We Sweden

A wise man, but something of a pessimist asked, “Has there ever been a first thing and that first thing was not followed by a second thing?”

Like First World War, Second World War.

Durban 1, Durban 2, Durban 3.

Annika Ström Melin hath said her piece and seems to be holding her peace at least for the time being. Here we are privileged to hear from Per Jönsson about Islamophobia’s New Testament, inspired by al-Islam no doubt, but written by none other than Mattias Gardell himself…

Now you would think that Durban 3 would like to table that at the top of the agenda, Islamophobia versus 1.5 billion Muslims – instead of just limiting themselves to regular  exchange of gunfire – in Kashmir (between India and Pakistan) each one accusing the other of a lack of ahimsa…

Or the Arabs only talking about their eyesore in the Middles East and not the Global phenomenon of Islamophobia presently occurring in most of the not yet occupied lands of dar al-Harb that have still not been won over to prostrating in sub-mission.

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Now there’s supposed to have been a UN-sponsored conference on the issue of Global racism. There’s been Durban 1 & 2 – have you heard about them? What impact have these conferences had on man’s inhumanity to man?

When I hear the word racism, first and foremost in history and now – today – I think of the longest surviving hatred

(cannot be trivialized)

also known as

Anti-Semitism

(cannot be trivialized) -

and of course of the White man being racist towards the Black man, not just The Slave Trade, Colonialism, King Leopold, Jim Crow Laws, Lumumba, the Nkomati Accord…

And who is going to speak for the Black Man and the Black woman? Who dares look into his heart, who dares to look in and look out and speak of what injustices he sees?

Marcus

Up to now I have been a little reserved about joining the bandwagon that accuses the Sverige Demokrater of racism – but must confess that in spite of the genuine concerns that prevent them from supporting the idea of other citizens of Sweden having Cultural Rights, I am not happy about their decision or their ideas  so far expressed, about  what Swedish culture is – it is certainly not static and today we (my better half and I) had dinner at a friend’s (Tiina) just opposite Mosebacke, great vegetarian food, good wine, wonderful company  during which time we listened to “Klingan” – Lennart Wretlind’s excellent music programme  on P2 – which on the surface at least seems to be at variance with the sort of culture policy that would come out of the Sweden Democrats, if I understand where their culture views would take this country……

You don’t have to dig jazz.

Tolerance doesn’t necessarily mean that you dig the other, but that they have a right to exist and to flourish.

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Earthling,

Politics + religion = spontaneous combustion

This group versus that group

and there’s bound to be fire.

ONE GOD?

Down to earth Earthling,

if you are of the human race

Ama talking to YOU:

As you got to understand from the Gestalt Prayer

I’m not here to please you or to pander to your insatiable desires.

OK, to be original or for you to stay you’ve got to be you. That’s alright with me

Please feel free –

and if you don’t like it you can get outta

Here or click & listen to this piece of history or even ignore it

it’s evidence; it’s a musical part of the griot oral tradition !

Some more background to the upcoming event:

Thinking of Durban 3 can take you and me back to 1803 or thereabouts when Old Bill the pantheist wrote this:

“THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US; LATE AND SOON”

         “THE world is too much with us; late and soon,

          Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:

          Little we see in Nature that is ours;

          We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

          The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;

          The winds that will be howling at all hours,

          And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;

          For this, for everything, we are out of tune;

          It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be

          A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;

          So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,

          Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;

          Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;

          Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.”

Nowadays, it’s to be heard on the airwaves, on the jungle telephone spreading like a wildfire in the Harmattan wind blowing from up North, people sitting on wall-to-wall carpets chatting quietly in subdued tones in mosques in between reciting verses from the Qur’an,  to be heard before the little lull that comes in the dialogues and monologue readings, the faithful  waiting for the next round of prayers, the hush before the slight buzz of preparation, the washing of hands, of faces and feet all part of the little excitement and anticipation  as the muezzin lifts his voice to call all the faithful assembled to prayer; it’s to be heard sitting over cups of coffee in coffee houses, habitués sitting in cafes in Paris or Berlin and certainly in kebab parlours here in Stockholm, for years now the rumour has been going round, repeated enough times to be acquiring the aura of a revealed  truth to receive which all you’ve got to do is to open your eyes to see it  and have attentive ears to hear it, that, “ Today’s Muslims are  yesterday’s Jews”  that  Islamophobia is so very  heavy  “The Muslims in Europe today, are almost in the same position as the Jews of pre-Holocaust Europe” – as far as prejudice goes.

