Where did it all go so wrong for Sweden? The nation once known for ABBA, IKEA and its social-democratic welfare state has now become a byword for gangland killings and grenade attacks. Crime has soared to unprecedented levels. Grenade attacks have become an unwelcome feature of suburban life. Islamism is spreading unchecked. Even some on the Swedish left have been forced to acknowledge that multiculturalism is unravelling and that the state has failed to integrate vast numbers of migrants.
Paulina Brandberg, Minister for Gender Equality, told journalists that the government would review Swedish legislation to determine if there are specific grounds for revoking residence permits. However, she listed potential examples of “lifestyle deficiencies,” including welfare fraud, debts, dishonest lifestyles, drug abuse, as well as connections with criminal networks or violent and extremist groups that “threaten fundamental Swedish values.”
h/t GR
Apologies for writing yet another “Look what’s happening in ultra-liberal, super-tolerant (Nordic country)” column, but there is turmoil in ultra-liberal, super-tolerant Sweden right now that’s worth noticing in Canada. About a year ago, Sweden elected a right-wing government that campaigned on altering the country’s gapingly open immigration policy, which in the past has been partly inspired by the Canadian model.
Sweden is facing the most serious challenges to its security since the Second World War, one of its top foreign policy officials has said.
The Scandinavian country, once a symbol of peace, neutrality and social cohesion, is now threatened on three fronts by Russia, Islamist terrorism and a wave of shootings and bombings as armed cartels battle for supremacy over drugs.
Henrik Landerholm, Sweden’s national security adviser, said these dangers were feeding off one another as Moscow used disinformation and other hybrid warfare techniques to target the weak spots in its society and stoke anger among fundamentalist Muslims.
Russia is exploiting and fomenting a wave of Islamist propaganda against Sweden, the head of Sweden’s counter-disinformation agency has told The Times.
Sweden has been confronted with a storm of anger across large parts of the Islamic world, driven by a series of Quran burnings and conspiracy theories claiming that the Swedish authorities are forcibly removing children from Muslim families.
When I first moved to Norway in 1999, I often heard the term amerikanske tilstander – “American conditions.” It was never, ever used positively; it didn’t refer, for example, to things like freedom and prosperity. No, it was always used to describe some dreaded social or cultural or economic phenomenon that was supposedly on the rise in Norway and that threatened to make the country look more like – horrors! – the United States. Evangelical Christianity? Amerikanske tilstander! Gun crime? Amerikanske tilstander! Rough-and-tumble election campaigns? Dumb TV shows? Private medical options? Growing economic inequality? Amerikanske tilstander!
h/t kiki9
It’s not racist to talk about the crisis of integration – it’s essential.
Are we allowed to talk about Sweden yet? Now that the Swedish army is being asked to help cops with a surge in gangland killings, can we ask if perhaps there is something rotten in the state of Sweden? For years the complacent technocracies of America and Europe said Sweden was fine. Only Trumpists and troublemakers would say otherwise. Now, following the PM’s announcement that he’s asking the army to use everything from its knowledge on ‘explosives’ to ‘helicopter logistics’ to help tackle an epidemic of gang crime, maybe these people will be roused from their Scandi-naïveté.
On September 28th, Mr. Ulf Kristersson, the Prime Minister of Sweden, gave an extraordinary speech to the nation. He opened with references to a recent series of bombings and shootings that have claimed many lives around the country. He exemplified with the execution-style killings of three young teenagers:
My thoughts are also with the three children, 13, 14, and 14 years old, who were found executed in wooded areas outside Stockholm. Their parents have been forced to live through a parent’s absolutely worst nightmare.
A Swedish man faces trial this week on charges of incitement to racial hatred for the burning of a copy of the Islamic Quran in what could become a precedent-setting case, as prosecutors have been reluctant to pursue charges against Quran-burning protesters in the past.
Amid ongoing violent criminal gang conflicts, the Swedish government has announced it will create a new explosives registry, as criminal gangs continue to engage in bombings against their rivals, including two such bombings that occurred only this week.
Sweden’s Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer was part of an emergency meeting on Wednesday, September 27th, and later stated that the government would look to act swiftly to counter the bombing trend, broadcaster SVT reports.
Sweden’s prime minister has summoned the head of the armed forces to help curb a surge in gang killings.
The two men and the country’s police chief will meet on Friday to discuss what role the military could play.
It comes after a bloody 12 hours that saw two men shot dead in Stockholm and a 25-year-old woman killed in a blast at home in a town north of the capital.
“We will hunt the gangs down and we will defeat them,” PM Ulf Kristersson promised in a rare televised address.
September has become the worst month for shooting deaths in Sweden since records began in 2016, after two people died in separate shootings on Wednesday night, bringing the monthly total to 11.
Another person died on Thursday morning after a bomb blast.
The country has been rocked by a deadly wave of shootings and explosions in recent weeks – many suspected to be linked to a split within the Foxtrot gang.
Gang conflict in Sweden has claimed its youngest victim so far. A 13-year-old boy was found dead in a forest in the Swedish municipality of Haninge on Monday, September 11th. His death is said to be linked to Sweden’s ongoing gang conflicts which have exploded in scope as gang members and their families are now being targeted for assassination.
The body of the young teen was discovered in a wooded area near a railway track after he had been reported missing, according to a report from the newspaper Expressen, which also claims he had ties to criminal gang networks.
STOCKHOLM — Swedish police on Sunday arrested two people and detained around 10 people after a violent riot broke out at a protest involving a burning of the Quran, police said.
The protest was organized by Iraqi refugee Salwan Momika, whose protests — which have included public desecrations of the Muslim holy book — have sparked outrage across the Middle East.
Sunday’s protest was held in a square in the southern city of Malmo, which has a large immigrant population, and according to public broadcaster SVT around 200 people had showed up to watch.
A scene that delights the heart of every Muslim. ☪
After a copy of the Qur'an was burned, thousands of Muslims came together in Malmö, Sweden, holding copies of the Holy Book and engaging in a collective group reading. pic.twitter.com/EPtebVigHo
— MEND Community (@mendcommunity) July 12, 2023
Bomb squad experts were called in after Sweden was rocked by four explosions in just over an hour amid a surge in gang-related violence.
At just after 1.00am local time (2300 GMT), police in Gothenburg received reports of two explosions at addresses 10 minutes apart.
Officers said both sites were cordoned off while technical investigations were conducted and the national bomb squad had been called to the scene.
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