Actually Alex --- it was the arrogant social engineering of Swedish govt to FORCE a dangerous experiment in multiculturalism and inclusion on a sleepy little island with no previous problems. There was even Swede govt propaganda on "how happy the islanders were to receive all their new friends.
I'm turning into a simply Southern boy. And one of our favorite sayings is -- "You can't fix stupid". And that's how Europe has handled this altruistic rescue of the migrants.
That woman went to the Refugee Center to use a bathroom. Which is where those dudes were placed. She had the innocence to believe it was a safe bet -- because nothing in her background or culture would have WARNED her that move might be dangerous.
It is not arrogant to expect those who were brought into a country to act civilized and within the parameters of the law.
The Swedish government seems weak and foolish, I just do not get the hubris necessary for arrogance. The Swedes seemed to have it nice and peaceful and thought they could share that with these animals.
Let's try dumping you homeless and penniless in Yemen and expecting you to recognize THEIR standards of "civilized".
The Swedes thought wrong. You don't FLOOD tiny towns and islands with refugee camps of people who don't have a CLUE about Swedish law, morals or culture. You're criminally insane if you don't start small and work from there.
It seems to me you need to do it in smaller groups, not huge camps - but groups of people that can be spread around and integrated.
Heck -- if you've seen pictures of the place (it's lovely) -- build a Mosque for them in the 16th century style of their town. Let in 10 or 12 people.
But don't place a refugee camp on an island just to FORCE some vision of a new multicultural Sweden overnight.
Things like this amplify the divisions and will NEVER prove that the "experiment" COULD be successful. Govt underestimated the power of cultural clashes here bigtime.
I totally agree - and there is a difference between a refugee camp vs integrating refugee populations.
There is a lot here to consider though. One is this - do we know the facts of the case?
This is a higly inflammatory, emotionally charged event - and I'm saying event because we don't know enough to know what crime occurred yet - or, at least as of yesterday - based on known facts. It's also very hard finding unbiased reporting on this. When an account is littered with terms like "sharia law" - then hell, why not throw in some Nazi's, Hitler, and Stalin references along with "rape jihad" - it's all red flag language that makes an appeal to emotion and fear over fact.
What is known in terms of background is refugee centers are problematic. Not because they are filled with Muslims (not all refugees are Muslims) but the nature of the camps and the situation a lot of people, from diverse situations, who have lost everything and been through a lot of trauma, forced together in a situation where they have no forseeable future, nothing to do (they aren't allowed to work) and a lot of time on their hands. Rape, physical abuse, human trafficking are big problems in these places (all around the world). Gotland has a population of around 57,300 - a small city. 1,000 would be a significant number of people and they can't really be integrated because they are on hold - waiting to know if their applications will be approved. No work to occupy them. I know this is sexist of me - but when you have a lot of men, nothing constructive to occupy them....you have problems. I think that is a reciepe - in this current anti-immigrant climate, for disaster and lots of tension between the community and those in the camp.
The other thing is - rape, child abuse, and abuse of the disabled by "outsiders" are highly emotionally charged allegations and crimes. Want to anger members of one population against another - call rape. Want to start a lynching or riot? That's the way to do it. Shouldn't the facts be examined here rather than jumping on the bandwagon one side or the other.
Police have accused of letting them go or not taking rape seriously or being too PC. The thing is, we only know part of the information. We know what the victim has said - through her lawyer. We don't know much else because the police have said very little (not surprising since they are restrained from saying much in an active investigation) - like it is here. So we only know ONE side of whatever happened based on what the victims LAWYER claims. The other thing we know is they detained and released several of the suspects.
Now Sweden is a country that takes rape and assault/harrassment againt women seriously. They have one of the broadest definitions of rape. Unlike some developed countries (including Germany until very recently) - a woman is NOT required to show resistance in order for it to be considered rape. Sweden is very enlightened. When a woman says "no" - that's all that is needed (which...going back to culture, can easily lead to misunderstanding when you can't integrate people effectively). I don't see the police releasing suspects unless there is a real conflict of stories or lack of evidence. At the moment - there's a lot of anger, few facts, one side only presented and people calling for riots and attacking the center. Remember Tawana Brawley?
I'd like to find more news on this that doesn't come from an emotionally charged or biased site - anyone seen more?
