Saturday, July 26, 2008

Is Gates of Vienna Swedish “Propaganda”?

A reader, DC, wrote Gates of Vienna this week. The Baron was out of town and since he is our Swedish interface, I didn’t feel confident in my responses to DC’s assertions.

As I said to our reader, what I know about Sweden comes from what people send us - plus information supplied by Conservative Swede in on-going email conversations.

And then there is Fjordman. Back in 2005 Fjordman was my first introduction to Sweden’s predicament. Remember when he had a blog? It seems a million years ago since the first time the Baron showed me a post from the dark prophet of Norway.

Remember the disinformation spread in the blogosphere about Sverigedemokraterna? What I learned about this political party came about due to ill-informed and scurrilous attacks by LGF following the Brussels Conference in 2007. These charges were first raised and then sustained by questionable sources such as the EXPO Foundation (eventually those charges were simply dropped. They were never amended nor was an apology ever forthcoming). Attempts by members of SD to address the topic were simply dismissed or held up for ridicule.

Like the Irish referendum dissent, SD survives in spite of concerted governmental efforts to destroy it. That says something for what is transpiring in Sweden, and it gives one hope.


With my agenda thus stated plainly, here is our reader’s email:

Hi there,

First let me say that I like the blog and follow it. I am with you all 100% when it comes to the problem of Islam in Europe. However, I am on the verge of leaving the blog, and here is why.

We complain about propaganda done by the left media and Islamists, but this blog is turning into exactly the same -- propaganda only from a different angle. The things that have been posted about Sweden are absolutely exaggerated and really ludicrous. The media portrays things from one way, and you guys seem to be portraying it from another -- both are very far from the truth.

Does Sweden have a problem with Islam? Yes but no more than other places really. Here are some interesting facts, starting with the juiciest statistics…

Fact: 50% of Swedes want the headscarf banned. Source: http://www.dn.se/DNet/road/Classic/article/0/jsp/print.jsp?&a=697077 (Swedish)
Fact: Over 1/3 think immigrants come here just for the welfare. It is true but the new government has actually been very strict about welfare abuse issues and has limited many benefits as well as managed to get welfare payouts to go down by a lot.
Fact: The economy, unlike most in Europe and especially the US’, is still doing quite well. Salaries are high, standard of life is very high. Crime rates, compared to most countries in the West, are still very low. I do not and have never felt unsafe while walking around late and alone through the streets of Stockholm or any other Swedish city, though there are of course suburbs where I would not do this, but this is no different than in any other city in the world.
Fact: 25% of Swedes are ready to vote for a party that restricts immigration. Almost half want to limit Muslim immigration, and this percentage is growing. Source: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1842592/posts
Fact: In some polls I’ve said (sadly I have no source), about half of all Swedes want to CLOSE the borders altogether to immigration.
Fact: Malmö is overall still a perfectly fine place. Its crime rates may be higher than the average Swedish ones, but they are still much lower than many places throughout the Western world. The worst neighborhood in Malmö (and Sweden) won’t even come close to even just average quite bad neighborhoods in the US. Malmö has many nice areas (most of the city) and I have never felt afraid while there. In fact it is a booming city, becoming part of a big Öresund metro area along with Copenhagen. Business is booming and lots of Swedes are moving there for the opportunities -- and many Danes are living there and many more thousands are moving there every year.
Fact: I’ve been to Stockholm’s worst neighborhood several times to see what it’s like. Yeah, the demographics there is disturbing and it is a shame such a neighborhood even exists. But, like with Malmö’s worst, is not bad, internationally seen for the Western world. There is still paint on the buildings. There are stores and a mall. It’s no ghetto. (But I wouldn’t mind bombing it and similar neighborhoods, but that’s another story.)
Fact: Overall Sweden is still very Swedish. The immigrant % is on par with many countries like the US and in fact a huge percentage of this rate are Finns (still the largest immigrant group). There are also quite a few of Western immigrants (like Dutch). My Stockholm suburb is 17% but 10% of those are Finnish, which isn’t exactly a group I am worried about.
Fact: Swedes do not hate themselves. I am not a Swede myself (I am an American who has been studying here for a few years) and have seen Swedish pride quite clearly. On the national day, which is kind of new to them, you see tons of flags and people celebrating Swedishness on the streets. Just look at anyone celebrating midsummer (or watching a soccer game) and you will see Swedish pride is still well and a live.
Fact: A huge percentage of the large immigration numbers lately Christian Iraqis, which though still somewhat problematic, are easier to integrate in the long run. In addition, estimates show that a large percentage of the Muslims that do come aren’t very religious, which is especially true among their children who grow up in the very liberal society.

Do I want to limit -- even better, end -- Muslim immigration here? Yes, of course. It is a problem. But it is not the problem that this blog tries to portray it to be. Sweden=hellhole, Denmark=heaven is far from the truth. The two are still very similar in more ways than you would think.

The blog tries to portray Swedes as a bunch of self-hating people that do nothing other than to call themselves racists all day, and Sweden as a horrible hellhole with just immigrants going around raping people, both of which are SO far from the truth that just reading that makes you wonder if this blog is really trying to work for a cause or if it’s just a joke. The comments to the posts, in particular, are ridiculous.
- - - - - - - - -
Like I said, I support you all and I agree with you all. But please, try to stick to the truth. Most of you have gotten a very wrong picture of the country. Your sources are a few blog posts that use a few very carefully-selected articles by very few people and translated with a slant as well by one or two people. You also haven’t seen all of this in person, either. So, just as you’ve learned not to trust all that comes from the AP, learn to do the same here too.

It’d be great if you could actually post this.

Thanks and keep up the good work.


DC:

I’m surprised you don’t get on the comments section at GoV and argue your point of view. There are Swedes who would discuss your findings with you and perhaps a consensus would emerge that was more to your liking.

The Baron has been far more involved with Swedish authors than I have. Unfortunately, he’s away on business so what I can respond to is limited.

However, I do know that SD has been shockingly persecuted for its politics in a way that could not happen here. I have had some correspondence with the treasurer (if he still holds that post) and his view was not sanguine about Sweden’s closed political system.

Doe it not seem strange to you that union members were threatened with expulsion if they joined SD, and that SD has been vilified in the press repeatedly?

SD was not permitted by the post office to mail its political brochures so they had to be delivered by hand. This is Swedish “democracy” in action.

I don’t consider 50% of the population wanting the headscarf banned as a very good indicator. That means half either want the headscarf or don’t care.

