On July 1, the Swedish daily Gefle Dagblad
revealed that an imam from the northern city of Gävle was the man
behind the now-closed website, www.muslim.se, which stated, among other
things, that homosexuality is punishable by death. The imam, Abo Raab,
is a prominent figure in the Swedish Imam Association, which has
received over 400,000 kronor (more than $47,000) from the government to
"combat Islamophobia and racism in society." When its officials applied
for the money, the association claimed to want to create a professional
website containing "factual and pertinent information about Islam" and
"to build bridges between Muslims and non-Muslims." But no bridges were
built. The website, which was shut down in January for unknown reasons,
listed the following as forbidden for Swedish Muslims:
- Being homosexual, punishable by death.
- Befriending non-believers and liking them.
- Joining the communities of the non-believers, joining their
political parties, increasing their numbers, adopting their
nationalities (except when absolutely necessary), joining their armies
or helping them develop weapons.
- Imitating their clothing, appearance, speech etc., because this indicates a love for the person or people imitated.
On July 9, the Supreme Court of Sweden
ruled
that 41-year-old Muslim Ekrem Bregaj will be deported to his home
country of Serbia. Mr. Bregaj was sentenced, in his absence, for a crime
he committed in 2006: firing his gun in the air. Bregaj, a denizen of
the small southern village of Skurup in Sweden, opposed extradition
because he claimed that as a Muslim he was at risk of being
"discriminated against" in Serbia. An extradition, he claimed, would be a
violation of his human rights. The court was not convinced, and ruled
that he be kept in custody until the deportation could be executed.
On July 9, the Administrative Court of Härnösand
decided
that a 39-year-old Somali man will be reimbursed for the plane tickets
he bought for his ten children to travel from Ethiopia to Sweden. The
man came to Sweden in 2009 and remains "dependent long-term on economic
aid," according to the court ruling. When the Immigration Service turned
down the request for the airfare for his ten children, the Somali took
out a loan and demanded that Social Services reimburse him. When they
too said no, he appealed to the Administrative Court, which has now
ruled that the Swedish taxpayers should pay for the plane tickets. In
all, the bill amounts to 45,000 kronor (about $5,300). The government
has since
appealed the ruling:
"More and more applications for financial aid keep coming
in all over the country. In the investigation pertaining to XX's [the
man's name] request regarding economic assistance for travel costs, we
contacted several other counties around the country. Through these
contacts, we learned that similar applications are rejected because it
is not considered reasonable for the county to pay for travel and
reunions with relatives from other countries. We see a need for an
up-to-date precedential verdict, taking into account the current
immigration conditions and how reunions with families/children happen
today."
On July 10,
alternative media
reported that Samiyah M. Warsame, an administrator at the Immigration
Service, likes and celebrates "Swedish" jihadis. Her job is to say yes
or no to asylum applications (asylum, for obvious reasons, should
probably not be granted to Islamists). All the while, she has been
writing on Facebook about Swedish jihadis from Örebro: "Oh, masha Allah,
how beautiful."
The Swedish civil service and local authorities are apparently trying their best these days to
hire
as many people of non-Swedish descent as possible. They say it every
time they seek new employees. They do this, they say, because they want
to create diversity and "mirror society."
These people do not always act in accordance with Swedish
bureaucratic tradition, which consists of being very formal, and not,
for instance, letting friends and relatives get better treatment. This
break with tradition became obvious in 2013, when police arrested two
men at the Malmö office of the Immigration Service, suspected of having
sold residence permits. The men were convicted, and
sentenced in May 2015.
Talal Abdelrahman, a Palestinian, was sentenced to three years in
prison, while the other man, a 47-year-old from the Ivory Coast, was
acquitted due to some uncertainties concerning dates. Abdelrahman is
believed to have made at least half a million kronor ($59,000) from his
illegal activities. Amer Ahmed Iskandar, who ran a restaurant in Malmö
that was a well-known meeting place for immigrants seeking false papers,
was sentenced to 18 months in prison. The verdicts show how employees
at the Immigration Service sometimes seem to set rules aside for people
living in ethnically parallel societies in Sweden. The convicted
ringleader has
appealed the verdict.
On July 14, the Swedish daily
Dagens Nyheter wrote
that during the first six months of 2015, Sweden's Immigration Service
reported 130 asylum seekers to the Security Service because they were
considered a threat to national security. This number is greater than
the figure for all of 2014.
When asked if there might be terrorists and war criminals that have
already been granted asylum in Sweden, Immigration Services Director
General Mikael Ribbenvik said: "Yes, that is unfortunately the case. We
evolve our methods, but nothing is foolproof, of course. There are
examples of war criminals being discovered after the fact."
As more and more jihadis and war criminals come to Sweden, the number
of people exposed as such, but who cannot be deported, increases --
because they risk death or torture in their home countries. So far this
year, 41 asylum seekers have been granted temporary residency status for
that reason; last year that number was 20. Most of them are not in
custody and can move freely in society; some will never be deported.
