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PrintFebruary 28, 2011
NY Times finds Islamophobia in Malmo, but blind to rampant Jew-hatred in Sweden's anti-semitic capital
In its Feb. 27 edition, the New York Times features an article about rising anti-immigrant sentiment in Sweden, with special focus on Malmo, where a quarter of the population is foreign-born, mostly from Muslim countries.
The article, by Suzanne Daley, depicts Muslim immigrants alienated from native Swedes, living apart in areas with high unemployment and poor schools. Daley also reports rising complaints by old-time residents about immigrants taking advantage of Sweden's generous welfare programs, while refusing to learn Swedish and to assimilate. Swedes also decry high crime rates in immigrant areas, where fire departments won't send crews in without police protection. For their part, immigrants are quick to raise a hue and cry about Islamophobia. ("Swedes Begin to Question Liberal Migration Tenets" page 6, main news section).
While Daley does a commendable job documenting mutual recriminations in highly polarized Malmo, she completely fails to mention that, however aggrieved Muslim immigrants may feel, Malmo's Jews are in a worse situation. Many Jews are opting to leave the city to escape violent anti-Semitic attacks spawned by Malmo's demographic transformation and a political establishment unwilling to confront spreading Jew hatred. This, after all, is a city whose mayor equates Zionism with Islamophobia. This is also a place where city fathers caved to anti-Jewish attacks and intimidation by deciding to bar spectators during a Davis Cup tennis match between Sweden and Israel. The match was played amid empty stands.
While Swedes complain about repugnant behavior patterns by Muslim immigrants, and Muslim immigrants complain about an Islamophobic indigenous Swedish culture that sets them apart, Jews get it from both sides. They feel doubly vulnerable as targets of Jew-hating Muslim immigrants and as residents with inadequate security protection from local authorities.
Yet, when it comes to the plight of Jews in Malmo, the New York Times goes AWOL. The paper deems it important to document grievances of Muslim immigrants and native residents. But it has no interest in reporting Jewish plight in Sweden -- especially in Malmo.
Such blindness to virulent anti-Semitism, of course, is not new at the New York Times. It has a long history of such uncaring response, going back at least to the 1930s. It seems little has changed at the paper on this score.
