Sweden Riots

bfa1509 wrote: »

I feel completely safe in the built up areas of Stockholm, I haven't experienced any of the notorious suburbs though. Like a lot of European cities, you have "no-go" areas popping up, which were unheard of in Stockholm just a few years back. The amount of security has drastically increased naturally since the lorry attack last year. There are armed police everywhere.

I have asked a few Swedish people how they feel about the immigration problem but they refuse to say anything about it, they just change the subject. If you watch the television over there it is completely riddled with PC propaganda. It doesn't surprise me at all that they are in the situation they are in.

Same feeling I get. Increased police presence but I still feel very safe there in the city centres of Stockholm and Gothenburg. Now I wouldn't venture to areas out in certain suburbs at night however.

My friends there even are the same-they clam up and don't like to talk much about the problems. But my experiences with them when they will talk are that nothing much has changed the opinion of the majority on how welcoming, tolerant and trusting they are to refugees and immigrants coming in.

They think the media reports are mostly lies and exaggerations of the truth to whip up a climate of fear and support for the far right SD, especially those coming from foreign sources. They accept there are problems they have to address, but not the solutions offered by the SD to repatriate refugees.

No-one I know is a supporter of SD, but that's just in my small sample group of friends. I do know there is fear there in some quarters about the rise of xenophobia and racism and that the much valued Swedish openness and high trust society is under threat.

Speaking about this issue is not easy though for them. There is the fear of saying the wrong thing and be seen as racist so they often go out of their way to be anti-racist -one friend works with Muslim women in education programs for immigrants in her library and her thinking is that they have a moral duty to accept people in genuine need of sanctuary and help. She genuinely believes it is the right thing to do to accept as many immigrants and refugees as need their help.

Swedes have a habit of not addressing structural problems in the country because they have a deeply engrained sense that their way is the right way, that they are a leading shining light for the rest of the world to follow- and that teaching starts from Kindergarten onwards. If only every other country could be more like Sweden the world would be so much better! they really believe that.

I noticed this when reading anything about any new social development or policy outcome in the newspapers there. Always "vi är bäst i världen" -we are the best in the world in... fill in the blank. I ended up believing it myself after I lived there for a few years.

It's not a HOO-HAA!! we are the greatest flag waving patriotism like in the US, but they are very nationalistic in their own quiet way and proud of the Swedish Model, and they want to keep it that way.

Racism exists there but it's much more...covert shall we say than in other countries. Most people would never openly discriminate against another nationality but there is definitely a hierarchy of cultural acceptance for people from other countries, with other Northern Europeans at the top, and Somalis at the bottom.

Ethnic Swedes may champion integrated schools for example, but won't send their own kids to an immigrant rich school, or they will have jobs open for all on paper, but then some employers will quietly bin any applicants that have a non-Swedish sounding name so they don't have to work with them.

And all my Swedish friends live in areas where it's a majority ethnic Swedish population and not in immigrant "ghettos". No matter how left wing and pro-immigrant they are I never see any wanting to move to these trouble areas :pac:

There are a lot of barriers still for immigrants to access the kinds of jobs, housing, education and so on that most ethnic Swedes take for granted. Those will have to be tackled in a more robust way to address structural inequalities and poverty among these communities that often feel they have no stake in Swedish society, so they take their anger out by burning cars and occasionally rioting.

I love Sweden and the Swedish people are the kindest and most gentle people I've ever met, and I plan one day to buy a little house there in the country for holidays so I really hope they will get to grips with these problems.

Should we all start sending these kind of reports to our TDs and MEPs now so they cant say "nobody could have predicted..." in a few years time, it is only a matter of time as long as the "wont you please think of the children" are making decisions.

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

Taytoland wrote: »

The fact you think that is what it would take to win such a poll shows how out of touch you are with the people on this. People see what is going on, they aren't blind.

When exactly did people appoint you as their spokesperson on this?

We had a vote last night.

Potatoeman wrote: »

That’s about non-EU countries but the other poll is specifically muslims. Big difference.

The economist also holds the opinion that Germany's model dealing with refugees and migrants is working wonders, that it should be an example for other countries to follow.

So, forgive me if I take everything they say with a pinch of salt.

Deleted User wrote: »

I lived and worked in Sweden for some time in the 90s so I know and have huge meas for that society. It was certainly a massive inspiration to me in terms of environmental awareness and progressiveness (we weren't even recycling in Ireland at the time).

However, the Swedes really are undermining their own values by judgements such as the following in today's news. For such a progressive society to make themselves hostages to medieval backwardness, medieval ignorance and conceit on so many levels makes the world a less progressive and enlightened place.

Sweden Muslim woman who refused handshake at job interview wins case

Read about that earlier today.
The company was really in a pickle there because they also cant hire people who will discriminate their customers, in this case by this woman not shaking hands.

Swedish article, just google translate it

Deleted User wrote: »

I lived and worked in Sweden for some time in the 90s so I know and have huge meas for that society. It was certainly a massive inspiration to me in terms of environmental awareness and progressiveness (we weren't even recycling in Ireland at the time).

However, the Swedes really are undermining their own values by judgements such as the following in today's news. For such a progressive society to make themselves hostages to medieval backwardness, medieval ignorance and conceit on so many levels makes the world a less progressive and enlightened place.

Sweden Muslim woman who refused handshake at job interview wins case

But this: "Her refusal to shake hands on religious grounds was protected by the European Convention on Human Rights, it said," says the ruling was informed by European law common to all member states.

I have zero respect for any religion but this woman didn't do anything that was detrimental to how she would do her job and she offered a greeting in her own way. When the prospective employers gave her the interview they surely would have known she was likely to be Muslim by her name and therefore she may well not be able to shake the hand of someone. The company should have protocols on how to deal with this.

How have they made themselves hostage to medieval backwardness in this case? or are you talking about how Muslims are treated there in general?

They would see that ruling as an example of their progressiveness btw.

weldoninhio wrote: »

Is there a specific passage in the Quran that prohibits women from shaking the hand of a man??

Does she have to have a male relative with her every time she goes out?

Or is Islam a la carte, where you can pick and choose what religious grounds you want protected??

I wouldn't have a clue as I'm not Muslim and haven't read the Quran- do you know?, but all that is irrelevant to the specific case in hand anyway.

Most religions have a lot of a la carte picking and choosing what their adherents will follow, we only have to look at Catholicism for that. Why should Islam be any different?