Confusing just about everyone the current White House Resident made the following daft xenophobic claim:
You look at what's happening in Germany, you look at what's happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this. Sweden. They took in large numbers. They're having problems like they never thought possible.
That’s simply not true. Just like there was no “Bowling Green Massacre” as claimed by Kellyanne Conway and there was no “Atlanta attack” as claimed by Sean Spicer, or the “3-5 Million Illegal voters” and “thousands a phony voters bused to New Hampshire” as claimed by Stephen Miller there also wasn’t any Muslim refugee sponsored terror attack in Sweden last night. And even his explanatory tweet that this was based on a Fox News Report he’d seen he fails to realize, acknowledge and admit that the report was totally bogus.
These kinds of claims of rampant refugee rapists aren’t new, they’ve been circulating between the warp nacelles of the wingnutosphere for some time.
Journalist Ami Horowitz told Fox News people high up in the Swedish government are purposely covering up the prepretrators of rape crimes to protect "vulnerable" migrants.
During an explosive interview on Friday, Mr Horowitz claimed the refugee violence crisis was out-of-control but that "European virtues" had put a stop to any discussion on the statistics.
His claims sparked Donald Trump to tell a rally in Florida that migration in Europe was out of control.
Except that, of course, it’s wrong.
The problem, though, is that this “rape epidemic” is as fake as the Bowling Green Massacre.
Canadian reporter Doug Saunders rigorously investigated the narrative, and concluded that it “falls apart as soon as you speak to anyone knowledgeable in Sweden.” Official Swedish statistics do indeed show a high rate of rape, but that’s because Swedish law has an extremely expansive definition of what qualifies as rape under the law.
....These panics about immigration, instead, reflect a long history of sexual panics in the West about non-white immigrants. Etc.
And more as reported by Juan Cole.
Henrik Selin, political scientist and deputy director of the Swedish Institute, a state agency dedicated to promoting Sweden globally, said he was puzzled by Mr. Trump’s remarks.
“I do not have a clue what he was referring to,” he said in a telephone interview. “Obviously, this could be connected to the fact that there has been a lot of negative reporting about Sweden, since Sweden has taken in a lot of refugees.”
…
Mr. Selin said the news reports “ were highly exaggerated and not based in facts,” adding, “Some of the stories were very popular to spread in social media by people who have the same kind of agenda — that countries should not receive so many refugees.”
As for the cover-up alleged by Mr. Horowitz, Mr. Selin said: “That kind of claim has been in the political debate for 15 years now. But nobody has been able to prove there is a cover-up. On the contrary, the fact is that crime rates are going down.”
He added: “Swedish authorities have nothing to gain from hiding the truth. We are quite keen to ensure that the debate and the story about our country is fact-based and nuanced. We are more than happy to talk about the challenges our country faces as well as the things that are going well.”
This is bigoted bullshit, just like the false claim that Trump started his campaign with the “Mexicans are Rapists, [And] they bring crime.” But that doesn’t mean the xenophobes aren’t going to stop claiming it over and over again.
Contrary to their understanding, the US is a signatory the UN Convention on Refugee and it’s 1967 Protocol which requires us to treat legitimate refugees with the same rights and protections as citizens.
States are responsible for protecting the fundamental human rights of theircitizens. When they are unable or unwilling to do so – often for politicalreasons or based on discrimination – individuals may suffer such serious viola-tions of their human rights that they have to leave their homes, their familiesand their communities to find sanctuary in another country. Since, by defini-tion, refugees are not protected by their own governments, the internationalcommunity steps in to ensure they are safe and protected.
...
The realities of conflict, violence and persecution continue to cause displace-ment. Refugee protection remains urgently needed by those forced to leavetheir countries. The 1951 Convention and its 1967 Protocol are the only globallegal instruments explicitly covering the most important aspects of a refugee’slife. According to their provisions, refugees deserve, as a minimum, the same standards of treatment enjoyed by other foreign nationals in a given countryand, in many cases, the same treatment as nationals.
Trump’s false hysteria about “rampant crime and rape” is designed to grant him cover for ignoring and override the civil and human rights of innocent individual’s whom he would rather scapegoat and shun than embrace and protect. Even if there were a risk of increase crime and/or rape, that issue is secondary to our government and international responsibility since 1968 when the U.S. signed onto the Refugee Protocols to treat these people fairly and justly since that is exactly what they’ve been denied in their home country.
It’s pathetic, sad, paranoid propaganda. He should be ashamed, but of course, he isn’t.
Monday, Feb 20, 2017 · 4:38:16 PM +00:00 · Frank Vyan Walton
Swedish police interviewed by Horowitz claim he doctored their answers to fit his anti-Muslim theory.
Two Swedish police officers who were interviewed by Horowitz as part of his recent film on Muslim immigration in Sweden now say, however, that the filmmaker completely misconstrued their comments about crime in their country.
In an interview with Swedish publication DN.se, Anders Göranzon and Jacob Ekström described Horowitz as a “madman” who dishonestly edited their words to make it appear as though Sweden is being overwhelmed by a migrant crime wave.
“He has edited the answers,” Göranzon told the publication. “We were answering completely different questions in the interview. This is bad journalism.”
Horowitz interviewed the two officers while making a video report in which he claimed Muslim immigrants have forced Swedish law enforcement officials to designate some areas as “no-go zones” where they are too afraid to enter.
The officers, however, say that Horowitz simply asked them about the difficulties in policing high-crime areas — and that he never once asked them anything specifically about Muslim refugees.