Friday, January 2

Malmo Riots

Malmo is not part of the "good" areas of Sweden, it creeped me out when I went there, almost like Johannesburg city centre back in the late 1990's. A very high immigrant populace, illiteracy, refugees, drug dealing, you name it, it was a hell hole. And looks like they still have it. BBC reported it thusly.

 

"We've had a very difficult evening," a police spokeswoman told the AFP news agency late on Thursday. "There have been fires burning since this afternoon... extensive damage to public property, and... stone-throwing and bomb threats against police."

She said the trouble was linked to the closure of an Islamic centre. The owner of the building, in an immigrant neighbourhood, had decided not to renew the centre's lease. The centre, which included a mosque, had to move out. But some youths squatted in the premises, until they were evicted by police earlier this week. Once police left the premises, the youths returned, setting fires in the area. They then clashed with police.

"The origin of the riots is the occupation of the building. But that's not really the reason now, now other troublemakers have just joined in, taking advantage of the situation," police spokeswoman Ewa-Gun Westford told AFP.

So what do normal people think about this situation? Here's a Swedish discussion board on this issue with 145 comments. Quite instructive to read them all. And here are some YouTube videos. All is not well in Sweden. And after remembering the Bradford riots, this is worrisome.

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