Sweden hides the increase in rapes country-wide, and for public consumption is “puzzled” by this statistic. It also refuses to collect the data that would show plainly that Muslim immigrants are responsible. In fact, the perpetrators are quite willing to say they see Swedish women as whores.

If you were a woman walking around at night, how safe would you feel? Why are some girls dyeing their hair to a dark color? I’m not saying that the whole country has to do that, but it shouldn’t be happening at all. A polity which fails to protect its young ones doesn’t have a good future.

Swedish Jews in Malmo don’t feel safe at all. They have been warned not to wear *anything* religious or the police won’t be responsible for their welfare -- as if they would be otherwise.

The police have also refused to help with security during temple services so the congregation spends 25% of its income on guard services. In fact, guard services are a growth industry in some places.

How about the refusal of the authorities to let the Jews erect a secure bomb deterrent structure in front of the temple? Obviously, the Jewish population is decreasing as they leave for safer places.

Fjordman is a gifted writer and well educated, both in Scandinavia and abroad. It was he who came to us with the information about the dystopia that exists in Sweden and Norway. And the Baron has met personally with him to discuss Sweden and Norway’s predicament.

Conservative Swede is a strong personality with great integrity. If he says that his native country is failing, I will tend to believe him. Again, he and the Baron have met in person. Like Fj, he deeply concerned with the future of Sweden.

Here’s Bruce Bawer’s opinion on Sweden, and he’s hardly a conservative:

The approach of the New Year [he means 2007] and departure of the old inevitably brings a flurry of “year’s best” lists. This even applies to nations, which some organizations make it their business annually to rank in order of wealth, quality of life, and what-have-you.

Surprisingly often, the Nordic countries come out on top. This placement is usually a reflection less of objective reality, however, than of the list- makers’ enthusiasm for the Nordic welfare-state model. The criteria, in other words, are formulated in such a way that the Nordic countries will inevitably end up on top. Hence Norway, for example, is repeatedly named by the United Nations as the world’s richest country - forget that prices and taxes are so high that even business executives lunch on dry sandwiches brought from home in aluminum foil.

Now it’s Sweden’s turn. The Economist Intelligence Unit, associated with the Economist magazine, has awarded the title of world’s most democratic country to Sweden. For many observers, this is not only wrong - it’s staggeringly, outrageously misinformed.

Sweden is, after all, a country in which the people are fed by their political, press, and intellectual establishment an unvarying diet of propaganda promoting the socialist welfare state, demonizing Israel, and whitewashing Islam. As for America, the official view was neatly captured in a post-September 11 editorial in the nation’s largest newspaper, Aftonbladet, which assured readers that the terrorists who attacked New York and Washington weren’t Sweden’s enemies but simply hated “U.S. imperialism,” a reasonable position given that “the U.S. is the greatest mass murderer of our time.” Such views, taught in Sweden’s classrooms and enshrined in Sweden’s state-approved schoolbooks, are reiterated daily by Sweden’s mainstream press organizations, all of which are either government-owned or government-subsidized.

Dissent is powerfully discouraged. In Sweden, whose murder rate is currently twice that of America and where Muslims now constitute over 10% of the population and are disproportionately unemployed and prone to violence, the Swedish press routinely depicts America as crime-ridden. Polls show that the majority of Swedes are deeply disturbed by their country’s dramatic social changes and highly critical of the policies that brought them about. Yet the crime and violence generally go unreported, so only rarely does any of the criticism seep into the press. Though two-thirds of Swedes question whether Islam is compatible with Western society, this issue is simply not open for public discussion.

To quote Jonathan Friedman, a New Yorker who teaches social anthropology at the University of Lund, “no debate about immigration policies is possible” because Sweden’s “political class,” which controls public debate, simply avoids the topic. Recently, the city of Stockholm carried out a survey of ninth-grade boys in the predominantly Muslim suburb of Rinkeby. The survey showed that in the last year, 17% of the boys had forced someone to have sex, 31% had hurt someone so badly that the victim required medical care, and 24% had committed burglary or broken into a car. Sensational statistics - but in all of Sweden, they appear to have been published only in a daily newssheet that is distributed free on the subways.

Instead of reporting on such worrisome findings, politicians and the press alike focus on the evils of America and Israel. Last year, for instance, Sweden’s state-owned TV network ran a series of “documentaries” about America that included Michael Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine.” Viewers were protected from the fact that it had been shown to contain lies and fabrications. The series also included a sympathetic account of Stalin’s atomic spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, whom Swedish TV described as having been executed not for history’s most colossal act of treason but “for their Communist sympathies,” and something called “Why We Fight,” which explained America’s military actions as motivated by the avarice of military contractors.

Swedish book publishing is similarly unbalanced. Recently Michael Moynihan, an American writer based in Stockholm, toted up the English-language political books that had been translated into Swedish since September 11. His long list included several works apiece by Noam Chomsky and Michael Moore, plus volumes by the communist historian Eric Hobsbawm, the anti-American journalist John Pilger, and the “Holocaust industry” critic Norman Finkelstein. On the entire list, only one author was not a leftist.

When voices of dissent do break through in Sweden, they’re often punished. During the run-up to the Iraq war, the Swedish government censured the independent TV channel TV4 for running an “Oprah” episode that presented both pro- and anti-war arguments. TV4 was charged with violating press-balance guidelines when in fact its offense was being too balanced - it had exposed Swedish viewers to ideas from which journalists had otherwise shielded them.

Only one sizable party in the country, the Sweden Democrats, articulates most Swedes’ concerns about their country’s immigration and integration policies. Again and again, it has been the object of breathtakingly undemocratic treatment by the political establishment. Earlier this year, for example, the government closed down the Sweden Democrats’ Web site because it had published a cartoon of Muhammad. Stig Fredriksson, head of the free-speech organization Publicistklubben, complained bitterly. But the incident was hardly reported in Sweden - and, of course, barely caused a ripple abroad. If the Bush administration had closed down a Democratic Party Web site¸ there would be scare headlines and editorials thundering about dictatorship - and rightly so. But when Sweden’s rulers did it, it was apparently acceptable - because they did it in the name of political correctness.

