Jewish residents in the southern Swedish city of Malmo are being increasingly targeted by anti-Semitic threats and harassment, causing many to flee the city out of safety concerns.
“Threats against Jews have increased steadily in Malmo in recent years and many young Jewish families are choosing to leave the city,” said Jewish Community of Malmo leader Fredrik Sieradzki in a report by The Local. “Many feel that the community and local politicians have shown a lack of understanding for how the city’s Jewish residents have been marginalised”.
In 2009 there were 79 crimes reported to Malmo police against Jewish residents, representing a 50 percent increase from the previous year according to media reports.
“That probably doesn’t tell the whole story because not everyone chose to make a report. Perhaps they fear they will add to an already infected situation,” said Susanne Gosenius, a Skane police crimes coordinator, to the media which have published several articles on the rising anti-Semitism in Malmo. Synagogues and Jewish cemeteries have also suffered repeated vandalism and anti-Semitic graffiti, while last year also saw the firebombing of a Jewish burial site chapel in Malmo.
There is presently an estimated population of 3,000 Jews living in southern Sweden, predominantly around Lund, Helsingborg and Malmo although the Jewish community in the latter has been steadily declining.
[…] Rising anti Semitism in Malmo […]
Jim, I think the video you posted is obviously pro-israeli and outrageously anti-muslim. The reproduced statements about the demonstration on Gaza are unbelievebly childish.
On the other hand, the argument on the left-wing-islamic alliance is up to some point right, as left wing parties spot whatever target-group to get empowered, nevermind the ethics. The would back jews instead if they were numerous enough.
They are only obeying orders. Allah has ordered Muslims to exterminate the Jews as a compulsory religious duty: http://crombouke.blogspot.com/2010/02/muslims-duty-is-to-exterminate-jews-in.html
This is an embarrassing situation which has to be dealt with from top to bottom knowing that Sweden is a freedom loving nation. If there are all ready legal provisions, is this a problem on implementation ?. Implementors must be fair. Maybe a joint actions is neccessary so that a trully multicultural society can trully exist side by side with the rest peacefully. Peace man.
Bako–Don’t be so appreicative of the Danish immigration policies and integration politics. The anti-islamic attitudes prevelant in Denmark hinder integration of all our immigrants from predominately islamic countries. Effective integration policies and a reduction of the “anti-islam” attutudes would allow these immigrants to become economically prosperous, be a full-fledged member of a multi-cultural society, and reduce the number who are enticed into extremism. Even if you are a talented doctor/engineer/businessman in DK, you don’t get very far if your name is Mohammed, Ali, Husain, etc. DK needs more qualified persons in the workforce (regardless of their name and background) and not housed in ghettos and despised by mainstream Denmark.
Jim,
That video makes my blood boil since it sums up exactly what is going on all over western Europe: naive multiculturalists and opportunistic left wing politicians joining hands with islamic fundamentalists, using hatred towards jews as a pretext for their violence, in order to seize power.
Please have a look at the following video: luckily with english subtitles, since this moroccan boy only speaks some very basic sort of dutch (he does not even know the dutch word for ‘ hat’), which is even hard to understand for native dutch speakers.
Listen to his words, watch his attitude and that of his friends.
He was ‘ interviewed’ when some left wingers staged a protest in front of an Albert Heijn supermarket in Utrecht.
They wanted to protest against the fact that Albert Heijn (the biggest chain of supermarkets in NL) sells israeli products.
Their stupid action was poorly organized and did not draw any attention but this ‘ interview’ caused widespread anger and there has even a juridical case started against this boy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsvK5Gko0eM
as most of the crimes against jews don´t have to be anti-semitic
Absolutely correct – good spot. Althought the article is about anti-sematism, that crime statistic merely states that Jews have reported 50% more crimes than last year.
Without doing the maths, that does seem likely to be a statistically significant rise (i.e. not just a random move).
It is possible that there has been a general increase in reported crimes of ~50% across the entire population of Malmo. However, given the specific mention of the following points, it does seem likely that it is Jews that are being targeted:
1. [Jewish leader] Threats against Jews have increased steadily in Malmo in recent years
2. [Police spokesman] That probably doesn’t tell the whole story because not everyone chose to make a report.
3. Synagogues and Jewish cemeteries have also suffered repeated vandalism and anti-Semitic graffiti
4. last year also saw the firebombing of a Jewish burial site chapel in Malmo.
So it looks like there really is a problem and that this isn’t just statistical manipulation (when was anything last firebombed near you!).
