Men and women, in a Swedish tradition, have swum together in public pools for over 100 years. Many people are now wondering if we will be forced to give up this practice — because young male asylum seekers have turned public swimming pools into ordeals of rape and sexual assault.

Mixed bathing in Sweden started in the small southern fishing village of Mölle. Around 1890, the “Sin of Mölle” gained notoriety. Men and women were swimming together! Out in the open and shamelessly flaunting their striped bathing attire. It was a sensation that echoed all over Europe, and people came from everywhere to partake in the exciting new activity. Danes poured in, and even the German Emperor Wilhelm II made his way to Mölle in July 1907.

It should come as surprise to no one that men from the Middle East and North Africa have quite a different view of women than Swedish men do. The only mystery is why Swedish politicians have got it in their heads that everyone who sets foot on Swedish soil will immediately embrace our values, our view of women and our traditions.

Now that it is finally beginning to dawn on them that many Afghan, Somali, Iraqi and Syrian men (the largest immigrant groups coming to Sweden now) think that women who run around scantily clad are fair game, the politicians are dumbfounded. Of course, they cannot admit that this — to Swedes — completely alien view of women has anything to do with Islam, because then they would become victims of their own claim that everyone who criticizes Islam is an “Islamophobe.”

For many years, it was possible to cover up the abuse, not least because the mainstream media chose to call the perpetrators “youth gangs,” and never mention that they were almost always immigrants from Muslim countries. In Malmö, one of the most immigrant-heavy cities in Sweden, and where Swedes have actually been a minority since 2013, the problems at public pools started at least 15 years ago.

In 2003, “youth gangs” were so disruptive to other guests at the indoor water park Aq-va-kul that on several occasions, the establishment was forced to close. Despite investing 750,000 kronor ($88,000) in taller entrance gates, a glass-enclosed reception desk, surveillance cameras, and an Arabic-speaking “pool host” to tackle the security problems, things just kept getting worse. In 2005, senior staff member Bertil Lindberg told the local daily newspaper, Sydsvenskan: “Things have escalated this year. Large gangs of 10-20 young people threaten and provoke other guests as well as the staff. They did not come here to swim; they are just looking for trouble.”

One of the problems is that young Muslim men refuse to take a shower before bathing, and keep their underwear on under their swim trunks. For obvious reasons, this is not allowed, and when the staff call out the violators on this, trouble and threats ensue. On several occasions, gangs have ambushed staff members on their way home from work, and the company was forced to hire guards to make sure employees get home in one piece. Events reached a climax in 2013, when youth gangs smashed the interior, threw objects in the water and threatened other patrons. Aq-va-kul was closed, and the pool was drained and cleaned of shattered glass. A few days later the pool was reopened, but it closed permanently to the public in 2015. Now the facility has been renovated, but is only open to competitive swimmers and swim clubs.

In Stockholm, the Husbybadet pool in the heavily-immigrant suburb of Husby was the first public pool hit by trouble. In 2007, it was reported that the municipality was forced to build a separate sewage treatment facility, costing millions of kronor. The reason was unusually high levels of nitrogen in the water, because many young people insisted on bathing with their dirty underwear on. The municipality property director told daily newspaper, Dagens Nyheter:

“Nitrogen is food for bacteria and a high nitrogen level produces malodorous air and filthy water. The nitrogen comes from urine and sweat. Quite simply, we have a problem with people keeping their dirty underwear on under their swim trunks. And then they get in the 38-degree [100-degree Fahrenheit] water in the hot tub. It is like sitting in your washing machine’s delicates cycle, and we use that water all the time. People should have swimwear on, not bathe in their regular clothes.”

The attitude towards nudity in Scandinavia is very different from that in the Middle East. Sweden has many nude beaches, where men and women swim together without a stitch of clothing, without the slightest hint of sexual harassment. In the gender-separated changing rooms at public pools, there is no sign of shyness. Swedish men and women see it as a matter of course to shower and wash properly before getting in the pool, and a couple of decades ago stern overseers even patrolled the changing rooms to check the patrons’ shower habits.

In Muslim countries, nudity is an extremely private thing, and one does not willingly take showers with others, not even with members of the same sex. All the public pool personnel with whom Gatestone has spoken confirm that Muslim men and women shower with their underwear on, and then keep them on under their swimwear. Many Muslim women bathe in a so-called burkini, a garment that covers the entire body, so when Muslim men see Swedish women in a bikini, many of them conclude that they must be “easy” women whom one is “allowed” to grope.

