Can Europeans Co-Exist with Refugees? Sweden and The 2020 Riots
“They are destroying my country’ — Nora Armstrong ( Human Rights Activist)
The year was 2015. I was listening to Avicii's album, when “Somewhere in Stockholm” began playing.
I’m from a place where we never, openly show our emotions We drown our sorrows in bottomless bottles and leave them to float in the ocean
These lines caught my attention. I was left wondering, what are the people of Sweden like?
Is mental health a taboo? Do the Swedish waive off depression like it doesn’t exist? Are the people there emotionally strong and dependable? Are they happy people who believe in Santa Claus like their neighbors from Finland? (ok ok that went a bit far)
I was aware of “Stockholm Syndrome”, a human psychological response infamously credited to Sweden during the bank robbery of 1973, where 4 bank employees were held hostage and developed feelings of trust with their captor. When on the phone with the then Prime Minister, one hostage stated that she felt safe with the captor, but feared the police intervention.
Yes, Stockholm is an extremely beautiful country no doubt, but what about its people? What are they like?
Turns out, too nice, and welcoming for their own good.
What’s happening in Sweden Right Now?
A communal war.
On 28th August, A copy of the Quran was burnt in a metropolitan city of Malmo by members of the far-right party Stram Kurs (Hard Line). The party leader- Rasmus Paludan has a long-standing history of speaking against Islam and was supposed to be delivering a speech on “Islamization of Nordic Countries” in Malmo earlier that day.
He has been arrested for his anti-Islam in the past, and also made a policy that talked about deporting over 300,000 refugees from Denmark. After this episode of burning the Quran, he has been banned from Sweden for 2 years.
The burning of the Quran instigated the Islamic community to jump out in the streets in a fury, where they came together in groups and set cars on fire, threw tires, harassed and attacked many natives, and are the cause of a living nightmare for the Swedish people who always saw their country reign as a peaceful and friendly haven.
Despite the terrible course of events happening in Sweden, very few media outlets are covering it, local as well as International. Public figures from Sweden like Greta Thunberg has also been mum about these riots that are taking place in her country.
Sadly, this is not the first time these riots have taken place in Sweden, and nor will it be the last, judging by the vast number of people choosing to stay silent about these riots.
To understand the present, let’s just back up for a minute.
Sweden And Its Love for Refugees:
Back in 1945, Sweden’s immigrant population was only 2%.
Now, Sweden takes more asylum seekers per capita than any other country in Europe and is famously known as one of the friendliest countries for refugees, after Canada and Australia.
As of 2017, most asylum seekers came from Syria, Iraq, Eteria, and Georgia.
It all started in 1950 when Sweden started recruiting migrant workers. In 1956, Sweden took in political refugees from Hungary and former Czechoslovakia after their countries were invaded by the Soviet Union. Some tens of thousands of American draft dodgers from the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s also found refuge in Sweden.
Naturally, following suit, Sweden gladly welcomed Syrian refugees during the disastrous Syrian Civil War of 2011.
Islam began to spread massively during the 1960s, with the influx of refugees from Islamic Countries, and during that same time, job opportunities, especially in labor-intensive fields like production started to fall, which resulted in immigrants who came to Sweden for work to return to their homeland. A huge number of Finns, Sweden’s neighbors, went back to Finland during this period.
Sweden soon turned into a hotspot of immigrants from Islamic countries; Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, etc.
This period is known as a transition period between labor-based immigration to refugee-based immigration.
Sweden had plans in place for its asylum seekers, and offered a plethora of benefits to refugees; a house, a job, clothes, security. It also rolled out the “Million Programme” in 1965, a public housing program to ensure the poor and unemployed had shelter. This is where the refugees were sent.
The No-Go Areas in Sweden That No-One Talks About
Most of the areas where this Million Programme was implemented housed refugees.
By and by, crime rates began to increase in these areas. Women were often found lining up outside the police stations to file complaints of rape and sexual assault. It was not uncommon to find young Swedish boys complaining of rape either, and although the police do not disclose the nationality of the criminals, it is well known to everyone that it is fairly normal for boys to be raped in Afghanistan. (This is very well described in a Khaled Hosseini's novel, “The Kite Runner”).
As situations worsened, the areas under the Million Programme were soon deserted by the local swedes, eventually becoming a strictly Islamic community inhabited area.
The Islamic community lives by its own rules of their book. Drinking alcohol, wearing revealing clothes or heels, smoking, etc are banned within the limits of these areas and the police also go in large groups to these areas.
This is what is now a no-go zone, feared by the Swedish Police and the Media.
One of the most famous ones being Rinkeby, where the government itself has been unable to build a police station due to fear of being attacked.
The Bleak Future Ahead For Sweden
Researcher Johan Patrik Engellau has predicted the situation in Sweden could be far worse than government officials are willing to admit.
“I’m afraid it is the end for the well-organized, decent, and egalitarian Sweden we have known up to now. Personally, I would not be surprised if a form of civil war occurs. In some places, the civil war has probably already begun.”
It’s hard to predict what the future could look like for Sweden. One thing is for sure, the behavior of refugees is raising eyebrows everywhere, who are beginning to look extremely ungrateful and aggressive towards the very people who provided them with food and shelter.
The entire world is watching the riots unfold, albeit lowkey, and if this continues, it shouldn’t come as a surprise if leaders of other countries, especially Europe, take heed and tighten up their immigration and refugee policy, which is already quite strict.
The riots are only getting worse by the hour, and have already reached Norway where protests are taking place outside the parliament.
