Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Sweden

Showing posts with label Sweden. Show all posts

Friday, July 28, 2023

Jew-hater logic: Support children's rights? Burn a Torah!

Sweden's SVT Nyheter reports:

Police have granted a public gathering outside the Israeli embassy in Stockholm on Friday. The woman behind the application states that she plans to "light the Torah with a lighter".

The demonstration is scheduled for 12 noon on Friday.

"We are conducting a dialogue with the organizer and other parties who may be affected, for example the Israeli embassy,"says Mats Eriksson, press spokesperson at the police.

The application is submitted by a woman in her 50s who states that it is a "manifestation for children's rights in Sweden which are systematically violated". She writes that the plan is to "light the Torah with a lighter".

What, exactly, does burning a Torah (more likely a printed Chumash) have to do with children's rights?

There are only two answers - both of which are profoundly antisemitic.

One is that they have nothing to do with each other, but the woman wants publicity, and she knows that attacking Jewish holy objects will get her the publicity she wants. Which means that every crank in Sweden will now seek to burn sacred Jewish objects to get their cause in the newspapers, and antisemitism has become a gimmick.

The other is that somehow she is associating Judaism with violating children's rights. Which is not so far fetched - "progressives" in Europe and the US always associate Israel with every social justice crime they can think of.

And as this incident shows, the modern antisemites don't distinguish between Judaism and Israel, as much as they claim to. Otherwise, why is she intending to do her stunt outside the Israeli embassy?

Either way, antisemitism is becoming cheapened and commoditized, which means that people are becoming less and less outraged at attacks on Jews and Judaism as more of these stunts get approved.

I support freedom of speech. Technically, what she wants to do is legal. Nazis in 1933 could also justify their book burnings as freedom of their own expression - yet everyone knows what it really meant.

History shows that book burners are the people who care the least about freedom of expression.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Man plans to burn Jewish holy books in Sweden outside Israel embassy - proving anti-Zionism is antisemitism

From Times of Israel:

Outrage mounted in Israel on Friday after Swedish police accepted a request to allow the burning of a Bible outside of the Israeli embassy in Stockholm on Saturday, just weeks after Quran burnings took place in the city.

Local police confirmed two weeks ago to Sweden’s national public broadcaster that it had received an application from an individual in his 30s to burn a Jewish and a Christian Bible outside Israel’s Embassy in Stockholm on July 15 as “a symbolic gathering for the sake of freedom of speech.”

It was not immediately clear if the person planned to burn a copy of the Bible or a Torah scroll.

The person planning to do the burning appears to be the same Egyptian who threatened to burn a Torah and a Christian Bible in January. He ended up postponing the action but said he planned to do it in the future.

The Quran burning earlier this month was done outside a mosque. But this one is being done outside the Israeli embassy.

In January, the man told Swedish media, "Burning holy books is somewhat disgusting, but I am angry and will do it to have a discussion." He also said that the Islamic Association in Stockholm's mosque urged him not to do it, saying it is against Islam.

Israel has laws that explicitly criminalize burning any holy book, including the Quran, and forbids the insulting of any religion. In its penal code, it says:

170. If a person destroys, damages or desecrates a place of worship or any object which is held sacred by a group of persons, with the intention of to reviling their religion, or in the knowledge that they are liable to deem that act an insult to their religion, then he is liable to three years imprisonment.

173. If a person does any of the following, then he is liable to one year imprisonment: (1) he publishes a publication that is liable crudely to offend the religious faith or sentiment of others; (2) he voices in a public place and in the hearing of another person any word or sound that is liable crudely to offend the religious faith or sentiment of others.

So why would someone who ostensibly wants to protest freedom of expression to insult religious groups choose to protest outside the embassy of a country that protects the rights of religious groups from such insults?

Because this has nothing to do with freedom of expression. As I've mentioned before, if he wants to do something symbolic, he could burn a symbolic Torah or Bible. These aren't acts to protect freedom of expression but to express hate.

In this case, "freedom of expression" is an excuse to perform an antisemitic act - and to the person who plans to burn the Scriptures, he does not distinguish between hating Jews and hating Israel.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

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You just KNEW that Jews would be blamed for the Quran burning

From Iran's PressTV (no surprise here):

Following the desecration of the Holy Qur'an in Sweden, the leader of the Yemeni popular resistance movement Ansarullah says the West allows the perpetration of the heinous crime under the Zionist lobby's influence.

Abdul-Malik al-Houthi made the remarks on Tuesday, less than a week after two men stood outside the Swedish capital of Stockholm's central mosque and burned a copy of the holy book following a go-ahead given to them by a Swedish court.

Al-Houthi vehemently condemned Western countries' double standards vis-à-vis Muslims, saying acts of sacrilege against the Holy Qur'an amounted to insult against all prophets and holy books.

The Westerners refuse to expose Zionists' crimes, he said, adding, "This points to the Zionist lobby's influence [across the Western countries]."

