Racism and xenophobia have been reported and investigated in Sweden. [1] Sweden has the most segregated labor market of people with foreign background in Europe, when measured against both high and low educational level by OECD statistics. [2] According to the European Network Against Racism, skin color and ethnic/religious background have significant impact on an individual's opportunities in the labor market. [3] [4]
Due to increased immigration from Muslim majority countries in the 21st century, Islamophobia in Sweden has increased with anti-immigration views growing stronger in the country. The country has also recorded instances of antisemitism, which has increased in recent years because members of the increased Muslim population have targeted Jews. [5] [6] Several white supremacist and neo-Nazi organizations are also active in Sweden, including the Nordic Resistance Movement. [7]
Anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism in Sweden are rooted in the history of the Swedish colonization of the Indigenous Sámi people, the Swedish slave trade, and Swedish colonialism in Africa, North America, and Asia, as well as Swedish government promotion of racist ideologies. Swedish colonization of Sámi land began in the 14th century and intensified in the 17th century when the Swedish state encouraged settlers from the south to move to the north. Due to Swedish state policy, Sámi people have historically been "denied their rights" and "the Sami identity has been defined on the basis of stigmatising and racist conceptions." [8] Swedish colonies included the Swedish Gold Coast in what is now Ghana, the Swedish colony of Saint Barthélemy, and New Sweden in what is now Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey. [9] [10] [11]
In 2021, the Church of Sweden apologized for its abuse of Sámi people over several centuries, including forcible Christianization, the mistreatment of children in Sámi schools, and collecting the remains of Sámi people for research on scientific racism and eugenics. The Church of Sweden described their "dark actions" against the Sámi as "colonial" and "legitimized repression". [12] Prior to apologizing, the Church of Sweden had produced a 1,100 page long document in 2019 compiling the church's history of oppressing Sámi people and erasing Sámi culture. [13]
The Swedish role in colonialism and the enslavement of Africans has been characterized as being "little known" by the general Swedish public, despite the persistence of reminders of slavery and colonialism in Swedish art, architecture, and placenames. [14] During the 20th century, the State Institute for Racial Biology was active in promoting eugenics and scientific racism within Swedish society. [15] In 2022, following a five day visit to Sweden, the United Nations International Independent Expert Mechanism stated that the Swedish government needed to develop strategies to address systemic racism. [16]
The report Racism and Xenophobia in Sweden by the Board of Integration state that Muslims are exposed to the most religious harassment in Sweden. Almost 40% of the interviewed said they had witnessed verbal abuse directed at Muslims. [17] Historically, attitudes towards Muslims in Sweden have been mixed with relations being largely negative in the early 16th century, [18] improving in the 18th century, [19] and declining once again with the rise of Swedish nationalism in the early 20th century. [20] According to Jonas Otterbeck, a Swedish historian of religion, attitudes towards Islam and Muslims today have improved but "the level of prejudice was and is still high." [21] Islamophobia can manifest itself through discrimination in the workforce, [22] prejudiced coverage in the media, [23] and violence against Muslims. [24]
Sweden is home to several white supremacist and neo-Nazi organizations, including:
Former organizations and parties include:
The Nordic Resistance Movement has been noted as a leading neo-Nazi organization in Sweden, exporting extremism throughout Scandinavia and maintaining ties with extremist groups elsewhere in Europe, South Africa, and North America. [25] Contemporary white supremacist groups are part of a century-long history of Nazi and neo-Nazi activism in Sweden. [26]
The right-wing populist Sweden Democrats, the second largest party in the Riksdag, was founded by far right activists who were involved in neo-Nazi, white supremacist, and fascist movements, including one co-founder who had been a Waffen-SS volunteer. The parties advocates Swedish nationalism and immigration restrictions. The party has since claimed and been described to have rejected racism and extremism, instead endorsing ″cultural nationalism″. Party members claim that since 2005, when Jimmie Åkesson became party leader, that the party had undergone reforms. Critics accuse the party of having not completely rejected its fascist history, with anti-fascists alleging that the party remains racist and neo-Nazi. [27] [28] [29] [30]