In 2015, when roughly 163,000 asylum seekers came to Sweden, the problems at public pools increased exponentially. More than 35,000 young people, so-called “unaccompanied refugee children,” arrived — 93% of whom are male and claim to be 16-17 years old. To prevent complete idleness, many municipalities give them free entrance to the public pools.

During the past few months, the number of reports of sexual assaults and harassment against women at public pools has been overwhelming. Most of the “children” are from Afghanistan, widely considered among the most dangerous places in the world for women. When the daily Aftonbladet visited the country in 2013, 61-year-old Fatima told the paper what it is like to be a woman in Afghanistan: “What happens if we do not obey? Well, our husbands or sons beat us of course. We are their slaves.”

To expect men from a culture that views women as men’s slaves to behave like Swedish men is not just stupid — it is dangerous. Mr. Azizi, the manager of a large hotel in Kabul, told Gatestone how an average Afghan man sees sexual attacks on women:

“What the Afghans are doing is not wrong in Afghanistan, so your rules are completely alien to them. Women stay at home in Afghanistan, and if they need to go out they are always accompanied by a man. If you want to stop Afghans from molesting Swedish girls, you need to be tough on them. Making them take classes on equality and how to treat women is pointless. The first time they behave badly, they should be given a warning, and the second time you should deport them from Sweden.”

One of the first reported incidents occurred in 2005, when a 17-year-old girl was raped at Husbybadet, in Stockholm. The 16-year-old perpetrator started groping her in the hot tub, and when the girl moved to a cave with streaming water, he and his friend followed her. They forced the girl into a corner, and while the friend held her down, the 16-year-old pulled off the girl’s bikini and raped her. During the trial, it emerged that some 30 people had witnessed the attack, but the teenagers continued the rape anyway.

The 16-year-old rapist was sentenced to three months in juvenile detention and his friend was acquitted. The victim was badly traumatized and had to be treated in a psychiatric care facility, after several failed suicide attempts.

Since then, virtually all public pools in Sweden have become dangerous places, especially to women. During the first two months of this year, reports of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment came in rapid succession. A few examples:

In Stockholm, during the first week of January, Sweden’s national swimming arena, Eriksdalsbadet, decided to separate men and women in the hot tubs. A controversial decision in Sweden, it came after several incidents in the pools had been reported to the police, mainly in November and December 2015. Conservative Anna König Jerlmyr (moderaterna), Stockholm city Commissioner in Opposition, did not believe that separating men and women was the right way to address the problems: “It is totally unacceptable for a public swimming pool to act this way. This is tantamount to giving in to the sexual harassment and sending signals in favor of a view of women that is utterly reprehensible. More staff, and banning offenders from the premises, would have been preferable,” she told the daily, Dagens Nyheter.

Olof Öhman, head of the Sports Administration in Stockholm, told the paper: “There are similar problems at all the public pools in Stockholm, even if most complaints regard Eriksdalsbadet.”

On January 14, officials at the Rosenlundsbadet water park in Jönköping reported that they would increase security. According to Operations Manager Gunnel Eriksson, the decision was mainly due to the behavior of a new group of bathers — unaccompanied refugee boys: “You can tell from their behavior that they come from a different culture; there is a cultural clash. We can see that they react to the undressed bit.” The heightened security is also necessary because many of the young migrant men cannot swim, overestimate their abilities, and end up in dangerous situations.

On January 15, a local paper, Kungälvsposten, wrote that two girls had been sexually assaulted in an elevator at the Oasen public pool Oasen, in Kungälv. The two suspected perpetrators are “unaccompanied refugee children.” Jonas Arngården, Municipal Director of Social Affairs, told the paper: “This shows that we need to step up the work concerning issues of equality and interaction among our new arrivals, in schools as well as at the asylum houses.”

The attack caused members of the Nordic Resistance Movement (Nordiska motståndsrörelsen), a supposed neo-Nazi organization, to show up at Oasen on February 13. They put on green shirts with the word “Security Host” (Trygghetsvärd) printed on the back, and “patrolled” the facility.

