One in four Swedes wouldn’t want a Jew to be their Prime Minister
This is “Today’s Debate” in Dagens Nyheter in Sweden:
Hattip: Pia Causa
The raw statistics from this page are translated here:“One in four Swedes wouldn’t want a Jew to be their Prime Minister”
New report about anti-semitism in Sweden: 41 percent are very or somewhat negatively inclined towards Jews. 25 percent of the Swedes are disinclined to have a Jew as their Prime Minister. As many (25%) say that the Jews have decisive influence over the world economy, 15 percent say that the Jews have too much power in the world today. So says a new survey by the Forum for Living History which was based on 3000 responses to be published today. In total, 36 percent of Swedes have some anti-semitic views but are sceptical of other anti-semitic views. 5 Percent, among them supporters of extremely nationalistic parties, have systematically negative views of Jews writes Helene Lööw, Superintendant of Forum for Living History, and the researcher Henrik Bachner
Jews are contributing positively to Swedish society:
Disagree: 8.30%
Neither/Or: 53.60%
Agree: 38.10%It would be perfectly acceptable to have a Jew as Swedish Prime Minister:
Disagree: 25.00%
Neither/Or: 26.80%
Agree: 48.20%Swedish Jews are more loyal to Israel than to Sweden:
Disagree: 22.10%
Neither/Or: 60.40%
Agree: 17.50%Jews have contributed decisively to European culture:
Disagree: 8.70%
Neither/Or: 35.30%
Agree: 56.00%Judaism is neither better or worse than any other religion:
Disagree: 5.40%
Neither/Or: 23.40%
Agree: 71.20%Jews have great influence with the media:
Disagree: 28.80%
Neither/Or: 52.90%
Agree: 18.30%Jews influence the world economy greatly:
Disagree: 24.90%
Neither/Or: 48.70%
Agree: 26.40%Jews control the United States’ Foreign Policy:
Disagree: 39.00%
Neither/Or: 43.60%
Agree: 17.50%Jews wield great power in the world today:
Disagree: 43.20%
Neither/Or: 41.50%
Agree: 15.30%There’s too much talk of Nazism and the Holocaust:
Disagree: 66.20%
Neither/Or: 21.10%
Agree: 12.60%Jews think they are the only ones who have suffered:
Disagree: 52.50%
Neither/Or: 30.70%
Agree: 16.80%Jews use the Holocaust for economic and political goals:
Disagree: 53.50%
Neither/Or: 32.60%
Agree: 14.00%The jews are partially to blame for the persecution and hate against them:
Disagree: 73.20%
Neither/Or: 21.30%
Agree: 5.50%The Jews crucified Christ and their sufferings are punishment for this crime:
Disagree: 71.40%
Neither/Or: 24.90%
Agree: 3.70%Israel’s policies have the mark of a desire for revenge rooted in the Old Testament (An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth):
Disagree: 25.00%
Neither/Or: 48.50%
Agree: 26.40%Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians is alike to the Nazis’ treatment of the Jews:
Disagree: 32.80%
Neither/Or: 41.40%
Agree: 25.80%As long as Israel exists there will be no peace on earth:
Disagree: 60.10%
Neither/Or: 30.40%
Agree: 9.50%Israels policies are the cause of hate against Jews:
Disagree: 45.70%
Neither/Or: 40.60%
Agree: 13.60%Israel has no right to exist:
Disagree: 76.80%
Neither/Or: 19.80%
Agree: 3.40%Due to Israel’s policies I think less of Jews:
Disagree: 65.60%
Neither/Or: 26.70%
Agree: 7.60%
Waht so strange about that ? - It merely reflects the fact that 15-20% of the Swedish population is Muslim….
Comment by kepiblanc — March 14, 2006 @ 4:47 pm
Racism returning in Europe?
Anti-semitism has not been purged from Europe, and is on the rise again.
