Swedish Hate Crime & Twisted Statistics

An article this week in the Local reported on increasing rates of hate crime in Sweden. Citing a confusing number of statistics and studies, the article attempted to compare rising rates of anti-Semitic hate crimes with one of European liberals’ major concerns, Islamophobia.   According to the article, one might infer that these two issues are problems created by European xenophobia. Furthermore, one might also assume that these are the only minority groups in Sweden, which is untrue.

The article also completely failed to point out that most physical anti-Semitic hate crime in Sweden is perpetrated by Muslims. Readers of this blog will also recall that the Swedish authorities, especially Malmö’s mayor and government-supported media (Aftonbladet is a prime example) have repeatedly stirred up hostilities against the Jewish population. Remarks made by Mayor Ilmar Reepalu can be described—at best—as examples of bigotry, and have often crossed the line into verbal hate crime. In Sweden, the left-leaning media’s reporting on Israel is notoriously biased.  Swedish Jews in general are often demonized along with the Israeli government.

As the article notes, hate crime statistics are underreported in Sweden. In Malmö the police are reluctant to investigate or record anti-Semitic attacks, as the Chabad rabbi in Malmö has attested.

When numbers of Muslims are guilty of hate crimes, placing anti-Semitism and Islamophobia on equal footing smacks of the kind of whitewashing and denial common in Sweden. A simple comparison of the reported numbers of hate crime incidents shows that Jews are more than ten times more likely than Muslims to suffer from hate crimes.

Although Sweden would like to portray itself as an open and fair society, its integration policies can be described as abject failures, since many Muslim immigrants barely speak Swedish, have high drop-out rates from school, 80% unemployment, and live in poverty on government handouts.

No wonder the most telling statistic in the article reads as follows:

-“When American research centre Pew recently investigated the development of religious conflicts and oppression worldwide between 2006 and 2009, Sweden distinguished itself as a country where hostilities related to religion are increasing the most.”

Swedish intolerance isn’t defined merely by the number of hate sites on the Internet. It’s about public officials and journalists who are not held accountable for slurs and blood libels, and police failure to pursue those guilty of hate crimes. Warehousing immigrants in slums where they have no hope of integrating into Western society, and are encouraged in their prejudices only adds violent actors to stage already set for intolerance.

By Chanah Shapira

Who is the Real Aggressor?

One hundred Grad missiles, mortar shells and Kassam rockets were fired towards Israeli major cities and populated areas on August 20th. One person was killed, and ten civilians were injured, including two children and a baby.

The latest round of terror attacks perpetrated by Palestinians against Israelis started with combined terror attacks on civilian busses and family cars near the city of Eilat on August 18th. These coordinated terror operations killed eight Israelis, including all occupants of a family car which was struck by an anti-tank missile.

Residents of Israel's southern cities--Beer Sheva, Ofakim and the coastal towns of Ashkelon and Ashdod are on constant alert and are prepared to take cover in bomb shelters and enforced structures.

Yesterday Israel opened its borders with Gaza to allow passage for wounded Palestianian civilians into Israel. Famous American actor John Voight visited hospitals in Israel today and was surprised to see Palestinians being treated alongside Israelis in the emergency ward.

However, despite today's declared truce, two Kassam rockets have hit near Ashkelon in the last few hours fired from the Gaza strip. Firefighters are working to put out a fire caused by the strike as residents remain indoors due to the smoke.

What is happening in Israel is not being reported in the Swedish media but don't let anybody fool you, this is the real situation.

Swedish Media Ignores Social Protests in Israel

Tens of thousands demonstrate  in central Tel-Aviv against housing shortages and high rents

Yesterday I wrote to Sydsvenskan and asked why this relatively large newspaper that covers all of southern Sweden, has not managed to even write one line concerning the daily demonstrations, some three weeks after the social unrest started in Israel,

The answer from the foreign news desk came quickly and read: We here at Sydsvenskan make an assessment every day and decide what to write in the newspaper. While I do find the issue interesting, we have not managed to get funds to cover the demonstrations.

What load of bullsh-t. It is clear that the editors at Sydsvenskan do not find the social unrest in Israel sexy enough to write up and article about. By “sexy”, I mean “shows Israelis oppressing Palestinians or flotilla activists”. It appears that Israel only should be mentioned when law-breaking Swedes are trying to illegally enter the Gaza Strip or in a situation where Israel can be portrayed in a distorted way.

So far, the left wing tabloid Aftonbladet is the only Swedish media outlet that has reported on the ongoing large-scale demonstrations, which occur daily in Israel. That Aftonbladet decided to spin the story in an anti-Israel way should not be a surprise to anyone that has read this blog before.

It is appallingly obvious that Swedes care little about real news items in Israel and purposely choose to turn a blind eye on any story which does not contain violence and hatred between Israelis and Palestinians. 

Biased media reporting in the making...