The municipality had not reacted strongly to the sexual assault, but the visit by vigilantes scared the municipal management, and it immediately called the Oasen management to a meeting. Mayor Miguel Odhner told the daily, Expressen/GT: “It is completely unacceptable to have some kind of disguised vigilantes at municipal pools. It is very, very serious that we have violent extremism vying for greater foothold in our municipality.”

The Eriksdalsbadet national swimming arena in Stockholm (left) has become infamous for the many incidents of migrants sexually assaulting women and children at the facility. At the Oasen pool in Kungälv (right), two girls were recently sexually assaulted by “unaccompanied refugee children.” In response, members of the “Nordic Resistance Movement” showed up, wearing shirts bearing the label “Security Host” (Trygghetsvärd), and “patrolled” the facility.

On January 18, the management of the Fyrishov public pool, in Uppsala, revealed that in 2015, it there were seven reported cases of child molestation at the facility. According to Fyrishov, the suspected offenders are all newly-arrived migrants — teenage boys who do not speak Swedish. The facility increased security in August, hiring guards and giving the staff stricter monitoring instructions.

On January 21, there were reports that the number of sexual assaults had increased dramatically at the Aquanova adventure pool in Borlänge. In 2014, one case was reported; in 2015, about 20 cases were reported. The incidents involved women having their bikinis ripped off, being groped in the water slide and sexually assaulted in the restrooms. Ulla-Karin Solum, the CEO of Aquanova, told the public broadcaster Sveriges Television that many incidents “are due to cultural clashes.”

Aquanova Staff member Anette Nohrén confirmed that all the suspects are born abroad, and complained that “it is a huge problem. It steals the focus from our primary task, which is safety concerns, when we are constantly forced to intervene to try and prevent assaults, and afterwards, to try and figure out what happened.”

Aquanova now implemented new rules; among them, that young men from asylum houses need to have a responsible adult accompanying them — one adult for every three underage asylum seekers. The adult needs to stay with them in the changing room as well as in the pool area.

On January 25, the daily newspaper Expressen revealed that a girl was raped at the now infamous Eriksdalsbadet swimming arena at the beginning of the month. The police will now increase their presence at the facility, and will patrol inside regularly.

On January 26, there were reports that a woman and two girls had recently been sexually assaulted by a group of young men who spoke neither Swedish nor English, at the Storsjöbadet pool in Östersund. Despite the incident, the young men were not removed from the premises — a lapse the staff later admitted was a mistake.

On January 27, Växjö municipality announced that it plans to hire a security guard to patrol the local public pool. After two 11-year-old girls were sexually assaulted by a group of boys. The boys attacked the girls in an area hidden from the view of lifeguards. Mikael Linnander, father of one of the girls, told the daily, Kvällsposten: “Seven or eight guys attacked the girls. Two of them touched them between their legs and groped their breasts.” The abuse did not stop until a woman swimming with her children reprimanded the boys. After the incident, the two boys were barred from the adventure pool area, but were allowed to stay at the facility.

On February 1, local media reported that at least five girls and women had been sexually assaulted at a public pool in Vänersborg during the previous few weeks. The victims were girls under 15, as well as women in their thirties. The police said they had no suspects, but stated that the case had high priority.

On February 25, another sexual assault was reported at the Eriksdalsbadet swimming arena in Stockholm. Police spokesman Johan Renberg told Expressen that a group of girls had found themselves surrounded by some 10 young men who tried to grope them. A staff member saw what was happening and called the police. The girls were able to identify the young men, whose ethnicity the paper did not report. The men were not arrested, but will be questioned at a later time.

Given the recent wave of sexual assaults at public pools, it is something of a mystery why the recently-opened Hylliebadet family adventure pool in multicultural Malmö has not reported any sexual assaults at all. Hylliebadet, which cost 349 million kronor (about $41 million) to build, had a chaotic opening week in August 2015. After only a few days, 27 “incidents” had been reported, but none involved sexual assaults.

“No, I have never heard of anything like that happening here,” a Hylliebadet employee told Gatestone. However, when we spoke to other staff members off the record, they told us they had been given strict instructions not to report certain things, and above all, never to mention the ethnicity or religion of those who cause problems at the pool. Another employee told Gatestone:

“Of course we have had incidents here, particularly involving Afghan men groping girls. Not long ago, a man of Arab descent was caught masturbating in the hot tub. But we are not allowed to report things like that. These men understand that it is forbidden when we tell them, but they keep doing it anyway. They just smile and keep on doing it.”

