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§ What won't you see in this book? You won't see a picture of
Muslim "morality police" patrolling neighborhoods and controlling
women's conduct. You won't see Muslim men cutting in front of Swedish women in
queues and then calling them "whores" when they protest.
§ One of Sweden's former prime ministers, Fredrik Reinfeldt,
pronounced with approval in December 2014 that the future of Sweden belonged
not to ethnic Swedes but to immigrants.
Speaking at a rally in Melbourne,
Florida, on February 18, President Trump mentioned recent terrorist attacks in
Nice, Paris, and Brussels, and then said:
"You look at what's happening in
Germany, you look at what's happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would
believe this. Sweden. They took in large numbers. They're having problems like
they never thought possible."
Nothing major had happened the night before
in Sweden, except that the country has taken in armies of Muslims, and as a
result is descending into social and economic disaster.
The Swedish media might have responded to
Trump's comment by addressing their country's immigrant crisis honestly. Instead,
they took it as an opportunity to mock Trump. The Stockholm newspaper Aftonbladet
ran an article in English
headlined: "Here's what happened in Sweden Friday night, Mr
President." The article included a list of innocuous news items, among
them technical problems that had occurred at rehearsals for Swedish Eurovision
and the temporary closing of a highway because of lousy weather.
So much for that episode, right? No.
Several Swedish photographers decided to drag it out way beyond a single
news cycle. The result: a new coffee-table book entitled Last
Night in Sweden.
At least one Swedish photography website has applauded
this project. This book, the anonymous author wrote, is a "profound and
insightful" work that "encapsulates a true and candid Sweden,"
shows "the country as it really is, from the inside -- in its
multiplicity, subtle textures, and political, social and cultural nuance."
Lee Roden of the free Swedish newspaper The
Local agreed, claiming that
the pictures in the book "combat the hysteria about the country provoked
by people like US President Donald Trump." The photographer in charge of
the project, Jeppe Wikström, told Roden that people smear Sweden out of
jealousy: "We manage to combine diversity with success. We do have high
taxes, but we also have a very successful business life." Wilkström
admitted that there are some odd things about Swedes: "We take off our
shoes before going inside, put money into the right position and make sure it's
not so wrinkly before paying at a cash register."
The first copy of Last Night in Sweden,
published on September 7, was mailed to Donald Trump. Other copies have been,
or will be, sent to "all members of the US Congress and European
Parliament" as a way of countering "false news." [This is how
they put it] At the end of October, an exhibition of photos from the book will
move from Stockholm to the European Parliament in Brussels.
The book contains pictures of an ethnic
Swedish man sitting on a snowmobile on a snow-covered icy river; a young guy
walking around a gym practicing the tuba; a 94-year old Swedish woman in a
retirement home being pushed in her wheelchair by a Somali immigrant; an
octogenarian Swedish couple sitting in their home sauna in Lapland; a
handicapped Algerian immigrant working out in the gym he founded; a Romani
beggar woman kneeling on a city street; an elderly Swedish couple playing in
their kitchen with their dog. And so on. In other words, a bunch of images
showing immigrants doing things that, in one way or another, enhance life in
Sweden, mixed in with a few photos of ethnic Swedes living pretty much the same
way they did before the immigration tsunami started.
What won't you see in this book?
You won't see Muslim violence in Sweden's public
libraries, which has increased so dramatically in the last couple of
years that many librarians are looking for other jobs. You won't see a picture
of the three condos in which a newly arrived Syrian immigrant's three wives and
sixteen children are
being put up at a total cost to Swedish taxpayers of $1.75 million. You won't
see a picture of Muslim "morality police" patrolling neighborhoods
and controlling women's conduct. You won't see Muslim men cutting in front of Swedish women in queues
and then calling them "whores" when they protest.
You won't see a TV news crew from
Australia being physically attacked by Muslims for
entering a no-go zone. You won't see Muslim girls being beaten by their
families for removing their hijab. You won't see Muslims setting cars on fire,
and then hurling bottles and stones at the firefighters who show up to put out
the blaze.
You won't see a picture of a recent event at which politicians
and welfare officials met with residents of Stockholm's Järva neighborhood to
address the prevalence of violence, forced marriage, compulsory hijab, and
other forms of oppression within Muslim families – only to be told by the
locals that they were not interested in conforming to "Swedish
values." You won't see a picture of the head of the Swedish security
service, Anders Thornberg, who in
a TV interview the other day admitted that the number of potential perpetrators
of terrorist violence in Sweden had risen immensely in recent years.
You won't see a gang of Muslim youths
raping an infidel teenager. You won't see a Syrian refugee raping the fourteen-year-old daughter of the
woman who took him into her house out of compassion. You won't see ten men committing a gang rape
in August of last year – or their arrest, which finally took place earlier this
month because it took that long for the police to fit it into their schedule.
They are too busy these days
investigating murders to spend much
time on rapes.
You won't see convicted Muslim rapists
being punished by paying small
fines and performing community service for a few days. (When they pay the fine,
do they put the money in the right position and make sure it's not so wrinkly?)
You won't see a Muslim youth perusing the new booklet put out by the
Swedish Ministry of Youth and Civil Affairs, which explains to immigrants that
Swedish culture disapproves of rape. You won't see Muslim girls being raped by
relatives – a common enough event that goes unreported because the victims know
that if they go to the authorities they'll be killed. You won't see a picture
of the annual, highly popular Bråvalla summer music festival, which will no longer be held after
this year because the number of rapes occurring at the event has gotten out of
hand.
Of course, Sweden's current crisis is not
an invention of Islamophobic foreigners. It has been acknowledged by Swedish
police inspector Lars Alvarsjö, who has warned that the scale of immigrant
crime is straining the country's police departments and courts to the breaking
point.
It has been acknowledged by Swedish
police investigator Peter Springare, who has said that virtually all of the
criminals he deals with are Muslims. It has been acknowledged by Malmö police
chief Stefan Sinteus, who has said that Muslim immigrants in his city are
responsible for an "upward spiral of violence." And of course it has
been acknowledged by the recent history of the Sweden Democrats, the only party
to speak the truth about these problems, and now enjoys so much voter support that
the so-called cordon sanitaire
erected around it by the mainstream parties will soon no longer be able to
hold.
In recent weeks, Norwegians on social
media have been sharing a 1977 video in which Carl I.
Hagen, founder of Norway's Progress Party, warned that Sweden, by admitting too
many immigrants and giving them special benefits, has started down a long road
to self-destruction. He saw it forty years ago, but even now, many Swedes still
refuse to see it. One of Sweden's former prime ministers, Fredrik Reinfeldt, pronounced with approval
in December 2014 that the future of Sweden belonged not to ethnic Swedes but to
immigrants. (Why didn't Wikström and his colleagues erupt in outrage at that
remark? Why, instead, get angry at a foreign head of state for actually showing
empathy for their plight?)
This is a country in which it was reported on September 9,
that a new Muslim political party has filed papers to field candidates in next
year's parliamentary elections. The party is called Jasin, which is also the
name of the thirty-sixth sura of the Koran. On September 10, seventeen-year-old
Fatemeh Khavari, who wears hijab and who recently led a weeks-long sit-in
protesting the expulsion of rejected asylum seekers, told a reporter that her
goal is to be Sweden's prime minister. And why not? By the time she is old
enough, she will be just what they are looking for.
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Riot
police in Gotheburg, Sweden. (Photo by Sion Touhig/Getty Images)
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Bruce Bawer is the author of the new
novel The Alhambra (Swamp Fox Editions).
His book While Europe Slept (2006) was a New York Times bestseller and
National Book Critics Circle Award finalist.
