Sweden’s Immigrant Influx Unleashes A Backlash

More on tensions in Sweden:

The Sweden Democrats insist that there is no connection between these attacks [on mosques] and the party’s anti-immigration rhetoric. At an interview in Malmo, party official Nima Gholam Ali Pour suggests that Muslims may have fire-bombed the mosques.

“Were there personal problems in the mosque, or was it someone from another mosque,” he asks. “There are conflicts between Muslims.”

When pressed about swastikas that have been painted on the side of mosques, though, Ali says, “Of course that’s racist. That’s racist.”

The story is more complicated than just white racist Christians attacking Muslim immigrants. Jews in Sweden say they are being attacked, too. A recent documentary on Swedish television showed a reporter walking down the street wearing a yarmulke, as a hidden camera filmed bystanders shouting insults and threats.

And in many cases, the people attacking Jews are Muslim immigrants.

“Almost exclusively, they have some sort of background in the Middle East,” says Aron Verstandig, a leader in Stockholm’s Jewish community.

Verstandig says many people try to paint these ethnic tensions as good versus evil. They want clear victims and perpetrators, in separate boxes. But in fact, he says, the roles overlap and switch.

“You have these immigrants who are very poor, and they are the victims of a lot of violence, a lot of hatred from Sweden Democrats and other right-wing parties. And they are victims in one way,” Verstandig says. “But some of them — a minority of them — are perpetrators in another way. You don’t have people who are just good and bad. It’s a very complex situation.”

Omar Mustafa of the Islamic Association of Sweden agrees. He says it’s part of humanity that there are always extremists.

“We have it in Islam, there is in Christianity, there is in the Swedish community. There is everywhere,” Mustafa says. “So it’s a good opportunity for us, the rest of society, to really take back the agenda. And we have to say to them, we don’t buy it.”

Mustafa says when fringe groups try to speak on behalf of everyone, the moderate majority needs to speak up — and say, “We have a different story to tell.”

Sweden’s Immigrant Influx Unleashes A Backlash : Parallels : NPR.