"The lobby manipulates the West and infiltrates nations as it pleases. The Western world has, therefore, turned into a hotbed of the lobby's plots."

I admit I don't quite follow the logic. It seems that since the Jews control the world, then they are obviously responsible for an ex-Iraqi in Sweden choosing to burn the Quran.

It is interesting that even though the Houthi's slogan includes "Curse the Jews," there is very little coverage of their explicit antisemitism in Western media. Moreover, the Houthi's main Shiite allies, who claim to be only anti-Zionist and not antisemitic in the least, have absolutely nothing negative to say about the Houthi's explicit (and in this case barely implicit) Jew-hatred.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Thoughts on the burning of the Quran in Sweden

On Wednesday, an Iraqi immigrant to Sweden tore up and burned a Quran after receiving permission to do so as an act of protest, A Swedish court ruled that burning the Quran was a legal expression of free speech and the police gave a permit for the action.

In response, the Muslim world is seething. Many Muslim-majority countries lodged protests against Sweden, and there were riots in Iraq as protesters attempted to break into the Swedish embassy.

In 1976, on Yom Kippur eve, a group of Arab youths - fueled by a false rumor that Jews had torn Qurans - stormed through the synagogue at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron and tore up numerous Hebrew holy books as well as several handwritten Torahs which were ripped to shreds.

The desecration of the Torah is much, much worse than tearing or ripping a printed Quran. The best analogy to a ripped Quran would be to a torn up Chumash, a mass printed version of the Torah; tearing up a Torah is more like tearing up a handwritten Quran manuscript.

And Jewish prayer books, chumashim and other holy books are desecrated by Palestinian Arabs much more often than you know.

In 2007, I visited Samuel's Tomb in Israel, unaware that Arabs had rampaged through there the previous Friday night, tearing prayer books, heavily damaging the Torah ark and stealing a Torah.

Nearly all Israeli media ignored this incident. Because Arabs desecrating Jewish holy books and sites is simply not worth mentioning.

It was hardly a unique occurrence.

Also in 2007, Arabs burned down a synagogue near Doled, destroying Torah scrolls.

In 2009, Arabs raided a yeshiva in Homesh and destroyed many volumes of Chumash and Talmud.

In 2012, Arab youths were caught trying to burn books of Psalms at the Mount of Olives.

Holy books at the Tomb of Joseph have been destroyed by Arabs more than once.

Prayer books were burned in an attack at a Gush Etzion synagogue in 2016.

In May, 2021, Arabs torched synagogues in Lod.

In 2022, Arabs burned a Jewish center in Harasha and destroyed many holy books.

When has the Muslim world condemned these incidents against holy Jewish books - equivalent or far worse than the desecration of one of hundreds of millions of printed Qurans?

They haven't, and this weakens their pretense of outrage. If you demand that people respect your holy objects, then at a minimum you should do the same.

The Muslim outrage over Sweden is not about their disgust at a holy book being desecrated. It is an expression of Islamic supremacy.

They want the entire world to adhere to Muslim laws against blasphemy and that everyone should enshrine Islamic laws against destroying the Quran. These protests are just as much political as they are expressions of popular anger: they send a message that unless the West acts as Muslims demand, they can expect violence.

Any attempts to impose Muslim mores or beliefs on the world must be opposed wholeheartedly. It is an attack on everyone's freedom.

_____________________________________

That being said, Sweden's legal ruling allowing the burning was wrong.

From the narrow perspective of freedom of expression, yes, burning a Quran - just like burning a flag - is valid and should not be illegal. But there is another, far more important issue here.

The deliberate burning of the Quran is a hate crime. It was meant not as a message of freedom but as a direct attack on the sensibilities of Muslims worldwide. It was not an expression of criticism of Islam but an expression of hate against Islam and Muslims, by an apparent ex-Muslim.

And Sweden does have hate crime laws.

The Swedish Penal Code, chapter 16, section 8, says:

A person who, in a disseminated statement or communication, threatens or expresses contempt for a national, ethnic or other such group of persons with allusion to race, colour, national or ethnic origin or religious belief shall, be sentenced for agitation against a national or ethnic group to imprisonment for at most two years or, if the crime is petty, to a fine. (Law 1988:835)

The deliberate burning of a Quran is an expression of contempt for believing Muslims. As such, it should be illegal - and so should the deliberate burning of Jewish holy books.

The protester could make the same point by burning a photo of a Quran. Destroying symbols of a religion or other protected group is criticism; destroying actual objects of importance to those groups is hate.

That is where the line should be drawn between freedom of expression and purposeful hate.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Egyptians blame Israel for film produced by Sweden, France and Finland.

Cairo Conspiracy, also known as Boy from Heaven, is a film synopsized as "Adam, the son of a fisherman, is offered the privilege to study at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the center of power of Sunni Islam. Adam becomes a pawn in the conflict between Egypt's religious and political elites."

