13-Apr-13: Political correctness in the service of burning Israel down

The town of Jönköping is Sweden's ninth-largest. Locals call it the Jerusalem of Sweden because of its many churches. Swedish Match Industries, a major company with a historical impact on global markets got started there, so it's small surprise to find this intro on the company's website:

The ability to make fire has always been vital to human life. 

Burning things is evidently on the minds of today's Jönköping townsfolk. A small business called Socialist Book Cafe, or Bokcafét i Jönköping in the local language (Svavelsticksgränd 7, Jönköping, Sweden, phone +46 36 12 56 70), operates on the premises of a cultural center owned and operated by the Jönköping municipality. It sells things besides coffee. Things that are connected with its long tradition of fire. Israel-focused things, like the t-shirt below.

This delightful peace-loving, liberal expression of
humane understanding is yours for the buying here

This is not your grandfather's Sweden. Old-time values of tolerance and open-mindedness are under serious challenge in today's Sweden.

Swedish mayor who opposes anti-Israel vitriol attacked | April 12, 2013 | (JTA) A Swedish mayor working to stop anti-Israel propaganda from being sold at a municipal cultural center was assaulted. Mats Green, mayor of Jonkoping, was lightly wounded in an attack April 7 outside his home when two men struck him and kicked him, the news site nyheter24 reported. Green, a politician from the center-right Moderate Party, said he could not identify his attackers. But local police suspect the background to the attack is Green’s efforts to prevent the sale of T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan “Burn, Israel, burn” at the Socialist Book Cafe, a shop operating inside a city-owned cultural center. The shirts sell for about $40. For three years, Green has argued that the shop undermines the city’s values and should move out. The matter will be brought to a vote by the city council on April 26. “It seems there is a majority for ending the cafe’s activity under city auspices, so right now the debate is escalating,” Green said. “It is important that such calls, to destroy a country and its people, not appear on municipal grounds. I don’t want our city to be associated with anti-Semitism in the same way that has happened in other cities in Sweden.” The Socialist Book Cafe did not reply to requests for comment.

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If you go to the Facebook page of this community-hosted cafe/bookstore, you will see post-liberal Swedish defensive gyrations on display like this one.

"I could see why it could be misinterpreted. I can assure you that the message is in no way meant that way, even though it might sound a bit harsh. I can assure you that Bokcafét does not stand for, or tolerate antisemitism, racism, nazism or any other type of oppresive views towards differemt ethnicities or religious groups in our society. In fact, Bokcafét in Jönköping is quite the opposite... The message on this shirt is purely one of disgust towards what many people, including me, consider a regime which oppresses people. Nothing more.  And like I said earlier in one of the posts. I would gladly put on a "burn Sweden burn" shirt, if I considered Sweden to be an equally horrifying regime. Or any other country for that matter. No one is trying to pick on the jewish people, only the state of Israel."

No need to speak Swedish to comprehend the terrorism-friendly message, the stunningly-intolerant comments made by useful idiots like the Jönköping burger above.

When they say Israel should be burned, why they mean it should not burn, of course. And when the mayor is beaten up by thugs outside his home, why this is nothing personal. It's just... It's... You know, because of a misunderstanding, he's oppressing people who simply want to buy t-shirts. What happened was all in the spirit of fun. And everyone knows about the oppression carried out daily by the State of Israel (not the people, heaven forbid, just the country).

Sweden is not actually worse in this respect than numerous other parts of Europe. A Stratfor Global Intelligence report was issued on this theme just a week ago. But it includes too many long words, difficult facts and maps to be of much interest to these liberal-minded Swedish t-shirt vendors.