Sweden Democrats have been the targets of events that recall China’s Cultural Revolution. Staged “people’s protests” by members of the “youth divisions” of other parties have led to the firing of Sweden Democrats from their jobs. A few weeks ago, a junior diplomat was dismissed when it became known that he was a member of the party and had criticized his country’s immigration policy. On several occasions, thugs loyal to the ruling parties have broken up Sweden Democratic meetings and beaten up party leaders. And this is a nation in which a party led by an admitted communist was, in recent memory, part of the ruling coalition. [my emphasis here -- D]

The Sweden Democrats enjoy considerable public sympathy. But given Sweden’s oppressively conformist political climate, that sympathy is of necessity largely sub rosa. Mr. Friedman has suggested that one reason why the party has no seats in Parliament is that Swedish elections aren’t really secret - other people at the polling place can look at your ballot and see which party you support. The stigma attached to voting for the Sweden Democrats is just that strong. Another reason is that the major parties have worked together vigorously to keep the Sweden Democrats out of the public square. The success of this collaborative effort is reflected in the fact that Sweden is the only major Western European country whose legislature contains not a single representative of a party critical of its immigration policies.

In 1972, the British historian Roland Huntford titled his book about Sweden “The New Totalitarians.” He is echoed by a number of observers today who describe Sweden as an example of “soft totalitarianism.” Are they right? That’s a matter for debate - though it’s a debate that won’t take place in Sweden.

Bawer wrote that at the end of 2006.

The book he mentions was written in 1972. The closure of public discussion started a long, long time ago and it continues.

I know the qualifications for Bawer, Conservative Swede and Fjordman. I also hear from Swedes ranging in age from 17 to 75+ who write to us very concerned about their country. For the older people, it is a kind of despair, for they live on very limited government incomes that are too small to allow ownership of a car, yet they see newcomers thriving on government benefits. The oldest of our correspondents can no longer manage a bike and walking has become problematic so his life is quite limited now.

These folks not only write to us, they translate material and send it to us. Their outlook does not coincide with yours.

What I will do is send your list on to Fjordman. He is a most reasonable person and will think through what you have to say. If he responds, I’ll send it on to you.

If he responds at any length, I will combine them and make a post. If he doesn’t have time (he is in the process of getting his book together) then I will post your comment as is. Obviously, I don’t agree with you, but I believe in promoting civil dissent, so one way or another, your words will go up.

All this will take a few days, so I probably won’t have anything to put up before, say, Monday. Meanwhile, I suggest you join the comment section.

Dymphna

PS Here’s an old post from when Fjordman had a blog. It concerns Sweden’s eventual collapse.

Here’s a more recent guest post of his, which ends in a sad, disturbing piece of news:

As a final note on this whole sorry state of affairs - the Swedish parliament passed a law yesterday which orders comprehensive electronic surveillance of all citizens:

Swedish lawmakers voted late on Wednesday in favour of a controversial bill allowing all emails and phone calls to be monitored in the name of national security.

This law will make Sweden more totalitarian than even the former Communist dictatorship of East Germany.

DC, I am glad your Swedish world is one of safety and harmony. Many native Swedes would demur. The professor in Lund, mentioned by Bawer, had this to say about the tolerant Swedes:

“Weekend racists”, is Friedman’s term for many Swedes, whom drink themselves senseless during the weekend, whence it is generally accepted to - and then all the suppressed hatred is let loose. He mentions a leading politician whom daily spoke warmly for greater immigration and integration, but who simply had to be thrown out of Grand Hotel one Saturday evening because he shouted and screamed his racist opinions for the world to hear. While being drunk. Racism while under the influence of alcohol.”


I welcome Swedes - or other Scandinavians -- of all persuasions to weigh in on this.

You know the drill by now: keep it civil and stay on topic. Limit individual comments to about 500 words. If you don’t, readers will tend to scroll past your words, no matter how cogent and enlightening. Of course if your point is not to be read but to get your point of view up there, then obviously a plea to limit your verbosity will not carry much weight. At that point, I may or may not invoke a blog administrator's prerogative to delete what does not keep the discussion going forward.

33 comments:

spackle said...

"Swedes do not hate themselves. I am not a Swede myself (I am an American who has been studying here for a few years) and have seen Swedish pride quite clearly."

While I understand and appreciate DCs comments I cant help but to not take them to seriously. Why? He is not a Swede and has only been there a few years as he stated. I would tend to take the word of a person who has been plugged into Swedish culture and politics since birth. There are things a native can understand that an immigrant simply cannot. Especially with such limited time spent in said country. It would be like me taking the word of a Brit 3 years in America to that of a 40 year old native. I can appreciate the persons opinion as an outsider looking in but I will give much more weight to the native. Sorry.

Hesperado said...

I agree with Dymphna:

"I don’t consider 50% of the population wanting the headscarf banned as a very good indicator. That means half either want the headscarf or don’t care."

While it's always nice to have the numbers that 50% represents on our side, the "half empty" implication here is simply unacceptable. A simple analogy will vividly illustrate this. Imagine if a poll were taken of any Western country asking what people think of the practice of torturing all left-handed children in the public square using electric shocks to their genitals, and imagine that 50% of those polled either supported this torture or had nothing negative to say about it -- then imagine that a person who has been living in that Western country studying there for years cites this poll by proudly pointing to the 50% who are against the torture of left-handed children.

I know that currently no Western country is acceptably opposed to Islam; but that is no reason to be comforted by a 50% stat in any given country.

ProfessorPelotard said...

I can agree with most things your correspondent writes. It still does not make for a very rosy picture.

First of all Sweden is a small country. Three decades ago we did not have "ghettoes". Three decades ago our serious crime rate (murders, shootings, rapes etc) was not even close to those in US cities or other major cities in Europe. It is the change and rate of change of the society as much as the present situation that is causing disquiet. Your correspondent, only having stayed in Sweden for a couple of years could not have had the experience of Sweden as it was before the large politically motivated immigration waves started. (Not only Muslims.)

The fact that 50% of Swedes are against head-scarves or 25% of the voters (in one poll) say that they m-a-y vote for the SD is really neither here nor there.

The problem is that our elected politicians (including the opposition) are running the country contrary to the wishes of the voters in some very important aspects such as the EU and immigration policies. Since there is a consensus within the political (and media) sphere it will need something of a political revolution to effect a real change.

Although, I agree more with GV and AtlasShrugs than LGF regarding the SD party, I still have grave doubts regarding the political skills of the leading members. Maybe the best possibility of a real change is a reform of our constitution, with more use of refererenda. It is being discussed, but we are a long way from there.

laine said...

Well, I think DC's rather patronizing comment is going to backfire on him. If he reads the links Dymphna gave to Fjordman's very detailed documentation of Sweden's decline, he's going to be very embarrassed.

