Europe: Laughing at the Messenger
How can one excavate the minds of so many European officials and the extraordinary mental gymnastics of denial to which they have become prone?
One of the finest demonstrations of this trend occurred in January 2015, after France was assailed by Islamist gunmen in the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and then in a Jewish supermarket. In the days after those attacks, Fox News in the U.S. ran an interview with a guest who said that Paris, and France, as a whole, had "no-go zones" where the authorities -- including emergency services -- did not dare to go. In the wake of these comments, the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, chose to make a stand. She announced that she was suing Fox News because the "honour of Paris" was at stake. It appeared that Mayor Hidalgo was rightly concerned about the image of her city around the world, presumably worrying in particular about the potential effects on tourism. Of course, Mayor Hidalgo's priorities were all wrong. The reason Paris's public relations suffered a dent was not because of what a pundit said on Fox News one evening, but because of the mass murder of journalists and Jews on the streets of the "City of Light." Any potential tourist would be much more concerned about getting caught up in a terrorist firefight than a war of words. Mayor Hidalgo's manoeuvre, however, turned out not to be a rarity, but a symptom of a wider problem. Consider the almost precise replay of that 2015 episode after U.S. President Donald Trump referred in a speech to "what's happening last night in Sweden." Much of the press immediately seized the opportunity to claim that Trump had asserted that a terrorist attack had occurred the night before in Sweden. This allowed them to laugh at the alleged ignorance of the president and the alleged concoction of what has become known as "fake news." Except that it swiftly became obvious to anyone who cared that what the president was referring to -- a documentary film about the situation in Sweden that had aired the night before on Fox News -- showed the extent of the lawlessness in parts of Sweden. While every authority in Sweden was laughing at Donald Trump, a day after his comments. residents of Rinkeby, a suburb of Stockholm, obligingly had a car-burning riot and attacked police. The troubles that Sweden has gone through in recent years, since mass migration began in earnest, are hard indeed to ignore. These troubles include the setting up of what the American scholar of Islam, Daniel Pipes, most accurately referred to as "semi-autonomous sectors." Although non-Muslims can enter, the areas are different from the rest of the country. These are areas where, for instance, police, fire and ambulance services refuse to enter because they and other authority figures representing the state frequently come under attack. The filmmaker, Ami Horowitz, experienced the downside of some of these areas. On a recent visit to Sweden he was attacked for taking a film crew into a suburb of Stockholm when some of the locals objected. We are being given an accurate representation of a serious problem. Car-burnings and riots do break out in Sweden today with considerable regularity, and sexual assaults have sky-rocketed in the country (although these figures are the subject of heated debate over whether they represent a rise in incidents or a rise in reporting). Either way, rapes carried out by immigrants remain a real and underreported issue. The authorities – including the Swedish media – have refused to run stories about these unpleasant facts In Sweden, more than in perhaps any other European country, the media is homogenous in its support for the left-wing status quo in the country, and this includes a support for the views of recent governments on immigration policy. Anything which could give ammunition to critics of that policy is -- as in Germany -- deliberately underreported or actively covered over by the majority of the media. The response to Trump's comments unfortunately demonstrated this yet further. The desire to pretend that the president had specifically claimed that there had been a terrorist attack the night before was one trick. Another was to simply mock and belittle him and his claims. Former Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt took to Twitter to say, "Sweden? Terror attack? What has he been smoking?" The European press gleefully took up tweets by members of the Swedish public who responded to Trump's claims by sending photos of people putting IKEA furniture together. A joke which would have been funnier had a failed asylum seeker from Eritrea not stabbed and killed a mother and son in an IKEA store in Västerås in 2015. Elsewhere, the present Swedish foreign minister, Margot Wallström, in her familiar preaching tones announced that diplomacy and democracy "require us to respect science, facts and the media."
So, once again an American has pointed to a failing in European society, and instead of focusing on the problem or even admitting that there is a problem, the European response has been to point at the American and blame him for creating the problem he has in fact merely identified. Such behaviour is a psychological affliction before it is a political one. It must stand somewhere along the continuum of the famed stages of grief. But it bodes exceptionally poorly for Europe's future. If the response to every problem is denial, and the response to anyone pointing to the problem is opprobrium, legal threats or hilarity, it suggests that Europe is not going to make the softer-landing it could yet give itself in addressing these issues. It might make us feel better, but every time we attack or laugh at the messenger, rather than addressing the message, we ensure that our own future will be less funny. Douglas Murray, British author, commentator and public affairs analyst, is based in London, England.
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Showing posts with label Rinkeby. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rinkeby. Show all posts
Monday, March 6, 2017
The King Does Not Have Any Clothes And The Child Is Telling The Truth!! Europe's Arrogance Ignores Their Problems
Saturday, March 4, 2017
Due To Immigration, Sweden Is Changing Every Day
Ten Incidents in Ten Days That Proved Trump Right on Sweden’s Migration Problem
FREDRIK SANDBERG/AFP/Getty Images
The media and Swedish politicians were in an uproar after President Donald J. Trump chose to highlight the negative effects of mass migration in Sweden. But ten days later, here are ten incidents that proved him right.
When former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt asked the U.S. president “what is he smoking?” on Twitter and other celebrities berated President Trump over his comments on 19 February, many wondered what is actually going on in Sweden. Here is a list of incidents that have occurred since that speech proving President Trump may have even been downplaying the situation in the Scandinavian nation:
1. Large scale riots in the No Go Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby
Photo: JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images
Less than 48 hours after Trump gave his speech, the infamous migrant-populated No Go neighbourhood of Rinkeby was engulfed in violence when several cars were set on fire, shops were looted, and others attacked after police arrested a man in the area. A group of 30 young men also attacked police, who were pelted with rocks and stones; and officers had to retreat to a nearby petrol station to escape the violence.