It seems unlikely that Swedish politicians will start deporting sex offenders. The politicians seem convinced that some education on “equality” will change the ways of men, who, since childhood, have been taught that it is the responsibility of women not to arouse them — and therefore the woman’s fault if the man feels like raping her. Such a shift in attitude seems as likely as if a Swede visiting Saudi Arabia would suddenly renounce alcohol just because it is forbidden there. The Swede would follow the rules as long as somebody was watching, and then take every opportunity to drink his schnapps, because it is a thousand-year-old Swedish tradition, and something most Swedes feel is agreeable as well as just.

Another public pool employee told Gatestone that the refugee boys frighten away ordinary patrons and that more and more Swedes are now avoiding public pools altogether.

“Even Swedes who have bought expensive season tickets stay away now, because they think the mood is unsettling. Considering that they young asylum seekers get their entrance fee paid by the municipalities, one could rightfully say that tax money is being used to drive away those who would pay.”

Ingrid Carlqvist is a journalist and author based in Sweden, and a Distinguished Senior Fellow of Gatestone Institute.

May 4: The terrorist who turned out not to be a terrorist, but was chased by the police all over Sweden in November 2015, Mutar Muthanna Majid, demanded 1 million kronor (about $110,000) in damages from the Swedish government. However, the Chancellor of Justice decided that the standard sum for those wrongly incarcerated was enough compensation. Majid was held in custody for four days, which means he gets 12,000 kronor ($1,300).

May 4: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to the defense of Sweden’s Muslim Minister of Housing Mehmet Kaplan, who was forced to resign after his connections to Islamists and neo-Fascists were revealed, as was his defamatory comparison of Israel to Nazi Germany. According to Erdogan, however, the forced resignation of Kaplan was symptomatic for how Muslims are treated in the West: “Just look at what Sweden has done to a Muslim who reached a position in Cabinet,” Erdogan indignantly said.

May 4: It is now up to Sweden’s Supreme Court to decide if an Algerian, Karim Ageri, should be deported from Sweden after knifing a 16-year-old girl because she refused to have sex with him. November 10, 2015, two teenage Swedish girls visited an asylum house for “unaccompanied refugee children” in the Stockholm metropolitan area. Karim Ageri, who claimed to be 16 years old, groped one of the girls, who climbed out a window to get away from him. Ageri then followed her, and slashed her face twice with a knife. The prosecutor in the case argued that Ageri is at least 21 years old, and should therefore be tried as an adult and, after serving his sentence, deported. However, the Municipal Court did not agree, and sentenced the Algerian to juvenile detention. The Court of Appeals increased the sentence to 18 months in prison, followed by deportation. Prosecutor My Hedström says she is now looking forward to having the case tried by the Supreme Court, to get a precedent on how “refugee children” who commit serious crimes should be handled legally.

May 4: The National Board of Health and Welfare reported that the large number of asylum seekers who arrived in Sweden in 2015 has put a huge strain on Swedish healthcare services, especially primary care, dental care and psychiatry. Language barriers, combined with a shortage of interpreters, exacerbates the problem. Many asylum seekers have bad teeth, and 20-30% are thought to have psychiatric problems. Increased pressure on the health service has led to a shortage of hospital beds, limited availability and longer waits.

May 5: Five “unaccompanied refugee children” suspected of gross sexual coercion were apprehended, and remanded into custody. The suspects, who claim to be in their mid-teens, allegedly assaulted a young man at the asylum house where all of them were staying. The crime was initially classified as rape, but later changed to gross sexual coercion, aggravated assault and unlawful threats.

May 5: Khalid Salim Tarabeih, 20, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for child rape. According to the indictment, Tarabeih promised to buy alcohol for a 14-year-old girl, but once they were alone in a wooded area, he demanded sex in return. He told the girl he had served time for violent crimes, which scared her to the point of not daring to resist him as he raped her. Since Tarabeih is a Swedish citizen, he cannot be deported.

May 8: The Swedish media almost never reports on the violence and misogyny in immigrant-heavy areas of Sweden, but the Norwegian television channel NRK aired a story on the infamous Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby, and showed how their own reporters had been attacked there. In the segment, a police officer talked about how the police are losing control of the Swedish “no-go zones,” a point that was proven by Norwegian journalists being attacked and subjected to stone throwing.

