European Islamophobia

[Sheilbh]

A couple of stories caught the eye over Christmas:

Sweden hit by third mosque arson attack in a week
AFP By Tom Sullivan
January 1, 2015 12:45 PM

Stockholm (AFP) - Swedish police launched a manhunt Thursday after the third arson attack against a mosque in a week, amid growing tensions over the rise of a far right anti-immigration movement.

"People saw a man throwing something burning at the building," police in Uppsala said in a statement, adding that the mosque in eastern Sweden did not catch fire and that the suspect had left behind "a text on the door expressing contempt for religion."

A police spokesman told Swedish news agency TT that the burning object was a Molotov cocktail and that no one was in the building at the time.

Sweden's Islamic Association posted a photograph online of the main door of the mosque, which was emblazoned with the slogan "Go home Muslim shit".

The police were alerted by passers-by, who reportedly witnessed the attack at around 0430 GMT.

"The crime has been classed as attempted arson, vandalism and incitement to hatred," the police said, appealing for witnesses to come forward.

Thursday's attack in Sweden's fourth-largest city came just three days after a late-night blaze at a mosque in Esloev in the south, which police suspect was also arson.

On Christmas Day, five people were injured when a petrol bomb was thrown through the window of a mosque in Eskilstuna, east of the capital Stockholm.

Sweden's leftist Prime Minister Stefan Loefven led condemnation of the latest attack.

"The most important thing now is that everyone distances themselves from this," he told TT.

"In Sweden no one should have to be afraid when they practice their religion," he added, saying the government would increase funding for securing places of worship.

- 'People are afraid' -

According to the anti-racism magazine Expo, there have been at least a dozen confirmed attacks on mosques in Sweden in the last year and a far larger number are believed to have gone unreported.

"People are afraid, they fear for their safety," Mohammad Kharraki a spokesman for Sweden's Islamic Association told AFP.

"We've seen through history that people use violence as a way of polarising society against minorities."

The attacks come as debate intensifies in Sweden over immigration and the integration of asylum seekers in the traditionally tolerant Nordic country, which is expected to receive more than 100,000 asylum applications this year, breaking all previous records.

Last month the far right Sweden Democrats -- which doubled its support to 13 percent in September elections -- came close to bringing down the left-green government over its liberal refugee policies. The party's support in opinion polls has risen to around 16 percent.

However in a last minute agreement on December 27, the government and centre right opposition parties cut a deal effectively denying the Sweden Democrats influence over major policy -- including over immigration.

Kharraki said the arson attacks could be carried out by "Sweden Democrats people who are angry because they've been pushed aside."

"They think Muslims are the problem," he said, while "mainstream political parties have taken a stand against racism and Islamophobia."

However, a spokesman for the Sweden Democrats said there was no reason to consider the attacks to be politically motivated.

"This is not political, it's criminal. It's criminals doing this and it's a police matter, not a political question," said Henrik Vinge.

"This type of violence is something we take very seriously.... It's unacceptable of course."

Muslim groups have called on politicians to join vigils in several cities around the country Friday to show their opposition to racially-motivated violence.

Angela Merkel issues New Year's warning over rightwing Pegida group
German chancellor claims leaders of movement, referred to as 'pinstripe Nazis', are rooted in prejudice, coldness, and hatred
The Guardian, Tuesday 30 December 2014 23.42 GMT


Participants in a Pegida demonstration of an estimated 17,000 people in Dresden, Germany. Photograph: Imago/Barcroft Media

German chancellor Angela Merkel in a New Year's address deplored the rise of a rightwing populist movement, saying its leaders have "prejudice, coldness, even hatred in their hearts".

In her strongest comments yet on the so-called Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West (Pegida), she spoke of demonstrators shouting "we are the people", co-opting a slogan from the rallies that led up to the fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago.

"But what they really mean is: you are not one of us, because of your skin colour or your religion," Merkel said, according to a pre-released copy of a televised speech she was to due to deliver to the nation on Wednesday evening.

"So I say to all those who go to such demonstrations: do not follow those who have called the rallies. Because all too often they have prejudice, coldness, even hatred in their hearts."

The nationalistic and xenophobic Pegida movement, only formed in late October, has since drawn more than 17,000 protesters on to the streets of the eastern city of Dresden, sparking heated debate and deep soul-searching in the country.

Merkel in her wide-ranging speech touched on crises such as west Africa's Ebola outbreak and the conflicts in Ukraine and Iraq and Syria, where the Islamic State group "brutally murders all those people who refuse to submit to its rule".

"One consequence of these wars and crises is that worldwide there are more refugees than we have seen since the second world war. Many literally escaped death," she said.

"It goes without saying that we help them and take in people who seek refuge with us," she said, pointing to the estimated 200,000-odd asylum seekers who have come this year to Europe's biggest economy to ask for a safe haven.

The chancellor mentioned demographics, the rapid ageing of the German population, as one of the key national challenges and called immigration "a gain for all of us".