2. Left wing newspaper photojournalist attacked in No Go Zone
YOUTUBE
During the Rinkeby riots, left wing major Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter sent one of their photographers to take pictures and cover the looting and destruction. He arrived on the scene around 10 pm and was approached by several men who beat him and stole his camera. After escaping and calling the police, authorities told him he would have to make it to a hospital on his own because the area was too dangerous for them.
3. Hand grenade randomly found in a park in Malmö
Photo: Thomas Niedermueller/Getty Images
Imagine strolling through your favourite park. The last thing you would expect to find is a live hand grenade. But not in the heavily migrant city of Malmö, where one was found by police in the Pildamma park. Even more bizarre is the fact the police were looking for a gun in connection with a recent shooting in the area by a 15-year-old boy and said the hand grenade had no connection to the shooting.
4. Another hand grenade found in Stockholm
Photo: AFP
On Monday in Stockholm’s Kista square, another hand grenade was found left in a garbage bin near the local headquarters of the police. The bomb squad was called in and detonated it in a controlled explosion. Police have no idea why the grenade was left in the trash bin and have no suspects.
5. Grenade attack in Malmö injures a man
Photo: JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty
With all the hand grenades lying around in random bins and parks, it is inevitable that one eventually gets used. This was the case earlier this week in Malmö’s Lindängen district when police were alerted to an explosion in a residential area. No one was killed in the incident, which police are treating as an attempted murder case, but one man suffered shrapnel wounds to his leg and was hospitalised.
6. Sympathies for Islamic State growing in Sweden
Photo: Reuters
Swedish security services have announced the number of sympathisers of the terrorist group has gone up. This is due to the many Swedes who went to fight with Islamic State in the Middle East who return, spread their ideology, and are recruiting new members. Many of them have been encouraged to return to Sweden by some city governments like Lund who have offered them debt relief, free housing, and driving lessons.
7. Swedish library bans book critical of mass migration
Photo: AFP
Many Swedes are afraid to speak up about mass migration because they are afraid of being called racist. But even a Kurdish Iranian-born economist is not free from the politically correct mindset. Economist Tino Sanandaji wrote a book on mass migration called Mass Challenge and because it offers real facts when looking at migration a library in Stockholm is refusing to stock it because they claim it “promotes racism”.
8. Swedish ambulance workers demand “military” defence equipment to service No Go Zones
Photo: The Associated Press
Gordon Grattidge of the Swedish ambulance union demanded the government give paramedics access to body armour and helmets because of the numerous attacks they receive when trying to answer calls in No Go Zones.
“It’s too dangerous to enter. We can be prevented from entering. We may be blocked from getting out. Vehicles can be sabotaged at the site. We can be exposed to physical violence. In seconds it can turn to attacks on our vehicles or against us personally… It can be stone throwing and even worse. Hand grenades have been thrown at police so that is a great concern,” he said.
9.Sweden refuses to charge migrant who got his then 14-year-old wife pregnant
Photo: AFP
Swedish prosecutors have dropped charges of child sex assault on a man who married a girl in Syria when she was 13 or 14 and got her pregnant due to the fact that the act occurred before they were in Sweden. By contrast, any Swedes that try the same thing abroad will be subject to criminal charges.
10. … and despite everything, Swedish politicians still think migration makes their country STRONGER!
LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP/Getty Images
Of course, after President Trump called Sweden out on their failure to manage the migrant crisis Swedish politicians had no choice but to double down and stick to the party line, no matter the facts. Former Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt was one of many who wanted to hit back, speaking “warmly about continued migration and [saying] that it strengthens the country” to a mainstream Swedish newspaper, remarking that his homeland is a “country of immigration”.
So, who has it right. President Trump, or the Swedish political establishment? Let us know below.
Monday, March 21, 2016
An Inside Sweden Look At The Migrant Crisis. Do You Really Want This In The US?
See What Happens Just Moments After ’60 Minutes Australia’ Crew Arrives in Predominantly Immigrant District of Stockholm
Three weeks after being attacked while filming in a migrant-heavy district of Sweden’s capital, “60 Minutes Australia” has finally aired the footage of the attack.
The crew, upon arriving to the Rinkeby district of Stockholm on March 1, was immediately confronted and attacked by migrants. The area is also known as “Little Mogadishu,” a reference to the high number Somali migrants who live in the area.
According to footage, the crew’s tumultuous day began as a car filled with migrants approached the crew. When the discussion between the crew and the migrants began to get tense, one of the crew’s cameramen was deliberately run over as the car sped off.
In response, lead correspondent Liz Hayes phoned the local police, but even they were reluctant to provide much assistance or guard them for the rest of their time in the area.
“I think it would be better if you go in without us,” a cameraman catches a police officer telling Hayes.
Once the crew entered a local market, they were met with friendly people who agreed to go on camera. But once the police left the location, the migrants became increasingly hostile and unfriendly. That’s when a gang of masked men began to attack the group.
The attack began as one of the masked men launched a stone at the cameraman. That same man then attempted to kick and punch the crew’s boom operator. Then a second man is seen running in, attempting to steal a camera from a still photographer. The confrontation only ends when another migrant intervened by running his mobility scooter into the aggressor.
Following last year’s mass exodus of migrants from the Middle East to Europe, many countries were hard hit with migrant violence, but Sweden has been especially hard hit after the country accepted more than 100,000 migrants in 2015. According to a news report from February, the country is quickly learning that the migrants are not assimilating well, citing more than 20 “no-go” areas in Stockholm alone.
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