May 9: An Iraqi citizen, Hosar Mahmood, 22, has once again been convicted of rape — this time of a hospitalized woman. In 2013, he broke into an apartment, severely beat its owner, and then raped his teenage daughter. That time, Mahmood was sentenced to four years in prison for aggravated rape — but was freed after serving two-thirds of the time, as is the legal practice in Sweden. This time, the sentence was more lenient — two years and two months. He will not be deported because, the court said, he was granted permanent residency status prior to the age of 15.

May 9: The fear that Sweden is being Islamized was evident when the news broke that a new mosque is planned in Halmstad. The municipality received many angry e-mails, such as:

• “Building mosques in Sweden means you are welcoming the murderers into your own nation.”
• “Armed Muslims will gather in the mosques.”
• “People will ignore the weapon laws and arm themselves if you do not stop the Muslim invasion.”

A representative of the Muslim group that wants to build the mosque told Swedish public radio: “There are many Muslims in Halmstad, and I think it is only fair they should have a mosque to go to”.

May 9: A report from the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning concluded that there is a shortage of housing in four out of five Swedish municipalities. Young people and the elderly are the worst off. The reason is the rapid population growth due to third-world asylum immigration, which is expected to continue and aggravate the problem.

May 9: A mother of three from the village of Höör opened up her home to two “unaccompanied refugee children”, and let them move into her 10-year-old daughter’s room. One of the men, Isak Andai from Eritrea, who claims he is 15 years old, then snuck into the daughter’s bed one night and started molesting her. Andai, who is believed to be significantly older than 15, was sentenced to juvenile detention and will not be deported.

May 9: A 25-year-old asylum seeker from the Congo, was remanded into custody, suspected of setting a waste bin on fire in the cottage where he was staying in Pite havsbad. The fire was extinguished, but according to the prosecution there was a great risk of it spreading. Pite havsbad is one of Europe’s largest seaside resorts, nicknamed “The Swedish Riviera.” In January 2016, its owner made a deal with the Immigration Service to house 1,000-2,000 asylum seekers, mainly in the winter months.

May 11: One of the many “unaccompanied refugee children” who have lately amused themselves by sexually attacking others at public swimming pools, was found guilty of sexually molesting three girls, aged 8-10, at a pool in Överkalix. The man, who claims he is 16 years old, was sentenced to 35 hours of community service and 16,000 kronor (about $1,800) in damages.

May 11: Södertörn Municipal Court recently sentenced a Syrian man to five years in prison, followed by deportation, for aggravated battery in Syria in 2012 and crimes against international law. Among the evidence against him was a film, where he could be seen severely beating a tied-up man. The verdict was appealed to the Court of Appeals. Once there, however, the victim emerged and said he wanted to testify, and the case was sent back to the lower court for a new trial. According to the victim, the perpetrator and he belonged to the same rebel group, and the reason for the abuse was a conflict between the men. The Municipal Court therefore rejected the charges on the crimes against international law, and convicted the Syrian only of aggravated battery. Still, the victim’s description of how he was bound and tortured for days led the court to sharpen the sentence to seven years imprisonment, deportation and damages of 268,000 kronor ($30,000).

May 13: Sweden and Morocco signed an agreement regarding the many Moroccan street children who roam the streets of Stockholm and Gothenburg — they are to be deported back to their homeland. Negotiations have been ongoing for quite some time, but did not move forward until Sweden a few months ago abruptly abandoned its plans to recognize the independent Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in Western Sahara, a region occupied by Morocco. Interior Minister Anders Ygeman, who has been responsible for the negotiations, denies that this decision had any influence on Morocco’s newfound desire to welcome back its young citizens.

May 14: Two robbers dressed in black burqas targeted a phone shop in the Stockholm suburb of Nacka, forcing the staff to hand over cell phones worth about 500,000 kronor ($55,000). The police released surveillance film from the robbery, which was not much help in identifying the robbers, as they were completely covered by the burqas.

May 16: The Stockholm District Court convicted another “Swede” of genocide in Rwanda. The 61-year-old man, now a Swedish citizen, claimed he was innocent of the charges and that the evidence against him had been fabricated. The indictment concerned five different massacres, in which around 800,000 people were murdered. The man was sentenced to life in prison. In 2013, another Rwandan, Stanislas Mbanenande, who had claimed to be a refugee but was also was sentenced to life in prison for a similar crime, was able to become a Swedish citizen.