I just read them and now realize that the situation in Sweden if anything is very much worse than any of us have made it out to be. If someone who is unfavorable toward continued Muslim immigration as DC says he is can live right in Sweden and still remain so uninformed on what's really going on due to totalitarian government control of all means of communication, then this thing literally cannot be turned around.

DC is fiddling as Rome burns. He at least has the United States to go home to for temporary respite before the same process repeats itself there.

He's right about Swedes being proud though. They are so stiff-necked they would rather perish (as they are doing) than admit that their socialist policies are poorly thought out and harmful in the long run. A smug sense of superiority is likely contributing to preventing them from taking meaningful steps to save themselves.

Aquila said...

The main problem is the common delusion that covers the term ‘democratic’.

A person who thinks that by casting a vote every few years for a political party exercises ‘political power’ and that the outcome results in a government that follows the ‘will of the people’ is living in a world of fantasy.

Once the vote has been cast that person’s political power, such as it was, disappears completely. Politicians who gain power following an election can proceed as before. Politicians consist of the usual organised group of single minded power seekers, wheeler dealers and an assortment of crackpots and fanatics.

When the politicos have won their election, these crackpots, with their ongoing political power, as opposed to the ephemeral and meaningless political power exercised by ‘the people’, are helped at all times by a faithful and permanent bureaucracy, another class of power seekers who are immune from having to take the wishes of the people into account when devising their countless laws and regulations.

Once it is understood that the system we know as ‘democracy’ would be more accurately described as an elective oligarchy or dictatorship (I prefer the term junta, myself - It’s much neater) then things would become clearer and political events, such as why virtually every single ‘elective junta’ in Europe and North America appears to be governed by strangely clueless people who are oblivious to the wishes of the majority of the people except in the few weeks leading up to an election.

The first step to seeing things as they actually are would be to understand what this system we commonly call ‘democracy’ actually is. If you are unable to uderstand how things happened you cannot find a solution.

Conservative Swede said...

For the purpose of this discussion let me refer to my very first blog post:
--
The point is not that the Europeans lack the will to fight. They are, just as the Americans, lulled into a false sense of security. Westerners truly think that we still dominate the world (including our own countries), and have an unmoved sense of invincibility. They generally think that we are steamrolling the rest of the world to adapt Western values, and that there is just some friction on the way.

Just look at Sweden. Sweden is often brought up as the worst Western country in many ways. I invite everyone to come here and visit. You’ll find the most idyllic place, where you’ll feel safe walking in the streets after dark, etc. Do you remember the VFR reader who wanted to escape California and said he “felt more at home in smaller towns in Sweden”. This picture is not at all untrue. It takes many decades for the destruction of a country to come in effect.

It’s only if you’re a thinker, or you had bad personal experiences, that you will already now see how the current incarnation of the West is terminally ill. It doesn’t show, not in the ordinary life of common people. We are past the point of no return, but it still doesn’t show. It’s like that George Washington quote, that in a democracy people have to feel it before they can see it. And it doesn’t feel quite yet.

--

Quite as with Falun Gong (which is being discussed in another thread), Swedes are clean, cute and cuddly, scores many PC goodness points and appear harmless. Very few people are interested in penetrating things, and if the surface looks happy and smiling they are fully content with that, and are not the least interested in looking under the hood to find that these "perfect" people are in fact seriously brainwashed (and brainwashing always leads to atrocious results).

Most people cannot see yet what is already obvious--what is already manifest but hasn't bloomed into its full effect yet--but since it's already here, they day will come when they feel it. On that day, remember that we told you.

Simon de Montfort said...

DC's list of facts are fatally incomplete: I could list a dozen facts about Germany under Nazi rule that were 'positive', just as Lindberg did in his America First speeches and radio addresses in the late 1930s

He is doing what well-meaning foreigners often do about their host country: idealising it; seeing through rose-coloured glasses, usw.

Americans do this all the time after a brief spell in Ireland; Irish-Americans are the worst at this, but only slightly. They see the Good and ignore the warts and stains, and tell the natives how goo the natives have it

DC lives in Swerige; he really, really likes it there. I understand: I've been there ( Summer only; I'm not a fanatic ).

But he has half-sight, as Tipperary people say. To quote Simon & Garfunkel, "a man sees what he wants to see, and disregards the rest"

Look closely at how he qualifies each hopeful comment: There are ghettoes, but they are TOO bad; there is crime, but not TOO MUCH ( at least during the day ), usw., etc.

He sounds young; young people should be optimistic, because so much of their lives is yet unlived. But us older folks, who've seen life and studies the lives and times of others.......

Sweden may not be doomed, but it is in serious trouble: The danger is imanent, and measures need to be taken ASAP. Otherwise, that small nation and all its culture could be torn to shreds in less than a generation--and once begun, the cycle of destruction may be too strong to stop

Simon de Montfort said...

excuse the 'typos'; too many surgeries in too short a span of time

Joanne said...

Well thinking things aren't as bad as other countries is rather a weak argument. I've never thought from reading at this blog that Sweden was being portrayed as a hellhole. Crap is happening everywhere, and it all needs to be discussed. Stating it's not as bad as all that - paraphrasing - is more an individual's perception of the matters. Some people may find things in Sweden intolerable, while others may find them quite tolerable.

Most likely it won't be until the intolerable touches more people's lives than not, that anything will be done about Muslim immigration in Europe. Should people have to wait until this point before anything is done about it? I surely hope not.

Jungle Jim said...

"He mentions a leading politician whom daily spoke warmly for greater immigration and integration, but who simply had to be thrown out of Grand Hotel one Saturday evening because he shouted and screamed his racist opinions for the world to hear. While being drunk. Racism while under the influence of alcohol.”

In vino veritas

blogagog said...

Side note: "The economy, unlike most in Europe and especially the US’, is still doing quite well."

Don't believe everything you read. The US economy is fine. Do you know anyone personally who has lost their job in America? I bet the answer is 'no'.

spackle said...

blogagog-

" Do you know anyone personally who has lost their job in America? I bet the answer is 'no'."

Uh, yes I do. Several in fact. Some who have been in and out of work at significant pay cuts for over a year. And some who have been forced to "re-train" at 55 years old. I wont even go into the ones whos businesses are tanking. More power to you and your friends who have been as of yet unaffected.

Esther said...

I think DC was pointing to the 'Sweden is bad, Denmark is good' attitude that many people have. I think he had a a point. News regarding Sweden's 'dhimmitude' is magnified, compared to similar news about Denmark. News to the contrary are simply not posted.

For example, the percent of Danes who back a hijab ban is much lower than 50%.