It was released a year ago. It has received a number of awards and positive reviews.

It was finally released in Israel last week.

Suddenly, Egyptian officials are denouncing the film - and blaming Israel for it.

Islamic writer and researcher, and former Egyptian Undersecretary of the Ministry of Religious Endowments, Saad El-Fiqi, said that showing the movie "A Boy from Heaven" in Israel to tarnish the image of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif failed miserably.

He continued in statements to RT: “The Zionist is known for lying, fraud and promoting everything that is false, and Israel is a bastard state that has no origin and its history is known and established for all wise people in the world,” stressing that one day it will be destroyed as its legend ended in the war of the tenth of Ramadan and the sixth of October.

Al-Fiqi stressed the need to refute what is published in the Zionist media, especially with regard to Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, which is known for always standing with the cause of Palestine and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, as well as its clear positions against Zionist arrogance and exposing its lies, as well as exposing the faults of those who support the bastard state.

The Egyptian Islamic writer and researcher said that the honorable Al-Azhar, whether Israel likes it or not, remains a dagger in its back, revealing its faults, showing their mistakes and lies, and that it is a state that will inevitably disappear.

If you need evidence that hate for Israel is unhinged, this is plenty.

The director of the film is Swedish-Egyptian. It was co-produced by Sweden, France and Finland.. It was mostly filmed in Turkey.

So, naturally, it must all be Israel's fault.

Apparently, an Israel Hayom article about the movie mentioned that some of the actors were Israeli. Last year, they were proudly described in Arabic media as being "of Palestinian origin." That seems to what started this whole thing.

Yet the film was even reviewed positively by Al Jazeera last year!

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Sweden's Jewish community condemns Quran burning incident

Turkey's Anadolu Agency reports:

"Those who burn books will in the end burn people," Jewish and Muslim communities in Sweden have warned, quoting famous German Jewish author Heinrich Heine following recent burnings of the Muslim holy book, the Quran.

In a reference to book burnings in Nazi Germany, the Official Council of Swedish Jewish Communities and the AMANAH Muslim Jewish Partnership of Trust said in a joint statement on Wednesday that book burning often indicates the beginning of the normalization of hatred towards a group in society.

"Historically against Jews, now against Muslims," said the statement, warning that racists and extremists are once again "allowed to abuse democracy and Freedom of Speech in order to normalize hate against one of the religious minorities in Sweden, by burning Quran."

Drawing attention to the intensified attacks on Jewish and Muslim people in the country, they expressed concern.

There are two strange things about this story.

One is that, while there is certainly plenty of right-wing antisemitism in Sweden, a great deal of it is fueled by the immigrant Muslim community there. I hope that behind the scenes of Jewish-Muslim cooperation against hate, the Jewish community is not sweeping Muslim antisemitism under the rug.

The other is that I cannot find this story in any Swedish media. In fact, the only place it is being reported is Turkey. I have no idea why.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Swedish police criticized for including Palestinian flag on list of terrorist symbols

In light of several Swedish teenagers becoming radicalized and traveling to Iraq and Syria to join ISIS, Swedish police recently distributed a list of terrorist logos to high school principals so they could be on the lookout for early signs of potential trouble among their student populations.

A controversy has erupted because one of the terror logos listed, that of the Abu Nidal Organization, uses the PLO flag as its logo.

Jonas Hysing, director of the National Tactical Council that shared the list with the schools, noted that it was not uncommon for terror organizations to use symbols that have been used in other ways, for example ISIS using Mohammed's creed.

Green Party member Niclas Persson is the mayor of Orebro, one of the towns that distributed the list to school principals. He said "It is important that this is accurate. The material is of course designed to warn us if an organization's symbol is being used. The biggest problem is linking the Palestinian freedom struggle with terrorism. It's very unfortunate."

Jonas Hysing said "It is possible that we add some text that the symbols are often used in multiple ways. But the symbol is used by a designated terrorist organization, and it is up to the Swedish police to inform their employees about it."

The list of logos came from the US National Counterterrorism Center. However, their list of logos are not comprehensive - they list 52 terror groups and only 40 logos.

Among all the hand-wringing over how unfortunate it is that the PLO flag is listed under Abu Nidal Organization, no one in Sweden seems to upset that two flags over is the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which Mahmoud Abbas apparently has no problem with even though they are part of the Fatah party that he heads. He claimed that it was dismantled years ago, but they are still alive and kicking and publicly walking around the West Bank with masks and weapons.

And the PLO flag, as well.

Palestinian Arabs don't blink when their flag is associated with terror groups. Which means that the inclusion of the Palestinian flag in a list of symbols for teachers and law enforcement to look out for as an indication of potential terror activity is quite appropriate, despite the politically correct crowd.

After all, when you see a PLO flag in Europe, 90% of the time it is meant to call for the destruction of Israel, not for any "pro-Palestinian" reason.