Sweden: Six charged over ‘honor’ beating

Six men in Hallsberg, central Sweden, were charged with beating a 19-year-old with metal rods at a gym. Police believe the attack is an honor crime. (more in English here)

The story turns out to be quite complicated, and I think the English language news report misses the main point. Via GP (Swedish):

The 19- year-old was attacked because he allegedly abused the daughter of one of the men a few weeks earlier. The man supposedly kidnapped the daughter in his car. The incident was reported to the police, but the investigation was closed.

Prosecutor Karl-Erik Antonsson says that the men did not accept the results of the police investigation and tried protecting the girl’s honor. They believe there is only one way to atone for such a thing.

The man’s lawyer, Elisabeth Massi Fritz, a specialist in honor crimes, says it’s unusual that all the perpetrators have been charged. She says the investigation shows that the woman lived in a confining environment where she was not allowed to socialize with men, and that’s why she was forced to make up a story. The lawyer says she’s seen such things before.

The alleged kidnapping led to rumors which dishonored the family’s reputation, says Massi Fritz, and says the story was completely false.

The men being charged are the girl’s father (59) and her three bothers (all in their 20s), and friends of the family: a man (46) and his son (19).

The 19 year old victim says that one of the brothers had told him “you’ve kidnapped our sister, today we’ll kill you.”

Sweden: Website touts ruse to turn in illegal immigrants

Via the Local:

An anti-immigrant website has urged readers to infiltrate a group focused on helping undocumented immigrants in Sweden in order to turn them over to police.

The campaign by the Sweden Democrat-linked website Avpixlat (literally, “unpixelated”, but also a Swedish colloquialism meaning to “reveal” or “unmask”), comes in response to a call for help in finding housing for a family of undocumented immigrants published on Facebook last week by asylum advocacy group Asylgruppen Lund.

(source)

Sweden: Website touts ruse to turn in illegal immigrants

Via the Local:

An anti-immigrant website has urged readers to infiltrate a group focused on helping undocumented immigrants in Sweden in order to turn them over to police.

The campaign by the Sweden Democrat-linked website Avpixlat (literally, “unpixelated”, but also a Swedish colloquialism meaning to “reveal” or “unmask”), comes in response to a call for help in finding housing for a family of undocumented immigrants published on Facebook last week by asylum advocacy group Asylgruppen Lund.

(source)

Sweden: Bid to ‘define Swedish citizenship’

Or in other words, define what ‘being Swedish’ means.

Via the Local:

The government plans to launch an inquiry to study Swedish citizenship in hopes of finding ways to boost its value and use it as a tool for integration.

“When someone immigrates to our country, we want the signals to be clear – we want you to be a part of Sweden, find work quickly, and learn Swedish,” integration minister Erik Ullenhag wrote in an opinion piece in the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper in which he outlined plans for the inquiry.

“The goal is to have immigrants feel a sense of belonging and become a part of Swedish society and hopefully also become Swedish citizens.”

According to Ullenhag, Sweden shouldn’t be reduced to a “collection of different ethnic or religious enclaves that live in parallel worlds” and that having the courage to “discuss, reassess, and preserve our values” requires engaging in the debate about what’s wanted when it comes to integration and citizenship.

(source)

Malmö: Funeral march against growing violence

Via the Local:

The arresting image of the grieving father of 15-year-old Ardiwan Diaa Samir, attempting to climb down into his dead son’s grave at the funeral on Wednesday, was a sombre reminder of the consequences of the escalating violence in southern Sweden.

Thirty shootings in 2011 and five gun related murders in less than six weeks have shaken Malmö to its very core. But the gunning down of 15-year-old Ardiwan was the last straw for many of the locals, making them take to the streets to demand a change and to keep their children safe.

“We don’t have a clue why this happened. I know my son and he was only 15 years old. He was not involved with any criminals so it was not a revenge killing to do with drugs or something else,” Ardiwan’s father Diaa Noman tells The Local just hours after burying his eldest child.

(…)

“We cannot find any answers. Even the police ruled out the issues of criminality because of his age. Our family came to Sweden for the safety here but for more than a year I have felt there has not been enough security in the city,” Noman says.

(source)

Gothenburg: Sister retracts ‘honour killing’ allegations

Via the Local:

A 21-year-old woman from Gothenburg in western Sweden who had accused her brother of threatening to take her life in an “honour killing”, retracted her allegations on the opening day of the trial on Monday.

“Families often put a lot of pressures on these girls. They promise the world to them. Let’s just hope it is true this time,” said prosecutor Helena Treiberg Claesson to local paper Göteborgs-Posten (GP).

According to Treiberg Claesson, it is not uncommon that girls withdraw allegations against family members in cases such as this, but she stressed that it isn’t possible for them to drop the charges.

(source)

Sweden: Agency slams immigrant language class failings

Via the Local:

Many of Sweden’s municipalities fail to place newly arrived immigrants in Swedish language classes within the time frames stipulated by law, a new investigation has found.

“It’s regrettable that municipalities don’t prioritize the possibility for new arrivals to start their education as soon as possible,” Erica Sahlin, a project leader with the Swedish Schools Inspectorate (Skolinspektionen), said in a statement.

(source)

Sweden: Somalis ’shut out’ of health system

Via the Local:

Many Somalis in Sweden feel dismissed when visiting a doctor in Sweden, according to a new study, which shows that many end up looking abroad for medical treatment as a result.

The findings come from a new doctoral dissertation by Kristian Svenberg with the Sahlgrenska Academy at Gothenburg University.

Svenberg’s research, which is based on the experience of Somali refugees in Sweden, found that people from other cultures sometimes find there is an unnecessarily authoritarian approach toward them by Swedish healthcare personnel.

Many Somalians, in particular, feel they are not taken seriously when they seek help for health problems.

(source)

Sweden: New ‘mythbuster’ website to fight racism

Via the Local:

The Swedish government has launched a new website to combat the proliferation of inaccurate and racist myths about minorities and immigrants in Sweden.

(…)

The new site, regeringen.se/tolerans, attempts to debunk a number of “common internet myths about immigrants and minorities”.

“One always needs to engage in debates about xenophobia and prejudice,” writes Ullenhag, who also warns of the dangers of “the silence of forces for good”.

Among the myths addressed on the website are claims that Sweden will soon be a Muslim country, that Swedes are on their way to becoming a minority in their own country, and that Swedish children are no longer allowed to eat pork in school.

(source)

Gothenburg: Mosque starts ‘halal’ dating site

Via the Local:

There are not enough places in Sweden for young Muslims to find a partner, according to the Gothenburg Mosque, which has started a net dating site for ”halal” dating.

”The mosque is not just a place for prayer, it is also a social place and the mosque is here for dealing with problems in society. One of these is that it is hard to find a partner,” Abu Mahmoud, the man behind the dating site, told Sveriges Radio (SR).

The service isn’t new per se, as young Muslim Stockholmers in need of a partner could previously browse a folder, located in the entrance to the mosque on Södermalm, in the south of the city.

(source)