As you write about 'weekend racists', I think that the more politicians and media enforce a politically correct outlook, the more chances that the general population repressed and does not deal with any prejudices it really might have.

About rapes, I seriously doubt that most rapists in Sweden are Muslim. There might be a high ratio of Muslim rapists compared to their proportion in the population, but having a majority of Muslim rapists would require every Muslim men to rape quite a few women.

The past is always rosy. Immigrants are easy to blame, especially when there are good reasons for doing so, but there are other points which would have affected Sweden's crime rate anyway. In the past we didn't have today's violence-inducing drugs, we didn't have rape-drugs and we didn't have technology and travel opportunities which enable gangs and organized crime to set up base wherever they want.

laller said...

I agree with DC that the "reporting" is quite skewed. But this isn't a newsmedia, it's a blog focusing on immigrant/muslim problems in Europe and how they are and/or should/could be tackled. As such, you can't really expect it to be "balanced". You wouldn't expect an anti-racism NGO or Amnesty International to be "balanced" either, would you?

The problem isn't with what's being "reported". The problem is with people thinking that what's being "reported" is all there is to it. I.e. it's not like France gets burnt to the ground every night and rebuilt every morning, after all...

Anonymous said...

I haven't been to Sweden, so I can't say what it's really like.

However, I doubt I ever will go, because I've been listening every few days to Radio Sweden's English service, and following news there, and I can say that, even compared with state-sponsored garbage like BBC, CBC, Deutche Welle, and Radio Netherlands, Swedes seem to be the most blinded, neutered, self-hating, rabidly self-hating, compulsively and consistently self-hating and apologetic people ON THE PLANET!

/i know that these socialist, state-run media are havens for cowardly terrorist wannabees and disillusioned Communists, and are not representative of the general population. Nevertheless, to hear night after night groveling towards Islam, shame of Swedish society, and never a word of dissent tells me enough about the host society to know I wouldn't enjoy being there.

The American email-writer shows his own biases when he mentions that Swedish Muslims are moderate and liberal. As far as I'm concerned, those are worse than real Muslims [i.e. "radicals"] At least the "radicals" are more honest and easier to target.

The "liberals" spread Islam more effectively than violent Jihadis, until they end up taking over.

Also, I wouldn't judge how healthy a society is by how many people get drunk at football matches and run up and down the main street waving flags when the country scores a goal against Germany.

- - - - -

What is Real Islam?

http://brianakira.wordpress.com/2008/05/23/what-is-real-islam/

- - - - -

Islam Colonizes The Womb:

http://brianakira.wordpress.com/2007/12/29/islam-colonizes-the-womb/

X said...

Well I have been to Sweden. I agree that a visitor or non-native will never appreciate the nuances of the culture they find themselves in, but the reality of what's there - to this outider - doesn't match up with the totally pessimistic view of things. The actual people suffer under the illusion that being nice will mean people will be nice back... but it doesn't work, and if my wife's family are anything to go by there's a slow but steady dawning of that reality. They've had a bunch of foreigners move in near them recently. Across the tracks, in what used to be the desirable part of Smedby and which is now turning into a sort of tiny ghetto. They rea-assure themselves with platitudes about cultural enrichment and don't want to appear racist but I can feel the tension over there when I go, that didn't seem to be there before.

One tiny tell-tale which might seem innocuous but, I think, speaks volumes in a way. Right before my last visit I had a slight trimming accident and ended up having to completely shave my head (it was that or look like I couldn't aim with the clippers). My father in law mentioned that it's a very popular haircut amongst young swedish men at the moment. What neither of us mentioned is that it's also a fighter's haircut. A shaven head is rightly seen as a very aggressive image and it's often a subconscious reaction to a perceived threat of violence amongst a certain type of man who, fearing the possibility of being involved in that violence, removes anything that can be used as a painful handle. Hair is a definite liability when you're fighting.

Of course, it's just fashion... Self-hating? I wouldn't say so, but definitely in denial.

(Long Beards are also a liability in a fight. Might come in handy to know that...)

Avery Bullard said...

Bruce Bawer:In Sweden, whose murder rate is currently twice that of America

Though I'm probably closer to the "Sweden's going down the tubes" school of thought than to DC, I find Bawer to be unreliable. Does he provide a footnote to the above statement? If he said there are more home break-ins and muggings in Sweden than the U.S. I'd be inclined to believe him. But double the murder rate? I find that difficult to believe.

El said...

i think bawer is wrong about that. he had a similar howler in his book 'while europe slept', based, i think, on an error in the economist. the fact that he is still peddling it shows how badly pessimism can warp the filtering apparatus we usually bring to bear when we are exposed to new claims. twice the homicide rate of the states? really? not according to what you can easily find on the internet.

also, what of his claim that the muslim population of sweden is over 10%? surely that's nonsense? bawer seems to be off the rails a bit. it is precisely this sort of wild claim that has the potential to discredit people like us. this is why i welcome DC's attempt attempted correction. whether or not his take on the situation is accurate is of less importance than the fact that there are people who will make such claims and thereby give us an opportunity to adjust our thinking as and when necessary. but i suspect he is over-optimistic. he needs to look at rate of chnge as well as extant degree of change, or he will not see where the country is headed. i imagine conswede and fjordman are better judges of that.

el ingles

RW said...

So maybe we can use this as an occasion for GoV bloggers and its commentators to find some current antidhimmitude information from Sweden and maybe some negative dhimmi news from Danemark.
Common, I sure someone will find something

Henrik R Clausen said...

Russia has been protesting the new Swedish wiretap laws, according to Nezavisimaja Gazeta (Danish link). The Russian state things the whole thing goes to far and is an infringement on Russian interests. 80 % of Russian telecommunications goes through Sweden.

At least Russia is aware of the implications for freedom vs. state control. That's a start.

Conservative Swede said...

RW,

For Sweden Lars Vilks. For Denmark Marianne Jelved. But GoV is already describing that (complex) reality. Hey, GoV is even writing articles critical of Naser Khader, whom I consider to one of the most important anti-PC, anti-dhimmi proponents on this planet.

Conservative Swede said...

El Ingles,

also, what of his claim that the muslim population of sweden is over 10%? surely that's nonsense? bawer seems to be off the rails a bit. it is precisely this sort of wild claim that has the potential to discredit people like us. this is why i welcome DC's attempt attempted correction. whether or not his take on the situation is accurate is of less importance than the fact that there are people who will make such claims and thereby give us an opportunity to adjust our thinking as and when necessary. but i suspect he is over-optimistic. he needs to look at rate of chnge as well as extant degree of change, or he will not see where the country is headed.