May 16: An Eritrean man was arrested, suspected of committing a rape in a restaurant in central Stockholm. The man had previously been suspected of assaulting a woman at an Eritrean party. Those charges, however, were dropped when it became clear that it was actually the woman who had assaulted the man, injuring them both.

May 16: Green Party representative Yasri Khan, now known for refusing to shake a female television reporter’s hand, turned out to have close connections to the Islamic terror group Pulo in Thailand. Khan’s father, Samsudine Khan, also a resident of Sweden, is vice chairman for the group, which has carried out bombings and shootings against civilians and other targets deemed “legitimate.” After 13 people were killed by a bomb in March 2013, Yasri Khan commented on the deed in the Bangkok Post. He warned that the violence would continue unless the government solved the “root problems” that have created the separatist movements.

May 16: Two Roma were remanded into custody for 60 cases of theft against the elderly. The men would call senior citizens on the phone, and introduce themselves as craftsmen sent to check something in the residence. Once inside, one of the men would distract the victim, while the other would steal money and valuables. Those hesitant to let the Roma in would be threatened with hefty “fines” of several thousand kronor. The crimes were committed in a number of different cities; the Malmö police put considerable resources into tracking down the men.

May 17: A 30-year-old Arab asylum seeker was convicted of battery after flogging his wife with a belt in front of their six-year-old son. The abuse took place at an asylum house on the island of Öland, and was stopped when the staff intervened. The man was sentenced to 100 hours of community service.

May 17: Osbecksgymnasiet high school in Laholm was forced to hire extra staff to protect female students from daily inappropriate sexual advances. In a letter to the school, the girls’ parents wrote that “there is catcalling, shouting and screaming in other languages, and photographs being stealthily taken.”

Hosar Mahmood (left), 22, was convicted in May of raping a hospitalized woman, and sentenced to two years and two months. He previously served a short prison sentence for another crime in 2013, when he broke into an apartment, severely beat its owner, and then raped his teenage daughter. Right: Osbecksgymnasiet high school in Laholm was forced to hire extra staff to protect female students from daily inappropriate sexual advances, mainly by immigrant students.

May 18: The police released a report — “The current situation regarding sexual assault and proposals for action” (“Lägesbild över sexuella ofredanden samt förslag till åtgärder“), which noted that Sweden is at the top of the EU’s statistics on physical and sexual violence against women, sexual harassment and stalking. The report stated unequivocally that it is “asylum-seeker boys” and “foreign men” who commit the vast majority of the reported crimes. As far as the widespread sexual assaults at public pools are concerned, the police said that in four out of five cases, the perpetrators have been “unaccompanied refugee children”. However, in an appendix to the report, alternative theories blaming “the Nordic alcohol culture” and Sweden’s “non-traditional gender roles” are set forth.

May 18: The LLT public transport company in Luleå announced that it will be teaching classes for newly arrived migrants — on the art of riding a bus. The idea came about after some 20 Afghan “unaccompanied refugee children” ended up having a heated argument with a Somali bus driver. In other parts of Sweden, courses exist on how to take out the garbage, how to use a light switch, unlock the front door, and so on. The bus class will teach the new arrivals what bus passes and bus stops are, how they work, and other useful things.

May 18: Two brothers were sentenced respectively to three, and three-and-a-half, years in prison — as well as deportation — for people-smuggling. The brothers apparently transported five disabled people from Bulgaria to Sweden, forced them to beg on the street for up to twelve hours a day, and then took their money. During a period of five months, the brothers made at least 300,000 kronor ($33,000) from the beggars.

May 18: A study released by the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brottsförebyggande rådet, BRÅ) showed that only one in five foreign nationals convicted of rape are sentenced to deportation. The reason given is that they are registered residents and thus thought to have a connection to Sweden. The study does not mention how the victims feel about that.

May 19: Another gang rape, this time of a minor girl, was revealed in Växjö. Four teenagers of non-Western descent were arrested for raping the girl sometime during the weekend May 7-8. No other details were given.

