The Uncomfortable Truth about [Islamist-Leftist] Swedish Anti-Semitism

The Uncomfortable Truth about [Islamist-Leftist] Swedish Anti-Semitism

For many years I’ve been writing about how Islamism and Leftism have come together in Europe to form a particularly nasty form of anti-Semitism in which Walking While Jewish in European cities

The cover story has been, and still is, anti-Zionism and Israel hatred. It’s what, in February 2010, I called Malmö Syndrome:

Malmö is the third largest Swedish city, and now the poster child for what I call Malmö Syndrome, the anti-Semitic violence which results from the shared anti-Israeli agenda of Islamists and leftists.

The result is that Malmö is being depopulated of Jews as a result of street violence by Mulsims and disinterest by left-wing politicians ….

At the heart of Malmo Syndrome is the attempt to delegitimize Israel ….

Critics of Israel who are not anti-Semitic need to admit that they have a problem, Malmö Syndrome.

The line between anti-Israel rhetoric and anti-Semitic violence has been all but erased, and the enlightened leftists supposedly committed to human rights in fact are in bed with those who act on the oldest hate.

In my July 15, 2014 post, Islamist Jew-haters and their leftist enablers: “The Jews are Beasts”, I summarized the situation, which is anti-Semitic violence and intimidation by young Muslim men accepted by leftist politicians because it uses the cover of anti-Israelism. Sweden has been a particularly glaring example of this Islamist-Leftist coalition, as I wrote in August 2015, Malmö, Sweden: Where BDS brings together Islamist and Leftist anti-Semites.

The mainstream media in the U.S. has ignored or covered up this European Islamist-Leftist anti-Semitism, finding it politically more palatable to focus on “far-right” anti-Semitism, and attempts to frame any other discussion as Islamophobia.

Today in the NY Times, however, there is an Op-Ed by a Swedish journalist Paulina Neuding that succinctly summarizes the situation, and confirms what I’ve been saying for years, The Uncomfortable Truth About Swedish Anti-Semitism.

After going over the problems for Jews in Sweden, particularly Malmo, Neuding succinctly summarizes the problem as lying with Muslims and Leftists, who account for 51 percent and 25 percent, respectively, of anti-Semitic incidents as of 2013:

Historically, anti-Semitism in Sweden could mainly be attributed to right-wing extremists. While this problem persists, a study from 2013 showed that 51 percent of anti-Semitic incidents in Sweden were attributed to Muslim extremists. Only 5 percent were carried out by right-wing extremists; 25 percent were perpetrated by left-wing extremists.

Swedish politicians have no problem condemning anti-Semitism carried out by right-wingers. When neo-Nazis planned a march that would go past the Goteborg synagogue on Yom Kippur this September, for example, it stirred up outrage across the political spectrum. A court ruled that the demonstrators had to change their route.

There is, however, tremendous hesitation to speak out against hate crimes committed by members of another minority group in a country that prides itself on welcoming minorities and immigrants. In 2015, Sweden was second only to Germany in the number of Syrian refugees it welcomed. Yet the three men arrested in the Molotov cocktail attack were newly arrived immigrants, two Syrians and a Palestinian.

This is a critical point. The headline for the Op-Ed almost certainly was drafted by NY Times Opinion page editors. That would be typical in my own experience, the editors write or modify the headline. That headline, however, didn’t give away just what it was that was “uncomfortable”.

You had to read pretty far down to find out that it was mostly Muslim extremists responsible for anti-Semitic incidents in Sweden, that Leftists were the next most likely group, and that the right wing was only 5 percent of the problem.

Neuding then discussed why these facts were uncomfortable for the prevailing narrative:

The fear of being accused of intolerance has paralyzed Sweden’s leaders from properly addressing deep-seated intolerance….

But the problem has grown so dire that it finally forced [Prime Minister Stefan] Lofven to admit in an interview this month: “We will not ignore the fact that many people have come here from the Middle East, where anti-Semitism is a widespread idea, almost part of the ideology. We must become even clearer, dare to talk more about it.”

He’s right. Unfortunately, the country’s news media is often unable to speak plainly about the issue….

There are many areas in which Israel deserves criticism, but the Swedish press often crosses the line into vilification of the Jewish state and regularly insinuates that events in the Middle East are directed by powerful Jews in the West. This risks stoking already dangerously high anti-Jewish sentiment.

No efforts to prevent radicalization will be successful, Neuding concludes, in the present situation of refusal to speak the truth about the problem:

None of these efforts can be successful, however, without openly acknowledging the nature of modern anti-Semitism in Sweden.

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