Following Germany and Austria, Sweden has the highest rate of antisemitic incidents in Europe, although the Netherlands has reported a higher rate of antisemitism for some years. [31] A government commissioned study from 2006 estimated that 15% of Swedes agree with the statement: "The Jews have too much influence in the world today." A multinational public-opinion study that was carried out by the American Jewish Committee in March – April 2005 (Thinking about the Holocaust 60 Years Later) shows how the view that Jews exert “too much influence” on world events is more prevalent in Poland, Austria and Germany than in Sweden, but also indicates that Swedes agree with this statement to a similar extent as Americans and the British. In reference to the statement that the Jews “exploit” the Holocaust for their own purposes, the same study indicates that this view is more prevalent amongst Swedes than amongst Americans and the British but equally as prevalent amongst Austrians and the French. [32] 5% of the total adult population and 39% of adult Muslims "harbour systematic antisemitic views". [32] The former prime minister Göran Persson described these results as "surprising and terrifying." However, the rabbi of Stockholm's Orthodox Jewish community, Meir Horden, said that "It's not true to say that the Swedes are anti-Semitic. Some of them are hostile to Israel because they support the weak side, which they perceive the Palestinians to be." [33] Further, a new study conducted by the ADL showed greatly contrasting results with Swedish respondents indicating antisemitic tendencies among a mere 4% of the population. [34]
A record of 60 antisemitic attacks were reported in 2012 in the city of Malmö, up from an average 22 in the two years before that. 35 cases were reported in the first half of 2013, making it on pace to break the record. The Jewish community say that radical members of the Muslim population in the city are responsible for most of the attacks. [35] According to a survey conducted by the Fundamental Rights Agency, in 40% of serious antisemitic harassment incidents the perpetrator was identified as someone with a Muslim extremist ideology. [6]
The Zionist occupation government, Zionist occupational government or Zionist-occupied government (ZOG), sometimes also referred to as the Jewish occupational government (JOG), is an antisemitic conspiracy theory claiming Jews secretly control the governments of Western states. It is a contemporary variation on the centuries-old belief in an international Jewish conspiracy. According to believers, a secret Zionist organization is actively controlling international banks, and through them governments, in order to collude against white, Christian, or Islamic interests.
Supremacism is the belief that a certain group of people is superior to all others. The supposed superior people can be defined by age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, language, social class, ideology, nationality, culture, or belong to any other part of a particular population.
Radio Islam was a Swedish Islamic radio channel, now a website. The EU's racism monitoring organization has called it "one of the most radical right-wing antisemitic homepages on the net".
This is a list of topics related to racism:
Racism has been a recurring part of the history of Europe.
Antisemitism has long existed in the United States. Most Jewish community relations agencies in the United States draw distinctions between antisemitism, which is measured in terms of attitudes and behaviors, and the security and status of American Jews, which are both measured by the occurrence of specific incidents.
The Jewish community in Sweden has been prevalent since the 18th century. Today Sweden has a Jewish community of around 20,000, which makes it the 7th largest in the European Union. Antisemitism in historical Sweden primarily manifested as the confiscation of property, restrictions on movement and employment, and forced conversion to Christianity. Antisemitism in present-day Sweden is mainly perpetrated by far-right politicians, neo-Nazis, and Islamists.
Nazism in Sweden has been more or less fragmented and unable to form a mass movement since its beginning in the early 1920s. Several hundred parties, groups, and associations existed from the movement's founding through the present. At most, purely Nazi parties in Sweden have collected around 27,000 votes in democratic parliamentary elections. The high point came in the municipal elections of 1934 when the Nazi parties were victorious in over one hundred electoral contests. As early as January 22, 1932, the Swedish Nazis had their first public meeting with Birger Furugård addressing an audience of 6000 at the Haymarket in Stockholm.
Since World War II, antisemitic prejudice in Italy has seldom taken on aggressive forms.
Evidence for the presence of Jewish communities in the geographical area today covered by Austria can be traced back to the 12th century. In 1848 Jews were granted civil rights and the right to establish an autonomous religious community, but full citizenship rights were given only in 1867. In an atmosphere of economic, religious and social freedom, the Jewish population grew from 6,000 in 1860 to almost 185,000 in 1938. In March 1938, Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany and thousands of Austrians and Austrian Jews who opposed Nazi rule were sent to concentration camps. Of the 65,000 Viennese Jews deported to concentration camps, only about 2,000 survived, while around 800 survived World War II in hiding.
Antisemitism in South Africa is the manifestation of hostility, prejudice or discrimination against South African Jews or Judaism as a religious, ethnic or racial group. This form of racism has affected Jews since South Africa's Jewish community was established in the 19th century.