May 20: Four of the many Moroccan street children staying illegally in Sweden committed a particularly brutal robbery against an 87-year-old woman. The four broke into the woman’s house, held her in a stranglehold until she passed out, hitting her head hard as she fell. They then ripped rings from her fingers, severely bruising her in the process. The young men were caught and subsequently convicted, thanks to surveillance footage from a nearby subway station which tied them to the scene. One man was sentenced to five years in prison and deportation, another to juvenile detention for a year and four months. The other two claimed to be under 15, and therefore could not be tried.

May 21: A survey by the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) suggested that as many as 38,000 women in Sweden may have been subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM). Yet health care services rarely help women with the complications associated with FGM. Hayat Bihi from Somalia told the Swedish public radio, Sveriges Radio:

“When I had my health examination, no one asked me if I had been subjected to genital mutilation. It reminds me somewhat of Somalia, where nobody asks or cares about women’s health. I would wish all girls and women were asked about this.”

May 23: Youssaf Khaliif, the Somali “unaccompanied refugee child” who stabbed to death a young social worker, Alexandra Mezher, on January 25, was indicted. Ms. Mezher was working alone at the asylum house for unaccompanied children where Khaliif lived at the time of the murder. According to the prosecution, he stabbed her three times with a knife — in the back, thigh and hand. The stab in the thigh severed an artery, which caused Ms. Mezher to bleed to death before the ambulance could arrive. Youssaf Khaliif still claims he is 15 years old, but according to age tests ordered by prosecutor Linda Wiking, he is at least 18, and will therefore stand trial as an adult.

May 23: A group of Arab men who are asylum seekers have, according to witnesses, systematically sexually assaulted women traveling on a late-night bus in Umeå. One witness claims that the police initially refused to file a report on the matter, but after a large number of people complained, the police are now working actively to restore order on the buses.

May 24: A 24-year-old Palestinian, Omar Ali Abdalsalam was sentenced to life in prison and deportation for strangling his girlfriend to death in a park in Oskarshamn, in December 2015. Abdalsalam, who had previous convictions for violence against women with whom he had relationships, admitted that he had been violent to his girlfriend, but denied any intent to kill. He was also sentenced to pay damages of 350,000 kronor ($39,000) to the woman’s family.

May 24: Police officer Hanif Azizi told the daily Metro that stone throwing against police has more or less become an everyday occurrence:

“This weekend I was out working with my colleagues. On three occasions, we were subjected to stone throwing. On Friday we got a call to go to central Rinkeby, where the emergency service was trying to put out a car on fire. When the police arrived, we had stones thrown at us at two separate times.”

In Landskrona, individual police officers and the police station have received so many serious threats that the police have applied for permission to have closed-circuit television installed at the police station.

May 25: The Swedish Labor Court sentenced an Arab, Samy Makram Buchra Tawadrous, to pay 50,000 kronor ($5,500) in damages to a 19-year-old woman, who was made to sit on his lap while negotiating her salary. The woman was reluctant, but her boss insisted. He then wanted hugs and kisses, and promised to make sure that she got a raise. After the incident, the woman was afraid to go back to work, and reported her boss to the Labor Court. The man admitted what had happened, but did not feel he had done anything wrong.

May 25: Abo Raad, imam of the Gävle mosque, which is known for its hate speech and close connections to terrorists, was invited to a seminar in the Swedish Parliament. The seminar was organized by the parliamentary intergroup network against discrimination and honor violence. Parliamentarian Jonas Lundgren defended Raad’s involvement: “We invited him because, unfortunately, he is a person with certain sway over Muslims in Sweden. Also, he is a very controversial person, to say the least.”

May 26: Khurshed Karimov, a 26-year-old Muslim immigrant from Tajikistan, was indicted for the murder of his boss. According to the indictment, Karimov admitted to stabbing his employer 60 times allegedly for being an “Islamophobe.” The murderer lived in a trailer on his employer’s property, and helped him with a wide range of chores. Karimov told the police that he was in the house on January 27, when he heard his boss utter the words “f**king Muslim” and “f**king idiot,” and saying that he was going to “f**k Muslims.” After the murder, Karimov scribbled messages on the walls — “Allahu Akbar,” “France,” and “Charlie,” the latter an apparent reference to the terror attack against the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris in 2015.