Do I hear an anti-Semite ask, “No it ain’t true, and where are the gas chambers?”

My answer is that the persecution of Jews did not start with Lars Vilks or the gas chambers – but I will agree with this though – and I first heard it from Hamza Yusuf

that the guest has to respect the rules of the house or leave…..

The bad news is that Islam itself has been seen as the ideology that fuels anti-Semitism and the so called “Islamic“ Terrorism – the armed wing of “radical” Islam.

The opponents of that kind of ideologically based terror believe that the best way to combat it is by dismantling its ideological basis.

The eternal fact of the matter is that the Qur’an which is said to provide the ideological basis of the struggle/ jihad cannot be abrogated, not even by one letter and not even by those who believe in the idea of a so called “New” Testament which talks unpeacefully about the sword

So what to do?

What is to be done?

Here is the good news – some radical reform impulses, coming from Iran ( who of course will certainly be at the forefront of Durban 3, if it ever takes place that is,  and ( check the news) I can see my good friend Ahmadinejad ( if he’s still around) leading the charge of the Light Brigade as the head speaker , singling out you know who , and of course if by that time he is fully equipped with nuclear warheads he will be rattling his sabre with the kind of rhetorical noises that we have not yet heard coming from Pyongyang….

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I should like to take up the aforementioned items, starting with anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.

Voices against anti-Semitism

With reason: against Islamophobia

We can take a look at the world map and locate the areas in the world where racism ( not to mention ” tribalism”) is widespread and then reflect on the absurd situation  that is reported from earlier Durban racism conferences  in which representatives of the OIC  Muslim countries stood in line, one after the other not to talk about the suicide-bombers in Baghdad and the rest of  Iraq and Pakistan and Afghanistan  or about  other atrocities being committed in for example Darfur, or the  lethal discriminations being committed by Muslims against other Muslims in Muslim countries or about ” radical” Islam’s terrorist threats to the West etc or the Muslim -Christian interface in Iraq, Egypt or Nigeria, but they (the Muslim countries) none of them self-critical  – including representatives of dictatorships and oppressive regimes, all faithfully stood in line  for one purpose only in their global campaign against discrimination : to single out Israel  – exclusively  – for condemnation -  because of Israel’s fight against Palestinian Terrorism which they all attacked under the term ” racism”.Thats’ why  Durban 1 & 2 have been rightfully described as “hate festivals”.The Durban 1& 2 conferences have been hopelessly politicized  – with even heavily  Islamized agendas – and therefore compromised beforehand….

My most recent reading on the subject of anti-Semitism has been Britian’s Labour MP  and former Minister of European Affairs Denis Macshane’s most recent publication on the matter, “Globalising Hatred” (published in 2008) and Raphael Israel’s eye-opening  “Muslim anti-Semitism in Christian Europe” ( published in 2009) about a very contemporary anti-Semitism which is now at  a very dangerous level.

The latest about Islamophobia in the Swedish press is Annika Ström Melin’s editorial in today’s Dagens Nyheter

Right now, time does not permit but in my next installment I intend to take up  – as a  Swedish citizen , the very current issues here in Sweden of

1. Racism
2. Anti-Semitism
3. Islamophobia
4. Xenophobia
5. Immigration

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It started with Durban 1 followed by Durban 2 and now the Durban 3 global conference against racism is fast approaching on the wintry horizon.

Question is how the people of Sweden and their political representatives relate to the prospect/ agenda of Durban 3?

It is a particularly televant question especially in the wake of the Sweden Democrats’ spectacular successes in the last parliamentary elections – before and after which there has been some hoopla and much hullabaloo about the following subjects:

1. Racism
2. Anti-Semitism
3. Islamophobia
4. Xenophobia
5. Immigration

Right now there is a bill granting official recognition of Multicultural Rights on the table and some of those opposed to the idea have (some say extreme, others say normal) concerns about the conservation of what is Swedish Culture and the possible threat of it being overly influenced – not only by TV – but also by the living presence of other people and other cultures that are part and parcel of the Swedish whole-ness.