Trackback by Comment is free — March 14, 2006 @ 5:20 pm
Anti-Semitism, Scott Baio Worship, On the Rise in France (Updated)
It never surprises me to hear that Muslims in France–or anywhere–are violently antisemitic. What does shock me is that activists protesting the rise of antisemitism have adopted Scott Baio as their leader. I would have thought Jerry Lewis would have…
Trackback by The Jawa Report — March 14, 2006 @ 5:27 pm
I am a Jew and these stats don’t look so bad to me. Discounting the Muslims who probably all responded negatively to Jews in the survey, this seems to show that Swedes appear mostly pro-Jewish or at least not wildly anti-Jewish. It could be a lot worse.
Ben Yehuda
PS: we remember Raoul Wallenberg with reverence and respect!!!
Comment by Herschel Ben Yehuda — March 14, 2006 @ 7:41 pm
Agreed,Jews revere and respect the saintly Raoul Wallenberg and there is a Raoul Wallenberg Square with a statue of him in the most heavily Jewish neighborhood in Los Angeles.
Comment by Esther — March 14, 2006 @ 8:51 pm
why on earth do u think that all the people who disagreed are muslims? Did u see the sample population of the survey? Or did they poll the whole damn country? And why is agreeing that the jews have a huge influence over world economy anit-semitism? its true and a fact but only coz they are damn good business men and ingenious! The damn israel produces about 2000 geniouses in music to engineering each year! Sure they screw palestinians and can fuck up america anytime, but thats what u get to do when u got them brains babay!
Comment by iggy — March 15, 2006 @ 4:03 am
This is weird. Let’s think of the following scenario: The same poll is held in Tel-Aviv. 25% of Israelis say that they would not want a Swedish premier for Israel. Does this then mean that Israelis are full of anti-Swedishism? Come on, let’s get real! Articles like these are ridiculous. What is wrong with Swedish people preferring a Swedish leader, rather than a Jew?
Comment by nord — March 15, 2006 @ 6:59 pm
#7, nord
In Denmark at least, a Jew is just another name for a Dane who says he is Jewish. I think your comparison would be more apt if you compared it to 25% of Israelis who wouldn’t want a Jew with blue eyes to be their Prime Minister.
That’s just my opinion of course - I may be mistaken and some people think of Jews as ‘different’ from us in some way, but it seems to me that most Danes are not at all biased against Jews because of their Jewishness. It’s another thing with Moslems, of course, but that’s because they have a tendency to assault us and bomb us - not something we regularly see from our Jews. And that’s another thing.
They are our Jews - a thing which was most clearly manifested during WWII when we saved as many as we could from the Nazis.
The only thing Jews would be burdened by in the Danish political system is that about half of our politicians are scumbags.
Agora
Comment by Administrator — March 15, 2006 @ 10:10 pm
Agora, the fact remains that a Swede is not necessarily anti-Jewish if he prefers to have a Swedish leader in his own country. Jews may be welcome, respected and everything.. and even well integrated. But why should someone of the Jewish faith, which is not indigenously Swedish, become leader of this nation? Sweden should have a leader who is first and foremost concerned about the welfare of Sweden, not Israel or some other country.
Regarding your analogy: You mention blue eyes, but more aptly, if you wish, you could say for example if Israelis don’t accept a Swedish-Israeli as potential leader, who is a Norse pagan or Christian, then they are “anti-Swedish”. This is a bit bizarre.
I sometimes get the feeling some blogs are anti-Muslim, just to advance Jewish interests, but they are not really pro-European at all. Europeans are only used as pawns in this silly Middle Eastern religious power game. It is high time Europeans became a bit more patriotic about their OWN culture for a change, and discard some of the liberalist self-hatred… it is truly sickening.
Comment by nord — March 15, 2006 @ 10:48 pm
#9, nord
It’s like this: I don’t see Jews as being non-indigenous. They’ve been here for 300 years. That’s as indigenous as it gets. Most Jewish Danes are blue-eyed with curly hair. Hell, most Australians can’t trace their roots that far back. I just don’t think a Jew by being a Jew would advance Israel’s interests at the cost of Danish interests. Primarily because he’s Danish. Any Jew in Denmark would probably have been born in Denmark and lived in Denmark his whole life. Jews talk Danish, they drink, some of them eat bacon (though some don’t). I just don’t have any cognitive dissonance about the term “Jewish Danes” but I do feel quite a bit of cognitave dissonance about the term “Moslem Danes” - because most of them are Moslems first, Danes second, third or fourth. Danes are Danes first, Jews, Christians and Pagans second.