The obvious risk that they might commit terrorist acts, killing
hundreds of Swedes, apparently makes no difference. "We do not send
people to their deaths," says Mikael Ribbenvik.
On July 14,
three doctors and a former chief of police in Gothenburg presented a study in
Läkartidningen,
the magazine of Swedish physicians' union. The study looks at the
increasing number of gunshot wounds treated at Swedish hospitals --
something that used to be quite a rare occurrence in Sweden but is now a
routine part of emergency medicine:
"Caring for these patients puts high demands on the
experience and competence of everyone involved. Typically, difficult
decisions must be made under immense time constraints. The flow and need
for admittance of trauma patients greatly affect how the emergency care
is organized. Surveying incidence, injury characteristics,
administration and costs is of vital importance to face these new
challenges when it comes to allocating resources and developing trauma
care."
Between January 1, 2013 and June 30, 2014, 58 people were shot in
Gothenburg. Fifty-seven were men; their median age was 26. Most injuries
were in their arms and legs. Ten of the patients died. The total care
time for the 47 admitted patients who survived was 316 days, putting the
net health care cost at 6.2 million kronor ($730,000).
Since the study was concluded, criminal gangs have continued
shooting at each other in Gothenburg (
map). There were twelve shootings during the first five months of this year. Five young men died, and 16 people were wounded.
On July 14, a 22-year-old Somali man was prosecuted for a brutal
rape
in Uppsala earlier this summer. The man found his victim, a woman in
her twenties, on the street at 5 a.m. He wrestled her to the ground, sat
on her, held her arms down and said: "Do you want to live or die?" He
repeated the question several times during the rape. Afterward, he fled
the scene, but thanks to the victim's description was apprehended a few
hours later. At the time of his arrest, he had her cell phone on him.
The 22-year-old has previous convictions for making unlawful threats,
assault, battery and sexual molestation. However, that did not stop him
from writing on Facebook that he thinks people who damage society should
be deported from Sweden.
On July 15, a 30-year-old Kurdish man from Iraq was
prosecuted
for the attempted murder of a 40-year-old woman in Stockholm. The man
wanted residency status; to that end, he tried to force the woman to
marry him. When she refused, he stabbed her eight times in the face and
chest. The knife attack took place on a walkway in a residential area.
The woman sustained life-threatening injuries.
On July 16, two Kurdish men, aged 21 and 30, were
convicted
of being involved in an explosion in Nyköping on March 2. Two people
were killed. Police believe the men packing a half-kilogram (1.1 pounds)
of explosive material into a metal box when it suddenly went off. It is
not known what the bomb was to be used for, but the district court
concluded that the device "had no other meaningful use other than to
cause people harm." An explosives expert who testified during the trial
said he had never before seen such a device, and that the very powerful
bomb could have killed or injured people up to 600 meters (650 yards)
away.
One of the two convicted men is not a Swedish citizen; and despite
this being his eighth conviction for a violent crime in Sweden, he will
not be deported to his native Iran. He was sentenced to two years in
prison, and his partner in crime to one year and ten months.
On July 17, the
Swedish Security Service
(Säpo) revealed to date, between 30 and 40 women have traveled from
Sweden to Syria to join the Islamic State (ISIS). In an e-mail to the
Dagens Eko public radio news program, Säpo wrote that this is a "serious
and disturbing turn of events," adding that, "there are no verified
reports that these women are actively taking part in combat or training
for combat."
Peder Hyllengren of the National Defense College
told
Dagens Eko that ISIS has a rather large group of sympathizing women in
Sweden. "There are at least ten times as many who sympathize, compared
to how many have gone," says Hyllengren. "It's about building the
caliphate, becoming wives and birthing a new generation of jihadis. They
become housewives, but many are very active in spreading the
propaganda."
On July 18, the local daily
Östra Småland wrote
that a group of Christian asylum seekers in the city of Kalmar, after
being harassed and threatened by Muslims, had been forced to move from
the Immigration Service housing where they were staying. The Muslims
demanded that they stop wearing crosses and other Christian symbols, and
did not allow them to use joint facilities, such as the kitchen, when
Muslims were in there.
Mikael Lönngren, the local Immigration Service manager, told the
paper that it was the Christians themselves who decided to move. The
Immigration Service does not divide people into groups based on religion
or ethnicity, which means that people from different sides of a
conflict may end up living together. The reason is said to be a housing
shortage. "We presume that those who flee to find a safe haven in our
country will follow the laws of the land once they get here," said
Lönngren.
Asylum
seekers in the Swedish city of Kalmar, where Christian refugees were
forced to move out of public housing after being harassed and threatened
by Muslims.
|
On July 23, in Gothenburg, the Security Service and the National Task
Force apprehended two men suspected of terrorism and murder in Syria,
and a third man was charged in absentia. It is the first time such a
serious crime is being tried in accordance with the terrorism law. The
three suspects are Swedish citizens -- Yasser Sadek, 26 (wanted by
Interpol), Iraqi-born Hassan al-Mandlawi, 32, and Ethiopian-born Al Amin
Sultan, 30. A week later, the Court of Appeals released al-Mandlawi,
also known as "Mark Abu Osama al-Suwaidi," pending trial.