Cultural racism, sometimes called neo-racism, new racism, postmodern racism, or differentialist racism, is a concept that has been applied to prejudices and discrimination based on cultural differences between ethnic or racial groups. This includes the idea that some cultures are superior to others or in more extreme cases that various cultures are fundamentally incompatible and should not co-exist in the same society or state. In this it differs from biological or scientific racism, which refers to prejudices and discrimination rooted in perceived biological differences between ethnic or racial groups.
Racism in Denmark commonly targets immigrants, particularly non-white or non-Western immigrants, as well as Black people, Romani people, and Inuit people. Jewish people and Muslims experience antisemitism and Islamophobia in Denmark. Anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism in Denmark is tied to the centuries long history of the Danish slave trade and Danish colonialism in the Americas and Africa. Black Caribbean people, West Africans, Inuit people, and Sámi people in particular have been negatively affected by colonial Dano-Norwegian rule in the Danish West Indies, Ghana, Greenland, and the Sápmi region in northern Norway. Anti-racist and anti-colonial activists believe that Denmark and other Nordic countries have a "colonial amnesia" that results in many Danish people believing that Denmark is free from racism and had little involvement in European colonialism.
The Right Stuff is a neo-Nazi and white nationalist blog and discussion forum and the host of several podcasts, including The Daily Shoah. Founded by American neo-Nazi Mike Enoch, the website promotes Holocaust denial, and coined the use of "echoes", an antisemitic marker that uses triple parentheses around names to identify Jewish people.
Islamophobia in Sweden refers to the set of discourses, behaviours and structures which express feelings of anxiety, fear, hostility and rejection towards Islam and/or Muslims in Sweden. Historically, attitudes towards Muslims in Sweden have been mixed with relations being largely negative in the early 16th century, improving in the 18th century, and declining once again with the rise of Swedish nationalism in the early 20th century. According to Jonas Otterbeck, a Swedish historian of religion, attitudes towards Islam and Muslims today have improved but "the level of prejudice was and is still high." Islamophobia can manifest itself through discrimination in the workforce, prejudiced coverage in the media, and violence against Muslims. The anti-immigration and anti-Islam Sweden Democrats is the second largest party in the Riksdag.
Racism in Iceland commonly targets immigrants, particularly non-white or non-Western immigrants. Iceland is a historically homogeneous society with little ethnic or racial diversity. Icelandic national identity is often racialized as a white identity, therefore non-white people are frequently otherized as non-Icelandic. Muslim and Jewish minorities in Iceland also experience Islamophobia and antisemitism. According to the Icelandic Human Rights Centre, "hidden" racism is common in Iceland despite violent or overt expressions of racism being uncommon.
The Goyim Defense League (GDL) is an American neo-Nazi, antisemitic hate group and conspiracy theory network of individuals who are active on social media websites and operate an online video platform called GoyimTV. The GDL also performs banner drops, papering neighborhoods with flyers, and other stunts to harass Jews. The GDL emerged in 2018 and is led by the antisemitic provocateur Jon Minadeo II. The GDL is currently tracked by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group.
Anti-antisemitism is opposition to antisemitism or prejudice against Jews, and just like the history of antisemitism, the history of anti-antisemitism is long and multifaceted. According to historian Omer Bartov, political controversies around antisemitism involve "those who see the world through an antisemitic prism, for whom everything that has gone wrong with the world, or with their personal lives, is the fault of the Jews; and those who see the world through an anti-antisemitic prism, for whom every critical observation of Jews as individuals or as a community, or, most crucially, of the state of Israel, is inherently antisemitic". It is disputed whether or not anti-antisemitism is synonymous with philosemitism, but anti-antisemitism often includes the "imaginary and symbolic idealization of ‘the Jew’" which is similar to philosemitism.
Racism in Norway commonly targets immigrants, Black people, Sámi people, Kven people, and Romani people. Jews and Muslims in Norway also experience antisemitism and Islamophobia. Norwegians, as citizens of Denmark–Norway, historically participated in the Danish slave trade as well as Danish overseas colonialism. Despite Norway's reputation for tolerance, Norwegian anti-racist activists believe that Norway has a "collective amnesia" regarding their country's history of racism and colonialism. Norwegianization policies were historically pursued by the Norwegian government to encourage the assimilation of ethnic minorities including the Sámi, Kvens, Forest Finns, and Norwegian Finns.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Seven out of ten reports of ethnic discrimination came from people with a Muslim background, and almost 40% of those questioned in the survey said they had witnessed verbal abuse directed at Muslims.