I agree with everything you say here.

1. It is not helpful with people who are categorically exaggerating the situation in Sweden. Such as Bruce Bawer when he says Sweden has 10% Muslims. Such gross exaggerations will just make people turn a deaf ear to his message. Bawer and Mark Steyn are the worst exaggerators in this respect (Steyn e.g. claims that there are 40% Muslims in Rotterdam today, and that “By some projections, the EU’s population will be 40 percent Muslim by 2025.”)

Also the people who have read about Sweden in blogs, and seen about Malmö in Fox News, but never visited Sweden, tend to form an oversimplified picture. And while being right in essence, will fail to communicate this essence to people who actually know Sweden better than themselves. We can also compare this to the American pundits who say that Britain is dead. They just see it from one aspect, they fail to understand the complexity of the whole picture. The Swedish picture is also complex. However, in our case unfortunately almost all the positive aspects are echoes of the past.

2. I also welcome DC's contribution to this debate. It's honest and serious, and this is where a good debate begins. While I agree with some of his descriptions as a true description of one aspect of the manifest truth, I disagree with his conclusions.

3. You write: "but i suspect he is over-optimistic. he needs to look at rate of change as well as extant degree of change, or he will not see where the country is headed"

Yes, this is a major aspect of what he misses. He also misses how Sweden of today is two worlds in one. The reality in the ghettos is totally different from what people like him and me see in our ordinary lives, and its expanding like a wildfire.

It takes some decades to destroy a country which was once at the top. People do not feel it on their bare skin yet, but it is easy to see where the utterly tin-foil political decisions that are taken (especially the two last decades) are bringing us. And the these decisions and the political climate in which the are taken are very real. Very real indeed, and very scary.

(I haven't found the time to write about Falun Gong recently, but let me add that I find them very scary too. Both for what they have already done, but also for what they could possibly do given their mentality.)

Conservative Swede said...

Avery Bullard,

Bruce Bawer:In Sweden, whose murder rate is currently twice that of America.

Yes, I have seen contradicting reports regarding these figures. And actually, according to Wikipedia it's the other way around:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_homicide_rate
(not necessarily to be taken at face value either)

However the major point is this: While crime rates have been going steadily down in American, they are sky-rocketing in Sweden. The same pattern for homicide.

Anonymous said...

I can tell that Sweden is in a bad state (which is not to minimize what is happening in other countries) because of the number of people who feel compelled to make excuses and minimize problems.

The fact that Sweden Democrats are banned from the state media primarily for suggesting that Muslim immigration might be a problem, and government ministers and bureaucrats are fired for being politically incorrect regarding Islam, and Christian ministers need police protection just for stating the fact that Mohammad was a pedophile, And Radio Islam is based in Sweden -- all of these things should indicate that Sweden is in at least as bad a state as The NL and the UK.

So is Fjordman correct when he says, "it is probably the most pathetic dhimmi nation in the Western world, even if facing some stiff competition for the title."?

The confusion about numbers is partly because people confuse all immigrants with Muslim immigrants, and illegal immigrant numbers are only estimates.

In the Washington Post, 2004, the writer mentions that many immigrants "contribute" to Swedish life. He cites: Marcus Samuelsson [Ethiopian; Christian, I guess], Ozz Nujen, Shan Atci [Kurds], Josef Fares [Lebanese; sounds Christian?], and Ara Abrahamian [Armenia; Christian, I guess].

Anyway, numbers alone don't indicate the extent of Muslim immigration. For example, Muslim life in the US is more respectful of economic reality than in Sweden. Since most US Muslims take it for granted that they must support themselves, it means they are more concerned with socially integrating than with Jihad.

In Sweden?:

"In Malmo, the biggest problem is unemployment. In Rosengard, the most heavily immigrant district of Malmo, the unemployment rate is around 65 percent, said Jahangir Hosseinkhah, division head of the district's employment and training office, and an ethnic Azerbaijani who emigrated from Iran.

"Hosseinkhah said Sweden's generous welfare system is partially to blame. "We have a welfare system in Sweden that is usually a help to people, but it is also a problem," he said. For some immigrants, he said, "they don't need to get a job, because they get an allocation from the state." He said his office has handled immigrants who had lived in Sweden as long as a decade and had never worked."

So similar demographics in different countries can create different sub-cultures.

It seems that a large part of Sweden's Muslim population is essentially parasitical, and is adept at manipulating the weaknesses of the host society.

In spite of some recent loopy developments in Ireland [N & S], I'm still sure that if Derry or Belfast or Limerick was overrun with the kind and number of Muslims who have infested Malmo, living off tax=payers while spreading hatred of Ireland/N.I., the worst of them would soon have their windows smashed; and if they didn't get the hint, they'd soon burned out and have their kneecaps broken. I don't say that's something to be proud of, just a fact. [It would be better to keep them out in the first place, which is not a racist statement, but a solution to ideological corruption.]

Another problem is the hypocrisy of Swedes. They are narcissistic, and love to think of themselves as thouroughly modern and tolerant and post-racial and open-minded. In fact they are more racist than many other Westerners [Portuguese, Americans, Australians, Canadians]. Most Swedes look down on dark-skinned people. They look at them as po' folk that the great noble Nordic has to lift up. That is an attitude of contempt. It's made even worse by being excessively critical of any Swede who expresses the sort of racial pride that immigrants are encouraged to express.

Just like all over, many or most white Swedish kids listen to music and watch movies that celebrate black pride and arrogance and denigrates white Americans and Europeans. If white Swedes expressed the same racially-proud sentiments that Ice-Cube and Scoop Doggy Poop get awarded for, they'd probably be arrested.

Another consideration is that the Swedish terrorist [! Sorry! I mean Muslim. What on Earth was I thinking!?] population is such a recent phenomenon, compared to France or the UK, which have had significant Muslim populations for at least 50 years. The recent rapid growth in Muslim-occupied Sweden is the result of conscious actions of just a couple of governments, who competed to bring in more Iraqis, Bosnians and Muslim Kosovars than any other country. This is their gift to future generations.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52672-2004Oct21.html

http://www.faithfreedom.org/oped/Fjordman50506.htm

http://www.islamawareness.net/Europe/Sweden/

http://www.moriel.org/articles/discernment/islam/muslims_rule_sweden.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Sweden



I guess I'm simple-minded.

