The 7th October Hamas attack on Israel, which witnessed mass rape, murder and kidnap of innocent citizens shook the entire world, however, the horrifying event was celebrated under the pretext of ‘resistance’ by extremists in different parts of the world. Likewise, Malmö, a coastal city in southern Sweden, experienced similar festivities on the fateful day, reported Ynet. With over 340,000 residents in the city and nearly double that number, if one considers its metropolitan suburbs, Malmö is the third-largest city in Sweden and is also regarded as the “most Muslim city” in the Nordic country.
40-year-old Irit Erlinski, a local kindergarten teacher, mother of three, and former Israeli, recounted, “On Saturday, even before I knew what had happened, there was already a convoy of cars beeping, and I said to myself that it was strange hearing wedding sirens so early in the morning.” It took her some time to grasp that they were celebrating the Israeli massacre.
All day long, there was a carnival with convoys of automobiles beeping excitedly, displaying flags of Palestine and Hamas, and even children dressed up as terrorists from Hamas. Erlinski noticed the difference right away in the most delicate location which is also the location of school of her kids. She added, “I went to the administrators, asking them to protect my son from the bullying he was experiencing at school, physically and verbally. I was very adamant. Two days later, people from welfare came to see why I was so nervous.” These violent celebrations and the subsequent anti-Israel protests that have been held in Malmö have involved thousands of Muslims residing in the area.
Interestingly, the seventh edition of the Eurovision Song Contest is taking place in Sweden, with the city of Malmö serving as the host for the third time. A hundred thousand guests, an endless global celebration, flags, cultures, and some sparkles to the otherwise drab and languid metropolis. For the 50th anniversary of “Waterloo” and the nation’s first victory in the competition, there were even rumours of an Abba (Famous Swedish pop supergroup) comeback. The Swedes got ready for a week filled with peculiar performances, kitsch, awful music, and an excess of alcohol to make everything seem hazy. However, the plans were destroyed by the gut-wrenching terror attack on 7th October on Israel.
Now, Abba’s return was immediately forgotten, and the Middle East reality was thrust headfirst into an event whose primary purpose was escape. Nols Noling, the communications officer for the Malmö police remarked, “The song contest has become a reality.” After 7th October, the authorities recognized how difficult it would be to conduct a Eurovision contest in the city with the highest concentration of Muslims in Sweden. The official revealed, “Our intelligence works non-stop, and especially on social networks.”
He added, “We are prepared for any scenario, be it a shooting or a bomb or kidnappings. We have the tools and the personnel to handle it. There will be thousands of police officers from all over the country to help with security. But if the intelligence and the federal police discover that there is a concrete threat – one or more people with means, intention and purpose – then we will set the highest threat level 5 which has never been applied here before and then almost everything will be cancelled.”
A member of the Israeli delegation disclosed, “Usually, going to the Eurovision Song Contest is a trip that people fight over. This time everyone is trying to avoid it. They don’t want to go to Malmö because it is a Muslim and an unpleasant city. Everyone knows that it will be a travel which involves only hotel-concert hall, concerts-hotel trips, without any free time, without a traditional Israeli party, which is the most popular party at the Eurovision every year, and it feels like a bummer; and not just for us.” Eden Golan, the Israeli competitor who dedicated her entire life to be able to participate is forced into an advocacy battleground rather than performing a song and competing.
Incidents of vandalism in Malmo
Some of Malmö’s streets, particularly in the immigrant neighbourhood Rosengård, resemble an Arab city in the Middle East and conservative estimates place the number of Muslims there at 50,000, while there are likely even more. Some also address Malmö as “Ramallalmo.” Due to all of these factors, Malmö has emerged as one of the most intense hubs of opposition to Israel in Sweden and throughout Europe. However, the Eurovision, in which Israel is competing and the conflict in Gaza are suddenly a hot topic in the streets of the city.
The enormous Eurovision sign outside the “Malmö Live” concert hall, where it is scheduled to take place, was vandalised about a month ago with the words “Free Gaza” written on it along with red paint and what appeared to be bloodstains. Pro-Palestinian demonstrations, which also have a set day and place, occurred alongside the violent Saturday gatherings here. They are appealing for Israel to be eliminated from the Eurovision Song Contest and are protesting against Israel and the dispute in general.
The agitation appeared to be led by predominantly second-generation immigrants from the Middle East, and young Swedish leftists involved in the local movement. It presented an exemplary image of how leftists and Islamists feed off each other. One of the protesters wearing a black keffiyeh, a popular pro-Palestine status symbol complained, “We want the municipality to boycott the competition, to cancel it, to move it to another city or country. I think it’s a shame that a cultural event includes a country that is currently committing genocide.”
“Stop the Genocide” is written in white on the display window of a well-known hipster clothes boutique called “Bjork & Secondhand.” Beside the mannequins in the exhibit is a monitor that mimics a scoreboard from a Eurovision contest; however, instead of listing the participating countries, it lists all the “crimes” that Israel is alleged to have committed in Gaza. There are more placards with Palestinian flags inside the store, and there are more digital monitors with similar text behind the cashiers.
