Riots in Rinkeby show that Sweden’s immigration policies are unsustainable

As continuously reported in this blog, there are daily arson attacks in the mainly immigrant populated neighborhood of Rosengård in Sweden's third largest city Malmö.  There are also constant threats against the Swedish authorities which operate in the neighborhood. Recently even an ambulance in Rosengård was met by stone-throwing youngsters. Now it appears that the neighborhood of Rinkeby in Sweden's capital Stockholm —which has an immigrant composition similar to Malmö-- is taking the same steps towards the radicalization we have seen in Malmö.

During June several violent attacks occurred in the area of Stockholm known as Rinkeby. The riots are said to have started after some youngsters were denied entrance to a school disco for 9th graders. This in turn led to the police being called to the location where they were met with stone-throwing teenagers. The situation escalated and the youngsters set fire to a bank, a school, and other buildings. The violent night would prove to be just the start of a chain of riots which continued during the month of June.

Rinkeby can in many ways be compared to Malmö’s Rosengård as most of Stockholm’s immigrants reside in Rinkeby. Following the riots in the area, several people were taken into custody suspected of inciting and perpetrating violent attacks against Swedish police. A number of the perpetrators who initiated violent attacks—such as torching a Nordea bank and a local school—have been identified as minors.

One of the sites attacked in Rinkeby is the Rinkeby Academy (Rinkebyakademin), a neighborhood school. The perpetrators managed to burn out the entire building. The total costs for rebuilding the damaged school are estimated by the Swedish government to be some 3 million SEK (about $400,000 USD).

The Swedes’ aspiration to always be politically correct becomes sadly apparent when Swedish newspapers and television choose to re-name interviewees from the riots with typical Swedish names. Even though it is publically known that that one of the most common names, in for example Malmö, is Muhammad, the Swedish press chooses to name Rinkeby rioters “Johan” or “Gustav”. For those of you who understand Swedish the clip below includes an interview with “Johan” who explains why the riots were taking place. Even though “Johan’s” voice is modified those who speak Swedish can clearly hear that “Johan” is an individual who doesn’t speak Swedish as his native language.



Giving immigrants typically Swedish pseudonyms does not only make the reporting close to comical as there were probably no Gustavs or Johans present in these particular riots. It also sharply highlights the difficulties Swedish society has in tackling the fact that too many immigrants have been accepted into Sweden without a full integration process. Unless these immigrants are better integrated the numbers of discontented individuals will only continue to grow—exacerbating the already radical climate in Sweden’s immigrant neighborhoods.

The reasons “Johan” states, as to why people are rioting in Rinkeby are lack of employment as well as boredom. It is apparent that the immigrant-friendly policies which the Swedish Social Democrats and their allied the Left and Green parties advocate now have come back to haunt the Swedes. Without full integration of the many immigrants Sweden has chosen to host, Sweden will not be likely to qualify for a medal as the most humanitarian country but instead prove to be country which in every way failed to adapt a healthy immigration policy.

When destructive attacks and uncontrolled riots by immigrants are seen in both Stockholm and Malmö –respectively Sweden’s largest and third-largest cities--it is obvious that without a clear change in government policy, radical violence will only escalate and spread in Sweden.