For me, the simple fact that a government minister publicly kowtowed to Muslims and violated Swede's rights in a base attempt to avert Muslim punishment tells me all I need to know:

"Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds decided to halt the Web site of the small nationalist party Sweden Democrats, which planned the Prophet cartoons contest
...
"The move was taken after talks Thursday, February 9, between the Swedish top diplomat and the political parties in the Scandinavian country
...
"The Web site launched a competition for Prophet Muhammad cartoons
...
"Freivalds blamed the right-wing party, Sweden Democrats, a party too small to be represented in parliament, for provoking threats against the Swedish interests
...
""It is terrible that a small group of extremists are exposing Swedes and Swedish interests to obvious danger. [she said]
...
""I apologize for the fact that we in Sweden have individuals who are so ruthless that they consciously offend other people's religion," Freivalds added.

"The Swedish official also hailed the responsible freedom of expression practiced by the Swedish press over the cartoon row.

""Our freedom of expression and the press requires taking responsibility, something Swedish media so far has done, and I would expect the same even of the Sweden Democrats," she told public radio, referring to the fact that no Swedish newspapers have republished the Danish caricatures.
...
"The Muslim activist, on his part, hailed the stance of the Swedish government, urging the Arab and Muslim countries to show support to Sweden over the issue.

"Freivalds also visited the headquarters of the Islamic League in Sweden and met with leaders of the Muslim minority in Sweden.

"The top diplomat applauded the role played by the Muslim minority in closing ties [she means making ties closer] between Sweden and the Muslim world.

"The Muslim leaders, for their part, welcomed the stance of the Swedish government and press on the insulting drawings of Prophet Muhammad.

"They also pledged to highlight the pro-Muslim Swedish stances in the Arab and Muslim mass media.

"Muslims in Sweden are estimated at some 500,000/"

http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2006-02/10/article02.shtml


Hmmm. Swedish media says that Swedes are cowardly, self-hating idiots. Muslim media says that Swedes are cowardly, self-hating idiots.

I'm being brainwashed!


But let's not stereotype Muslims!:

http://www.night4joy.com/pictures/Gay%20Terrorist/gay-terrorist.jpg

Eric said...

Ok, it was me who sent the original email. I've finally registered on here now. Not sure where the 'DC' came from actually as that isn't my name nor was it in the email if I recall correctly, but I do appreciate the email being posted -- so a big thank you for that. I don't have much time right now to reply, but I would to address a few points:

First: thank you to those who have given their support. One of my main points were indeed to point out the fact that Swedish problems are grossly exaggerated whereas Denmark is seen with a veil. Our southern neighbors are not that much better or different than we are. And the situation here is not nearly as bad as what people say. I am not trying to sugarcoat it. There are problems and like I said I agree with you all regarding this, but posts like the comments right above discredit it all completely.

Second, I would like to say that I live with a Swede (that I've known for many years before we got together) and so I have the 'inner' view as well. I've lived here for years now and am integrated into society and so I feel that I have a pretty good view from the inside as well as the outside. There are problems. But Sweden is not doomed. Just look at my email at the top to see why I feel this way.

ProfessorPelotard: 50% is a huge deal. It is higher than what you will see in many countries. It is enough to win an election. Most elections are won 51-49, 52-48. 50% is enough to change things in a democratic society; it all it takes. Most Westerners probably see the headscarf as simply an expression of religion which one is free to choose, so 50% is a huge deal.

laller: I understand. However I would still expect facts to be straight. Otherwise is it really better than the leftist crazy propaganda that people are trying to fight? I don't think so.

Conservative Swede: it is exactly stating things like what you mention, that Sweden has double the US' murder rate, which makes people discredit the entire purpose of such blogs. Swedish murder rate today: 3. The US' 7. It is less than half, certainly not even close to double.

But not only are they not double, they are also not soaring, unlike what you claim.

Brå lets you check crime statistics:

Deadly violence, per 100,000:
1975: 2
1985: 2
1995: 2
2003: 2
2005: 3
2007: 3

I see no 'soaring' rates, not in recent years nor in the long term.

In Malmö, the favorite 'Sweden is doomed' city?

1995 (the earliest they have): 4 (still not even close to the US')
2004: 4
2005: 2
2006: 3
2007: 4

In 10 years it has varied a bit but has certainly not changed. In 12 years it's at the same level as back in 1995.

brianakira: my email was pretty much directed exactly at this type of stuff. Tons of links claiming tons of very interesting things, many of them with no real basis (like claims of double murder rates). Two such examples:

-You mention Laila Freidenval's actions. What you don't mention is that she got so much flak over what she did that she was forced to resign - the opposite of what you claim early in your post and something you don't mention at all. Such 'misses' are, again, what discredits us.
-Sweden Democrats are not banned, and in fact, given the growing interest in SD, media coverage has grown a lot. SD has even taken part in a couple debates. And in a recent article in the country's main paper, Dagens Nyheter, 75% of Swedes said parties should discuss with SD.

Yes, I am young, and yes, I am optimistic. But I feel that I have reason to be, and that is why I sent that email.

Dymphna said...

Eric---

Thanks for identifying yourself as the author of the email. Since you did not give permission to use your name, I did not do so.

Next time, if you want your name used, then state so directly.I'm not a mind reader...yet. That's for next week.

Conservative Swede said...

Eric,

One of my main points were indeed to point out the fact that Swedish problems are grossly exaggerated whereas Denmark is seen with a veil.

Yes, so you say. But you are not providing any examples. And it isn't true. GoV gives a very fair account of what's happening in Sweden and Denmark.

Our southern neighbors are not that much better or different than we are.

Have you noticed the big difference in how the countries are governed? The debate climate etc.?

Second, I would like to say that I live with a Swede (that I've known for many years before we got together) and so I have the 'inner' view as well.

So you read Swedish papers, Swedish blogs and follow the discussion?

Regarding crime rates. They have sky-rocketed in Sweden recently. Especially rapes and violent assault.
http://www.bgf.nu/faktabanken/kriminalitet/vt.html

The number of murders have not increased as steeply, as suggested by the page I already linked. But still from 1976 to 2004 the rate has increased from 0.9 to 2.4, that is almost tripled. While in the same period, in America, the rate has gone down from 9.7 to 5.7. So something is happening here.

If you follow the debate and understand the nature of the situation, you will see why it's rapes and violent assault that is increasing so steeply.

Regarding using figures from Brå, do it with caution. Brå is highly politicized and as trustworthy as IPCC. They do not hesitate to lie and distort in order to give the image of "all is calm". Jerzy Sarnecki is a high profile on these issues on Swedish TV today. He has a background in Brå. He claims it's all false that any crime rates has gone up. Instead, out of the blue, he claims that the Swedes are much more inclined to report crimes today (which is strange since they are much less inclined to witness). He's considered the biggest expert in Sweden.