According to the court, there is little risk of al-Mandlawi
obstructing the investigation, because he is in a wheelchair and has
difficulty speaking. The district attorney was "surprised" by the
release and
told daily
Dagens Nyheter
that even though the man had been stripped of his passport, he may
obviously still leave the country: "He of course realizes he is risking a
very long prison sentence in the end, and should do whatever he can to
avoid it, like get in a car and travel through Europe. That's a pretty
safe bet, considering the open borders. Also, there's always the option
of getting a fake passport, then you're gone for good," said district
attorney Ronnie Jacobsson.
It recently came to light that the
father
of al-Mandlawi, the handicapped ISIS terrorist, also has a criminal
past. As soon as he got his Swedish passport in 2003, he raped a
24-year-old woman -- as revenge for her helping two of his daughters
escape the "honor culture" he had forced upon them. He forced the woman
to get in his car at gunpoint. He took her to his apartment, where he
raped her and bragged about how he had killed ten people. He also
explained that since he was a Swedish citizen, he was now free to rape
because he could not be deported. The man was sentenced to a modest 3.5
years in prison for rape and unlawful threats.
Al-Mandlawi's father also reportedly doused his wife in lighter fluid and struck a match. One of his daughters was granted "
protected identity" to escape her father.
On July 23, the daily
Sydsvenskan
reported that Malmö is the city with the greatest frequency of bombings
in all of Scandinavia. Göran Månsson, head of the bomb squad in Malmö,
talked about this far-from-flattering record for Sweden's third-largest
city. Eighteen explosions have taken place so far in 2015. "Hand
grenades are used in about fifty percent of the blasts that occur," says
Göran Månsson. "That wasn't the case before. It's frightening and very
serious and also poses a great threat to the general public. Once a
grenade is thrown, it is uncontrollable."
Also on July 23, the daily
Göteborgs-Posten
reported that "Sweden is no longer as attractive an asylum country."
The Immigration Service, which usually inflates their forecasts, are now
predicting a small decline in the number of asylum seekers in 2015 --
from 80,000 to 74,000. One reason is said to be Sweden's long waiting
periods compared to Germany, which has a fast track, as well as the poor
integration practices in Sweden. "It's hard to get housing and jobs,
and that affects people's choice of destination," said Immigration
Service Director General Anders Danielsson.
Another reason is that it has become more difficult to move north
through Europe. France, for example, has implemented border controls on
the Italian border. Switzerland is considering doing the same, and
Hungary is building a fence along its border with Serbia.
When it comes to the group referred to as "
unaccompanied refugee children,"
the Immigration Service is increasing its forecast from 8,000 to 12,000
arrivals. That estimate leaves Sweden continually in the number one
spot in the EU when it comes to taking in so-called unaccompanied
refugee children.
On July 29, a small Pride Parade marched through some of Stockholm's
Muslim-dominated suburbs. There was heavy media coverage, even by
foreign media. The British newspaper,
The Independent, for example, wrote an article headlined "
Sweden right-wingers plan LGBT march through Stockholm's Muslim-majority neighbourhoods."
The Swedish mainstream media was quick to condemn the initiative, as
was the National Coalition for Lesbian, Gay Bisexual, and Transgender
Rights (RFSL). There was talk of "pinkwashing," to promote friendliness
to sexual preference rights, and also of the parade being an attempt to
"provoke" Muslims. Apparently challenging Islam's view of homosexuals as
pariahs deserving the death penalty was not acceptable to members of
the RFSL. They are evidently content just with arranging Pride Parades
in central Stockholm, where no one questions homosexual rights anymore.
The Järva Pride Parade was conducted without incident, even if some Muslims in the area shouted "
Allahu Akbar"
["Allah is Greater"] and "We are Muslims, what are you doing here,
faggots?" However, the so-called "anti-racists" who had gone to the
neighborhood to protest against the allegedly "provoking" parade were
assaulted and beaten by masked assailants.
On July 30, the daily
Dagens Nyheter
revealed that almost 25% of foreign-born applicants to the Swedish
armed forces are unable to pass the enrollment test. The extremely
slimmed down Swedish military badly wants soldiers with foreign language
and cultural skills, but qualified applicants are hard to come by.
According to a survey conducted at the Defense College of Karlstad,
where, in 2013, applications to the military basic training were
evaluated, 7.3% of Swedish-born men and 8.1% of Swedish-born women
failed the test, compared to 24.2% of foreign-born men and 24.7% of
foreign-born women.
The questions in the test, covering technical ability, spatial
ability, verbal ability and logic, have been the same since the 1990s,
when compulsory military service was still a reality in Sweden, and they
are adapted to an 18-year-old, male population. The military will now
investigate if the foreign-born applicants' problems are due to...
discrimination.
- Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
