of the woods of this recession, while America is still trying to find its way. Europe will go to greater heights, and eastern Europe will no doubt solve it biggest problem, lack of children. Even the US suffered at one time from sub-replacement rates of fertility. White women in the US during the 1970s and 80s had only 1.6 children on average, but now its up to 1.9. The UK, Ireland, France and Spain all have stable or growing populations, so Germany and eastern Europe should study their models more closely.
America is in for a rude awakening similar to what Greece suffered, except Greece got in trouble for over-liberality while America will get in trouble for illiberality. Due to America's spotty, non-uniform support of education and healthcare, wide swaths of America are left mis- and sub-educated, and lack of preventive care and doctors visits mean Americans have become obese and otherwise unhealthy. This translates into uncompetitiveness, so that the US already has the fifth worst national debt ranking in the world. We are in the same league as these basket cases: Japan Italy Greece & Belgium. And no, this indebtedness did not start with Obama or even Bush, but the debt started to grow in 1983 when the dumb-ass Reagan decided to further defund education and healthcare, which were both already dismally under-funded. See these links:
United States public debt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt
More debt rankings, 2 Feb 2010
http://www.economist.com/blogs/buttonwood/2010/02/debt_deficits_and_growth
Some more on the rot going on here in the US due to low taxation rates, and the resultant low education and healthcare. The unions notice govt doesn't have much to pay when it comes to education or healthcare, so the police and firemen make sure they are well remunerated salary-wise and pension-wise. If the govt took education and healthcare seriously, it would be forced to tell the unions "sorry," but you're not going to continue making 2 or 3 times as much as the average resident does, and only a fifth of Americans even have a pension:
Michigan Town Is Left Pleading for Bankruptcy
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/28/us/28city.html?_r=2
excerpt: “The state is concerned that if they say yes to one, if that door is opened, they’ll have 30 more cities right behind us,”
So far, the financial misery of the past two years has not caused a surge in bankruptcy applications; about 15 municipalities pursued bankruptcy in the last two years. But if revenue forecasts continue as predicted, 2011 might bring a rise in cities faced with such a fate.
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