Now read this: Gatuvåldet blir vanligare och grövre
(transl: Street violence is more common and rougher)

So how can we test the validity of Sarnecki's thesis. Let's check the hospitals. The article above tells the story of how the number of people searching medical care after rough street violence has sky-rocketed. It also tells how almost half do not report it to the police. So it's rather from that perspective we should see the fact that reported street violence has increased threefold the last 15 years.

Eric said...

Dymphna -- I appreciate that, it was just that I figured you were using my initials instead and so I was confused as to where the DC itself came from. No big deal though, better than identifying someone and having the person not having wanted that :)

Conservative Swede: Yes, I am fluent in Swedish so I do read blogs and such.

I know that rates have increased quite a bit in certain categories, and yes I blame much of it on immigration. Just compare crime in Rinkeby with a nice neighborhood and you can see the difference. However what I disagree with the use of the word 'soaring' and I disagree with it being any catastrophic situation. Would the situation be much calmer if there were not so many immigrants? Yes. However most are still living in perfect peace and calm here, with crime rates maybe now reaching levels of other Western countries - in some areas, higher, in other areas, still much lower.

I also disagree with what you say about Brå. They wouldn't falsify murder rates; in other things they clearly show increases so they would be doing a sucky job of hiding things if that's what they are trying to do. In a recent report they actually stated -- a Swedish government agency pretty much, writing in clear words -- that immigrants are overrepresented in many crimes, and they actually talked about that for a little while in the report. The agency you describe would not have done this.

Even if Brå's figures were to be incorrect, which I do not believe, going from virtually no murders to still an extremely low murder rate compared to even the safest of places in the West is not that shocking. What would have to be more explained is rather why before there was no crime than why today it is slightly more normal. I lived in an extremely safe place in the US and our murder rate is about what Sweden's is today.

I don't doubt that they try to be very PC and sugarcoat increases where they happen. But when it comes to murder, is it double the US rate? No. And I don't believe it is soaring either.

didymus2000 said...

There are a LOT of things that are better than they are in America (or elsewhere in the West) and are still execrable.

Chris Bering said...

So, in the end it comes down to numbers and statistics.

According to SCB (Statistics Central Bureau), the number of foreign born, plus Swedish born of foreign born parents, was 1,227,770 + 364,606 = 1,592,376 at the end of 2007.

Looking at the breakdown into countries of origin, one third comes from Western nations. That leaves almost 1.1M from non-western nations. About half of those come from muslim countries.

So, 500k muslims is about right.

Chris Bering said...

Regarding how "safe" one is in Sweden, it greatly depends on who you are.

In the first half of 2008,
2626 rapes against females were reported to the police. An increase of 17% over the same period in 2007.

For the past 3 years, the second half of each year had, on average, ~9% more rapes than the first half.
But let's just estimate that the total for 2008 will end up being atleast 2*2626=5252.

That gives us, for all of 2008:
Age 0-14: 1178 rapes
Age 15-17: 886 rapes
Age 18- : 3188 rapes

If you're female and live your entire life in Sweden, the likelyhood of you ever reporting being raped, is 9.44%.

That is distributed over the age groups as follows:
Age 0-14: 2.35%
Age 15-17: 1.41%
Age 18- : 5.63%

So, imagine a school with 500 girls and 500 boys.
Nearly 12 of the girls will have reported rape before they turn 15.
Another 7 will report rape before age 18.
A further 28 of the girls will report rape after they've become women.
Total: 47 out of 500.

For comparison, the total number of reported rapes in Denmark in 2007 was 542. In 2008Q1 it was 104.

Sweden has 9.2M people. Denmark 5.45M.
In a hypothetical population of 9.2M Danes, there would have been 915 rape reports in 2007. 176 in 2008Q1.

In Denmark, 1.6% of females will ever report a rape. Compare that to the 9.44% for Sweden.

Skåne län (major cities are Malmö, Helsingborg and Lund) has 1.2M people. Rape reports in 2007 were 513. 322 in 2008H1.

Stockholms län has 1.95M people. Rape reports in 2007 were 1306. 899 in 2008H1.

In 2004, there were 2631 rape reports in Sweden. 12.5% or ~329 were gang rapes.

In 2007, there were 4749 rape reports. 18% or ~855 were gang rapes.

In 2008, they might reach a 1000 gang rapes.

But hey, the total amount of reported crime has only gone up from 1.25M to 1.31M since 2004.
- And car thefts are down.

Conservative Swede said...

Chris,

If you're female and live your entire life in Sweden, the likelyhood of you ever reporting being raped, is 9.44%.

That is distributed over the age groups as follows:
Age 0-14: 2.35%
Age 15-17: 1.41%
Age 18- : 5.63%


Presented in this way the situation looks awfully bad, very dark indeed.

I had to check those calculations. From here we get figures about age groups and sex. Girls in age 15-17 are 61920+63142+64114 = 189176. Each year their risk of being raped is 886/189176 = 0.468%. They spend three years in this age group facing this risk every year, that is in total 3*0.468 = 1.4%

I did similar calculations for the other age groups and confirmed the values

So 1 in 27 Swedish girls will have been raped before they turn 18. That is, one in every second school class, before they finish school.

And a further 1 in 18 will be raped after leaving school.

Yes, at this rate 1 in 11 Swedish women will have been raped in their life time. I we take in account the higher risk if you are actually Swedish, we can safely round it off to 1 in 10.

And the rate is rapidly increasing.

PS. Chris, I would be happy if you send me an email to conswede(at)mailbolt.com

Esther said...

I looked a bit into statistics.

According to Swedish Council on Crime Prevention (Swedish, with chart), sexual crimes in Sweden went up by 50% the past 10 years. A very low number of such cases is solved.

The proportion of foreigners during that time period stayed about the same. I didn't find a breakdown over the years, but in the late 1990s it was estimated that at most there were 350,000 Muslims, and somebody above gave a figure of 500,000 today.

According to NationMaster, Sweden has 3 times as many rape victims (proportionally) than Denmark. The statistics are from 2002. Sweden is about the same as Finland, Denmark is about the same as the US. The statistics sound weird to me, as I would have thought other countries would have gotten top billing, and not New Zealand and Australia. The correlation feature, btw, shows that the highest correlation of rape victims per population is to the number of female doctors.