Touching on the case of a Kurdish refugee who has settled in Germany, she said that it is "perhaps the biggest compliment" for the country to call it a place "where the children of the persecuted can grow up without fear".

[Ideologue]

Organized religion's gotta quit playing the race card.

[Razgovory]

Is Viking okay?

[Ideologue]

Does anybody have his number?

[Martinus]

Isn't Viking Norwegian or Icelandic? If so, why would things in Sweden and Germany involve him?

[Razgovory]

Isn't Viking Norwegian or Icelandic? If so, why would things in Sweden and Germany involve him?

Because he moves around quite a bit, and he is drawn to this stuff like a moth to a flame.

[The Brain]

Yeah well whatchagonnado. It's been a long time since Swedish police actually caught criminals.

[Razgovory]

Well, after we burn through Europe and put and end to the death camps, we'll probably hang you bastards.  That's kind of our thing.

[Viking]

I thought the joke was "slargos did it"?

First of all the reason I have particular contempt for islamic theology is that it leads many people to do violence and threaten violence. I certainly don't approve of violence or threats of violence being used against regular people getting on with their lives. There are no suspects in the Mosque burning; be it electric heater, rival muslim group or swedeish neo-nazis (who are a real problem).

PEGIDA hasn't actually done anything other than hold street demonstrations insisting their unhappiness with the present state of affairs. Calling them nazis is a mistake and is the central error sweden has made in dealing with the Sweden Democrats.

In any case I am too much of a misanthrope to show up to large gatherings of people... I am anti-violence so don't approve of arson... I am sufficiently Icelandic that when it's cold outside I stay inside...

[Syt]

I can't take Pegida seriously.

They say that mainstream press and politicians don't listen to them ...
... and Pegida has refused all attempts to talk to them (except one time when a satirist posed as RT journalist).
They say that there's no true freedom of speech in Germany ...
... but make use of it every Monday.
Their organizer says criminal foreigners should be deported ...
... but is a convicted criminal himself who fled to South Africa when he was hunted by the police.
They say the German mainstream media is full of lies ...
... but believe untrue stories when it suits them (BILD cobbled together a story about a request from politicians to sing Muslim songs in churches as a means of understanding, which turned out to be untrue).
A few who deigned to talk to the media are among other things against asylum seekers getting approved if they're not politically prosecuted at home ...
... which is what the law says right now.

It's a handful of people who are against "the guys up there" out of principal. They're against Islam in general (not helped by sensationalist media), though being a part of Germany with one of the lowest amounts of Muslims. They're scared and angry, but it's irrational fear. If anything, I guess they're people who feel disenfranchised by German reunification who feel they don't matter anymore.

They're using the 1989 protest slogan "We are the people," but where it was used in 1989 to oppose the government, it now smacks of excluding minorities - we're the people, and you're not.

[mongers]

I thought the joke was "slargos did it"?

First of all the reason I have particular contempt for islamic theology is that it leads many people to do violence and threaten violence. I certainly don't approve of violence or threats of violence being used against regular people getting on with their lives. There are no suspects in the Mosque burning; be it electric heater, rival muslim group or swedeish neo-nazis (who are a real problem).

PEGIDA hasn't actually done anything other than hold street demonstrations insisting their unhappiness with the present state of affairs. Calling them nazis is a mistake and is the central error sweden has made in dealing with the Sweden Democrats.

In any case I am too much of a misanthrope to show up to large gatherings of people... I am anti-violence so don't approve of arson... I am sufficiently Icelandic that when it's cold outside I stay inside...

So no Alibi then. 

[dps]

A few who deigned to talk to the media are among other things against asylum seekers getting approved if they're not politically prosecuted at home ...
... which is what the law says right now.

Is that law actually applied, though, or do applications for asylum just sort of get rubber-stamped:  "Well, you're seeking asylum so of course you're being persecuted in your homeland" when in fact the applicant might just be job-seeking, that type of thing.  It's my impression that that sort of thing is common in some countries, but not in Germany, but I could be mistaken (after all, it's just an impression).

[Martinus]

A few who deigned to talk to the media are among other things against asylum seekers getting approved if they're not politically prosecuted at home ...
... which is what the law says right now.

Wait, so in Germany you can only get asylum if you are politically prosecuted at home? What of people fleeing conflict zones or people who are fleeing persecution on grounds of religion, sexuality and the like?

[viper37]

I thought the joke was "slargos did it"?

It couldn't be him, it said "Muslim shit".  Had it said "sand niggers"...

[Syt]

A few who deigned to talk to the media are among other things against asylum seekers getting approved if they're not politically prosecuted at home ...
... which is what the law says right now.

Wait, so in Germany you can only get asylum if you are politically prosecuted at home? What of people fleeing conflict zones or people who are fleeing persecution on grounds of religion, sexuality and the like?

Well, those are included, too. Sorry, should have clarified that. Not 100% how prosecution because of sexuality is handled these days, though.