Meanwhile, Theresa from the company’s headquarters argued, “We want to stop the genocide and we use the shop window to provide information about the genocide conducted in Gaza. We criticize the Israeli government and its military operations. We don’t understand what the connection is between trying to prevent genocide and the anxiety among Jews in Malmö. There are many people who are against this genocide.”
However, a barista working at the adjacent “Espresso House” unveiled, “I think it’s not cool to do something like this to a country and its representatives who will come and stay here. But I can tell you clearly that since they started the campaign, their stores are full, much more than usual.”
Journalist Sofia Narbrand (50) has been a political editor of the well-known Swedish newspaper “Svenska Dagbladet.” She actively supported the city’s declining Jewish community and has taken part in pro-Jewish protests for more than ten years. She saw through her left-wing comrades’ contradictions a long time ago. She noted, “We are supposedly guilty for everything. Everything related to the West is bad, and Jews are the West. So, the Palestinians are the victims, here (in Malmö) and there (in Gaza). They are allowed to do whatever they like, and they can be forgiven for their attitude toward women, LGBT people, human rights, and their honour culture. It’s crazy self-hatred.”
She pointed out, “I like to be naive. We wanted to help them because we didn’t help the Jews in World War II, but all the trust we had was cracked. There are now discussions here about having separate days and hours for women and men in public pools. All the procedures taking place in the Ministry of Welfare and Immigration are done without a single word in Swedish. Single mothers earn less money than immigrants who decide not to work. There are teachers here who are afraid to report child abuse because they fear the parents’ reaction. That’s insanity. We thought we would pull them to the Swedish-secular culture, but the opposite is happening.”
She further divulged, “I want to go and show support for Israel during the Eurovision Song Contest, but the fear is already in me, and it upsets me, really upsets me, because I am a Swedish citizen just like them, and I am afraid to exercise the most basic right I have, to demonstrate. I go to pro-Israel demonstrations with sneakers and a small bag in case I have to escape. And what about them? They are not afraid to get together in their thousands screaming ‘from the river to the sea.’ They don’t see themselves as Swedes. They don’t care about us. It saddens me. We gave them everything, and we didn’t ask them to be blondes, only to respect the basic laws of the country that welcomed them, rescued them from the wars and gave them everything from day one. It’s not much to ask.”
The tense situation and the antisemitic incidents
The days between the 7th and 11th May, when Malmö is hosting both the competition and the two Eurovision semi-finals, are being held in this volatile atmosphere. This year’s organizers of the Eurovision, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the Malmö municipality, and the Swedish police are working nonstop in pursuit of a safe solution. A member of the Israeli delegation observed, “Normally, two months before the competition, we already have the entire itinerary, including security arrangements. But this time, everyone is telling us that due to security matters, no information will be provided to us until the last minute.”
“There was a Zoom conversation with all the participants and the EBU thought that all the mess outside would be under the responsibility of the Swedish police. But after a few minutes of conversation, several countries, including the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Belgium, expressed grave fear for the lives and security of their delegations, and this already stirred things up, because it made it clear to the organizers that the participants were in panic. Besides, there is a huge fear of a cyber-attack that would stop the satellite broadcast or disrupt the vote and all of a sudden, the popular Eurovision slogan, ‘United by Music’ took on shades of ‘United by War’,” mentioned one person from the Israeli delegation.
Israel has already taken part in two Malmö Eurovision Song Contests. The Israeli entry “It’s Just Sport,” performed by Dafna Dekel, won the first one in 1992. The city’s characteristics were entirely different back then. Kobi Oshrat, the song’s composer, arranger, and conductor recalled, “I remember that when I was leaving for Malmö, I put on tefillin and they gave me a dollar bill to give it to someone poor, and we couldn’t find poor people in Malmö. There was no Muslim issue. The atmosphere was wonderful. Ehud Manor and I wrote a song for Dafna Dekal for her birthday called ‘Seventh of May’ and we sang it at a party for her. There were no security personnel and no instructions. We walked around freely.”
The next occasion was in 2013 when Moran Mazor sang the Israeli song “Rak Bishvilo” (just for him) and Malmö had already changed significantly. Alon Amir, then the delegation’s spokesman stated, “We were accompanied by at least five members of the Shin Bet and another 30 local policemen. We couldn’t move around freely. There were demonstrations held against us, and we always left through back entrances. Most of the delegation members were quite scared, but I attended a competition in Baku the year before, where we were guarded by dozens of Shin Bet and Mossad personnel, and they arrested about 40 terrorists who came to eliminate us, so as far as I was concerned, Malmo was considered a ‘summer camp.’ But it’s not a pleasant place. You feel like you’re in the crosshairs.”