Agora
Comment by Administrator — March 15, 2006 @ 10:57 pm
Thanks for taking the time to answer me, Agora.
Comment by nord — March 15, 2006 @ 11:05 pm
#11, nord
I just realised, having read this post by a sometimes-right Danish leftist that we may have been discussing using the wrong premises. The way the questionnaire the Swedes were answering was made may have done that - what I mean is that we’ve been talking about generalities. In general, so forth and so on…
I wouldn’t have a problem with Naser Khader becoming our Prime Minister, for example. Because that’s as Danish as you can get.
To quote (translated) from the post by the obnoxiously right Danish leftist:
“The right answer to the question of whether one would want a Moslem as Prime Minister is the same as the answer to whether one would want a Jew as Prime Minister, and the same as the answer to whether one would want a Buddhist, a Hindu, a Christian or, for that matter, a secularised “cultural Dane” as Prime Minister.
The right answer isn’t: Yes, No, Don’t Know. The Right answer is: Who?
Agora
Comment by Administrator — March 15, 2006 @ 11:20 pm
Regardless, I think we can safely assume that the great majority of “Swedes” who voiced opinions against Jews, were in fact Muslims. It is disappointing that native Swedish people would have their good name blackened, just because some Muslim immigrants choose to do things differently. And the mainstream media is partially (or wholly) to blame for this. It is just ‘politically correct’ to blame a white, Swedish person for the anti-Semitism of Swedish Muslims. When will this denigration of indigenous Europeans stop?
Comment by nord — March 15, 2006 @ 11:24 pm
My guess is only 8% or so of Sweden’s population is Moslem. Depending on how the survey was done, that still leaves 17% of Sweden’s population as anti-Jewish. A factor that may skew that number in the direction of more anti-semites being Moslems is if the survey was done only in major urban centres where most Moslems (in Denmark, at least) settle.
For some reason, Moslems in Denmark have a problem with rural settings. Surprising, considering where they came from.
Agora
Comment by Administrator — March 15, 2006 @ 11:41 pm
Again, I strongly disagree with the notion that those who don’t wish to have a Jewish leader for Sweden, are by default “anti-Semites”. This is a wilfilly inaccurate and slanderous remark.
Comment by nord — March 15, 2006 @ 11:44 pm
I guess this is one of those things where People of Good Faith can disagree. I say Jews have become Danes and thus they have probably become Swedes too, leaving only the explanation of anti-semitism for those Swedes who wouldn’t want a Jew to be Prime Minister.
(If I understand you correctly) You say: No, Jews haven’t become Swedes, making it only natural that Swedes should want one of their own to be their PM. Very well, we agree on principles but not on facts. So be it. There are worse things to disagree on.
Agora
Comment by Administrator — March 16, 2006 @ 12:03 am
We agree on many other things, Agora.
Thanks again for your time.
Best regards
Comment by nord — March 16, 2006 @ 12:13 am
Well, ‘nord’ was helpful in showing us that it’s not only Muslims who hold racist views:)
Nord, u r either ignorant or malicious. “Sweden should have a leader who is first and foremost concerned about the welfare of Sweden, not Israel or some other country.”
Ah.. but I (and I’m Jewish, by the way) am confident that a Swedish leader (yes, even if he’s jewish and therefore, according to ‘nord’ not actually swedish) would obviously be concerned “first and foremost concerned about the welfare of Sweden”. I don’t doubt that for a second. ‘nord’, on the other hand, probably thinks that I’m lying lol! After all, ‘nord’ thinks “he’s lying and saying that because he’s jewish”. God, this is too funny and ridiculous. And again ‘nord’ the question wasn’t whether they want an Israeli to be their leader.. The fact that u can’t tell the difference says a lot about u and makes your opinions silly and offensive at the same time.