Durban 1 and Durban 2 have not been entirely smooth and easy for all concerned …….

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One of our prayers , is to be the head and not the tail.

For Sweden and all of us who live & love here, the bigger question is always, how does an American election affect us? How does the dollar which is now standing at its lowest value for fifteen years, how does that affect Sweden – Swedish export?

In a fairly bad mood, Malcolm X at some time referred to the United States as “The United Snakes” ( of America). Extending the metaphor of the subtile serpent just a little , we may talk about the head and the tail (of the snake ).Extending the tail a little further (even the hydra-headed has its extensions) and the United States – one head – “the head of the free world “ has its many tails/followers, even unto and into the theatre of War, in the many places on our planet where Uncle Sam and allies are waging war. (Real Texas Ranch man George W in his cowboy hat took to office kicking ass, and true to form, left office, still kicking ass, even got Saddam hanged… Some say that it was personal. Saddam had tried to liquidate his dad, Papa Bush.

Whether we feel uncomfortable with the metaphor or not here is some more truth:

1.. Brother Barack Hussein Obama took over the reins from George W. Bush, at the most difficult juncture of the US’s economic history ( if we remember correctly John McCain broke off his campaign to go to Washington to try to display some leadership quality to his countrymen & countrywomen – and ostensibly to help contribute to addressing the economic crisis that was brewing just when the meltdown was imminent and the economic demise of USA was actually seen to be taking place.

It’s still the economy stupid – the problem of creating the wealth that Obama wants to spread – and how to spend it. Joe the Plumber is still very real and just won’t go away, and since everybody – almost everybody feels a pinch in the pocket, there’s an overriding spirit of PESSIMISM that dominates over Obama’s Democrats today.

The Republicans have declared that they will put an end to Health Care Reform, once they have the power to do so. Those in the Bible Belt, who believe in the efficacy of prayer, will pray for America. We too. Not just “ God Bless America”.

Cornel West is one of the more articulate public intellectuals in the US and what he said here some time ago,  resonates in many quarters….

http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/foisl/message/19514

Hopefully the Democrats will retain control of the Senate.

1. The world is divided – was divided a long time ago, by George W who gave the ultimatum – choose sides: “ Either you are with us ( the US) or you are with the terrorists.” Brother Barack Hussein Obama inherited all the wars that he’s fighting now.

Afghanistan is not a major issue in today’s mid term elections in the USA. but what the USA (the head) says about Afghanistan will affect what the tail ( Mr. Follow-follow) Sweden decides. The tail always follows the head and cannot act independently. It seems that the tail is not capable of acting unilaterally. The tail’s decision-making apparatus minus the valiant, steadfast and principled Lars Ohly have decided that for better of for worse, and no matter how many body bags of Swedes are sent back home  for interment, we shall be doing some military duties in Afghanistan until at least 2014.

It could be worse. What prayers then ? God save America – and but for the grace of the Almighty and a tip off from Saudi Arabia, there could have been some more terror in America, or up in the skies, just before this mid-term elections. It would have had a more disastrous effect on the incumbent government and an intelligence system which  would have been portrayed as caught napping. But President Obama was able to step forward and say, it’s all under control. (Baby Bush got some wind in his sails for one more term as president  since Osama turned up with a message telling the American people not to vote for Bush. The American people of course disobeyed him. Thankfully, Osama has not turned up at this late hour to tell Americans to not vote for the incorrigible Sarah Palin and her fellow lunatics and some of the racists in the so called Tea Party. Some “Boston Tea Party”, indeed.

More gossip about the sorry state of affairs :

In the Stockholm edition of the Tunnelbana people’s newspaper Metro, Göran Greidar the socialist makes the point that ”One hundred thousand people gathered to “restore rationality” in the country, after an election campaign where the Tea Party movement lowered the level of American politics in a way that you would never have thought possible.”

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