Israel also participated in the 2009 Davis Cup, which was held in Malmö. A new chapter in the city’s relations with Jews and Israel began with this incident. The municipality decided to cancel the public match due to the possibility of disturbances. Although some questioned the competition’s sporting worth, the severity of the riots and their associated violence demonstrated that the decision was appropriate. Numerous antisemitic acts have been documented in Malmö since then, including the discovery of a can labelled “Zyklon B” outside the Jewish cemetery (Zyklon B was the poisonous pesticide used by Nazis to kill Jews in gas chambers), violent protests every time Israel and the Palestinians engaged in a military conflict and a local imam who called for the “slaughter of the Jews halal.”
This hatred even extended to the television series “The Bridge” which was filmed on the renowned Oresund Bridge which connects Malmö and Denmark. The show’s star, Kim Bodnia, left before the third season, citing discomforts she had living in the city as a Jewish person. Muslims were responsible for more than half of the events in the city that targeted Jews. According to Dr Persson, “Sweden is one of the places from which the most fighters left for ISIS but very few from Malmö. They say that Malmo is tough enough.” The approximately 3,000-person Jewish community in the area steadily declined to an estimated 500 or less now.
Peter is among the Jews who departed Malmö a few years back as a result of the drastic shift in the city’s population. He went to Sweden’s capital city of Stockholm, where he has been voting for the right-wing conservative “Sweden Democrats” in recent elections. The party is becoming more and more popular in Sweden. The “Sweden Democrats” struggled in their early years to distance themselves from their fascist and even Nazi origins (one of the party’s founders volunteered for the Waffen-SS). However, Jews like Peter also started to vote for the party when it declared a firm stance against immigration while also endorsing Israel. He claimed, “80% of Jews vote for this party.”
Dr. Persson noted that the ranking of the Israeli song will determine how strong the protests grow. “People will come here with the spirit of October 7 in mind. They don’t come here to have a quiet celebration. Now it is estimated that Israel will come in between third and tenth place, which means that they will make it to the final and that demonstrations will last longer, and they will become more violent if Israel competes for the first place.”
Demography is destiny
The situation in Sweden, especially in Malmö, as a result of the flood of Muslim immigrants serves as a sobering reminder of how demographics determine the destiny of any nation or location. It is important to remember that India has been dealing with this problem for many years. The minority Hindu population was targeted in Punjab during the Khalistan terrorism and the insurgency in Kashmir, all in the name of ‘freedom and resistance.’ The influx of Rohingya and Bangladeshi Muslim population in India has repeatedly shown itself to be a national security threat. How can anyone forget the 2012 Azad Maidan riots where even the Amar Jawan Jyoti memorial was desecrated by protestors? The agitation was initiated by Raza Academy to protest against the alleged atrocities on Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
A group of thousands of Muslims united under the Anjuman Ahle Sunnatul Jamat (ASJ) flag went on a rampage in Malda, West Bengal in 2016 over late Kamlesh Tiwari’s “anti-Islam” remarks. More than thirty people, including police officers, were hurt in vandalism that targeted the Kaliachak Police Station, the Block Development Office and public property. Several vehicles were also set on fire.
India witnessed similar protests after Mohammed Zubair of Alt News shared an edited clip of former Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Nupur Sharma in 2022. Murderous slogans like “Gustakh-e-Rasool ki Ek hi saza, sar tan se Juda, sar tan se Juda” were heard all over India and Kanhaiya Lal in Rajasthan and Umesh Kohle in Maharashtra lost their lives merely for supporting her.
Hindus can not celebrate any festival in peace as reports of stone pelting and attacks on their religious processions are a common occurrence during these events. A startling example of the same came to the fore when on 31st July, an Islamist mob attacked the Jalabhishek Yatra procession organised by Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal in Nuh, Haryana. The violence claimed six lives. Vehicles were burnt and stones pelted at the VHP’s Jalabhishek Yatra as extremists unleashed violence against the Hindus in the Muslim-dominated region of Nuh, Mewat in Haryana.
This year, Haldwani violence brought to light that when confronted with extremists, even performing official tasks may turn violent. The unrest transpired on the evening of 8th February after the administration took measures to remove encroachments which resulted in the loss of life and property. The rioting resulted in five fatalities and hundreds of injuries including male and female (at least 250) authorities.
The daily headlines are dominated by stories about the sexual abuse, murder and oppression of Hindu women at the hands of Muslim males in the name of love jihad or unrequited love. Neha Hiremath (24) the daughter of Congress Corporator Niranjan Hiremath, was the most recent victim of the dreaded phenomenon. She was repeatedly stabbed by Fayaz at B V Bhoomaraddi College of Engineering and Technology in Hubbali because she didn’t accept his relationship proposal. The two were studying there.
The aforementioned incidents are only the tip of the iceberg of India’s dire future brought on by its rapidly changing demographics. Demanding that Hindus vacate their land on the grounds that it is reportedly Waqf property, infringing on government territory and the illegal settlement of Muslim intruders in the nation all gravely compromise the security and stability of our country as they all are an integral component of shifting demography. Now, Europe is also enduring the same issues due to its liberal policies, vote bank politics and woke agenda as its common citizens bear the brunt.