‘nord’ adds: “I sometimes get the feeling some blogs are anti-Muslim, just to advance Jewish interests”
lol again. Yeah well, u see ‘nord’ we, jewish people around the world, have ‘jewish interests’ and we have blogs whose purpose is to do our bidding. So what happens is, I go to ‘agora’ and I say “be anti-muslim, it’ll further global-jewish-interests’ and ‘agora’ responds ’sure, I’ll do that’. And it’s not only ‘agora’. Lots of blogs are pretending to express their opinions but really (as ‘nord’ knows) they’re really just working to further ‘jewish interests’. Do I sigh or lol at this point?
By the way, I don’t find this poll to be ‘very bad news’. The same poll indicates that ‘nord’ is very much in the minority. 3/4 of swedes, according to this poll, want a good, sensible prime minister, they couldn’t care less whether he’s jewish or not. That seems good, actually.
Lastly, I’m not sure that it’d be good to have a jewish prime minister in sweden, since he’s be pressured to prove that his foreign policy isn’t biased towards Israel and unless he’s a very strong individual, he’ll end up being particularly anti-israel just to please people like ‘nord’ from the right as well as to please the ultra-politically-correct left.
Comment by hmmm — March 16, 2006 @ 2:21 pm
I, for one, welcome our new Jewish overlords.
*chuckles*
Agora
Comment by Administrator — March 16, 2006 @ 2:52 pm
Hi ‘hmmm’, and thanks for your reply.
It is too easy (and perhaps intellectually lazy or cowardly) to launch a second-rate attack of predictable epithets, i.e. “racist”, “anti-Semite”, or the like - to every soul who dares to suggest that they’d rather have a Swede rule Sweden.
You are also clinging to the thought that every person who would not want a Swedish premier to rule Sweden, is by default anti-Semitic. Although you may find this discussion to be emotionally engaging, I would ask you to think rationally about this. I, for one, would not like to see a Christian descendant of Crusaders rule the Knesset. That would be inappropriate, don’t you think? Or do you think that more than 75% of Jewish Israelis would approve of it? This is a fair comparison.
You should also realise, that by labelling everyone with a different view than yours, as “racist”, or “anti-Semite”, you are in fact watering down the charge of this criminality where it does in fact matter.
Comment by nord — March 16, 2006 @ 7:20 pm
Agora said: “I, for one, welcome our new Jewish overlords”
My view is that the real danger for Europe comes from the rapid Islamification of the continent. Take these words from Mullah Krekar to heart:
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1247400.ece
Actually, so-called “moderate” Islam is more dangerous than the few extremist fanaticals. It is not Islamic extremists who are boycotting Denmark’s goods, but “moderates”.
Comment by nord — March 16, 2006 @ 7:41 pm
#21, nord
I agree that so-called moderate Moslems are probably the most potent long-term danger. We see that in Denmark with “moderate” Moslem groups who say they believe in Sharia. What’s moderate about that, we ask? Well, we only want Sharia in states were there are more Moslems than non-Moslems.
Well, that’s a relief….
I know that interview intimately, by the way. I translated it from Norwegian and posted it here.
Agora
Comment by Administrator — March 16, 2006 @ 8:32 pm
Well done, Agora. I’ve had a quick browse over your blog and you generally have excellent postings/articles. I will be checking it regularly.
Do you have an email address where I can reach you?
Regards
Comment by nord — March 16, 2006 @ 9:34 pm
#23, nord
Thank you, nord.
Check your mail.
Agora
Comment by Administrator — March 16, 2006 @ 9:59 pm
The problem was how the survey was made, there are a growing elderly generation in sweden who are suspicious of everything foreign and have a hard time adapting to and accepting the immigration.
You could as easily change “jewish” for any noneuropean nationality and get the same results.
But it somehow seem to fit the israeli agenda to paint us out as antisemites just because we have a strong sense of justice and frequently point out that what israel is doing to the palestinians isnt right.
Comment by pagan — April 28, 2006 @ 1:48 am