Sweden in Shock

It is no exaggeration to state that Sweden is in shock today. The reason: the murder of a 78-year-old woman in a parking lot in the southern city of Landskrona. 

• By Nordstjernan columnist Ulf Nilson, April 2010

• This is what happened:
  An elderly couple wanted access to a parking space reserved for invalids. The access was blocked by a car, driven by a 23-year-old man. The old man honked his horn signaling that he wanted the young man to move. For some reason the old couple got out of the car. So did the young man, who proceeded to knock down both husband and wife. The woman fell to the ground, hit her head and died in the hospital. The young man was apprehended but denied that he had even been close to the place.
  So far, so bad.
  But the reason that Sweden is in a rage today—an emotional tsunami is sweeping the country—is that the young man who killed the women is believed to be Arab.
  If I had access to only main stream media, I would not have known this. In Sweden it is considered absolutely unacceptable to “hang out” the race, nationality or skin color of a suspected criminal. We do not discriminate, you see, and he or she who does can actually be prosecuted.
  Today, however, there is the Internet. Within less than an hour, I had several dozen e-mails stating the name and age and—yes—social security number of both the young man and his companions, all said to be Lebanese and Muslims. The 23-year-old was picked up by the police and everybody takes it for granted that he will be charged with murder.
  The tragedy in the parking lot points to a fact that is known to the overwhelming majority of Swedes but hardly ever debated openly. Sweden is not, repeat not a melting pot. Over the years the once homogenous country (now a little more than 9 million people) has taken in hundreds of thousands of immigrants, generally people fleeing places like Somalia, Iran, Iraq, the Kurdish areas, Bosnia and other unlucky countries hit by war, poverty or repression.
  When I grew up, some 70 years ago, I never saw a black man or woman; I knew such folks existed, but we never saw any. Indeed we saw no foreigners at all except perhaps an occasional Dane (who spoke funny, but could be understood).
  After World War II the picture changed. Swedish industry, which was unhurt and expanded rapidly, took in workers from mainly Italy, Greece and what was then Yugoslavia. Everybody who came had a job waiting, and in general, the whole process was a great success story.
  But this changed. To put it in simple terms, the country has not been able to absorb the foreigners streaming in over the last 30 years or so. Instead of integration, Sweden got ghettos (in all major cities). Unemployment among “new Swedes” (one of the euphemisms frequently used) is twice as high as among us. About the same goes for the prison population: Many more foreigners serve time and many, many more subsist on the dole. In some of the more notorious ghettos, such as Rosengård in the middle of Malmö, the fire fighters dare not go in without police escort and the police cars operate two together, because a lone car is liable to be stolen if both officers leave it at the same time. Welcome to the wild north.
  What to do about all this?
  I wish I knew, but I don’t, which perhaps doesn’t matter very much. But worse, considerably worse is the fact that neither the government nor other authorities seem to know. We have a grave problem, but so far the only solution seems to be to hope for the best.…