“I found it quite shocking to see that swedish police did absolutely
nothing against the thugs who rioted last year, when the Davis Cup
match was played between Israel and Sweden in Malmo.”
Not really shocking. Sweden is changing.
Check the video at 1:33. The women walking in the background. The new Sweden.
http://lornakismet.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/cbn-news-malmo-sweden-growing-muslim-influence/
I think the statements on the report might be misleading, as most of the crimes against jews don´t have to be anti-semitic, as not all crimes against the rest of the population are against christians, whites, football players or karaoke singers.That they belong to a minority group doesn´t mean necessarely that the crimes have a racist motivation. I recognise certain amount of victimism here, being really felt or used as political weapong. We have to be careful…
To Bromley86: you are right, the French are also taking a tough approach.
I am sure that there is still time for all European countries to het tough and fair, but this time is running out fast. If the governments don´t stop with all this politically correct crap and start call things by their names, we will still be able to rid ourselves of the “green plague”. I have nothing against muslims per se, but I strongly beleive that those who don’t respect our values and, what is even more outrageous, try to impose their own values on us (negative attitude towards women´s rights, gays, other religions, etc.), should get the hell out of Europe and go home. Our voices should be heard!!
Justin:
The 3000 figure is for all of southern Sweden. There’s less than 1000 jews remaining in Malmö today.
Malmo has the highest proportion of muslims in Sweden and , surprise-
surprise, also the highest amount of anti semitic incidents.
Just like it has the highest unemployment rate, the highest crime rate
, the worst school results, etcetera, etcetera.
Off course anybody who draws attention to this correlation will
immediately be accused of racism, but it is not racism, it is an
inconvenient truth!
Add to this the impressive 95% of crimes which remain unsolved thanks
to the wonderful swedish police and we have a fine mess.
I found it quite shocking to see that swedish police did absolutely
nothing against the thugs who rioted last year, when the Davis Cup
match was played between Israel andSweden in Malmo.
Indeed it is sad to see that western European countries like SE, UK
and NL , which used to have a very tolerant attitude towards jews ,
now become the theatre of anti semitism.
Naive left wing politicians join hands with islamic immigrants and
unleash hatred against Israel and jews.
79 anti-Semitic crimes in a community of 3,000 Jews? This is disgusting, and on a terribly unimaginable scale. The city of Malmö and the Swedish state must do something about this, immediately, before it gets even more out of hand.
Let’s take France as a comparison. They have also been having a lot of problems with anti-Semitic acts. The Jewish Community Protection Service in France tallied 832 anti-Semitic acts in 2009, up for 474 a year earlier. This is also a lot — too much — but there are some 500,000 Jews estimated to be living in France.
79/3,000 and 832/500,000… the problem is an order of magnitude (relatively) larger in Sweden…
Is anti-Semitism so rampant in Sweden? Is there nothing to be done?
The French aren’t taking it lying down. Vive la France!
That´s exactly what happens in countries that, through ineffective immigration policies, have allowed in huge muslim population — these countries (Sweden, Norway, UK, Germany, etc.) now have to deal with a bunch of uncivilized people who hate everything about the West, such as our values, freedomes, and rights. But if you try to talk about it, they will immediately start crying about human rughts, racism, etc. The only country that is still standing strong and not giving in is Denmark. Long live Denmark!!
Bromley86
They actually did point out in the media that it was as a result of the large muslim community in Malmö this time, surprisingly enough. The mayor of Malmö instantly denied it of course, he blamed the extreme right and then went on to say zionism is unacceptable and jews pretty much have themselves to blame for being attacked for not distancing themselves from Israel enough. Malmö is a blood-red city and always has been, the extreme left has ruled the city for more than 80 of the last 90 years. Malmö has now become the poorest big city in the country where 40% of the population is non-swedish and crime rates on level with american big cities. I don’t blame the jews or the sane swedes there for wanting to get out of that hell, decent people have no future in Malmö anymore.
It’s the same here in the UK. We have been one of the least anti-semitic countries in the world for a long time. Now all of a sudden we are seeing a huge increase. There is a certain section of our population who reject our tradition of tolerance and free speech. But if I say which section, I’ll be accused of racism. Despite the fact that this section of the population is allowed to hurl the most acidic and virulent hatred towards me because I’m gay.
Don’t be surprised if there’s zero analysis of who is doing this in the Swedish media. There was a deliberate avoidance of mentioning the M word when the riots took place in late 2008. Only in the comments sections of the online news did anyone talk about who was rioting.