May 27: After a quick investigation, the government decided that newly arrived migrant children will be allowed to bypass the waiting lists for independent schools. This rule will be even more strictly imposed on schools with a large number of applicants, and means that Swedish children who have waited for a long time will be bypassed. Mattias Karlsson, group leader for the Sweden Democrats in the Parliament, raged against the idea:

“This says something of the state of the nation, when the responsible minister actually brags about being efficient when it comes to working out a law that discriminates against the country’s own citizens in relation to non-citizens, and when the so-called right-wing ‘opposition’ says they are happy with this. Everyone should resign!”

May 31: The Immigration Service warned that there might be some turmoil in asylum houses when the law changes on June 1. From that date, migrants who have had their asylum applications rejected will no longer be allowed free housing, nor receive any allowances. At present, this applies to 1,700 people.

May 31: The Swedish public television station Sveriges Television aired a story on the living conditions for women at asylum houses. Women only make up about a third of the residents in the country’s asylum houses; the women interviewed talked about widespread sexual abuse. One woman said: “I am afraid, and when I wake up in the morning, my heart beats so fast. I go outside, but it feels as if everyone is watching me. Eyes staring at me up and down.”

May 31: A Swedish father was told that he and his two children are being thrown out of the house they are renting from the municipality — to make room for an immigrant family. The father, Uffe Rustan, told the local paper, Mitti: “It feels as if I am worth less, even though I pay taxes and my children go to school here. If only it had been a day care center moving in or something, but you cannot put one family on the street for the benefit of another family.”

Ingrid Carlqvist is a journalist and author based in Sweden, and a Distinguished Senior Fellow of Gatestone Institute.

In Sweden’s last census in which citizens were asked about their religious beliefs, in 1930, fifteen people said that they were Muslims. Since 1975, when Sweden started its transformation from a homogenous, Swedish country into a multicultural and multi-religious one, the number of Muslims has exploded. Now, approximately one million Muslims live here — Sunni, Shia and Ahmadiyya from all the corners of the world — and Mosques are built and planned all over the country.

No one, however, seems to have asked the crucial question upon which Sweden’s future depends: Is Islam compatible with democracy?

The Swedish establishment has not grasped that Islam is more than a private religion, and therefore it dismisses all questions about Islam with the argument that Sweden has freedom of religion.

Two facts point to Islam not being compatible with democracy. First, there is no country where Islam is dominant that can be considered a democracy with freedom of speech and equal justice under law. Some point to Malaysia and Indonesia — two countries where flogging and other corporal punishments are meted out, for example, to women showing too much hair or skin, as well as to anyone who makes fun of, questions or criticizes Islam. Others point to Turkey as an example of an “Islamic democracy” — a country which routinely imprisons journalists, political dissidents and random people thought to have “offended” President Erdogan, “Islam” or “the nation.”

Second, Muslims in Europe vote collectively. In France, 93% of Muslims voted for the current president, François Hollande, in 2012. In Sweden, the Social Democrats reported that 75% of Swedish Muslims voted for them in the general election of 2006; and studies show that the “red-green” bloc gets 80-90% of the Muslim vote.

It is no secret that democracy can be used to abolish democracy — yet, this crucial issue is completely taboo in Sweden. Politicians, authorities and journalists all see Islam as just another religion. They seem to have no clue that Islam is also a political ideology, a justice system (sharia) and a specific culture that has rules for virtually everything in a person’s life: how to dress; who your friends should be; which foot should go first when you enter the bathroom. Granted, not all Muslims follow all these rules, but that does not change the fact that Islam aspires to control every aspect of human life — the very definition of a totalitarian ideology.

While the establishment closes its eyes to the problems that come with a rapidly growing Muslim population in Sweden, ordinary Swedes seem to be growing increasingly upset. Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, however, appears to be at a complete loss as to why this is. He recently told the British newspaper, Financial Times:

“But the more surreal thing is that all the numbers are going in the right direction, but the picture the public have is that the country is now going in the wrong direction. It’s not only a question about if they are afraid of the refugee crisis; it’s as if everything is going in the wrong direction.”

This comment says a lot about how disconnected Prime Minister Löfven is from the reality that ordinary Swedes are facing. The mainstream media withhold information about most of the violence that goes on in, and around, the asylum houses in the country, and it is not very likely that Stefan Löfven reads the alternative media sites; he and others in power have, in unison, dubbed them “hate sites.” He obviously has no idea about the anger and despair many Swedes are now feeling. It may have finally begun to dawn on them that Swedish Sweden will soon be lost forever, and in many areas replaced by a Middle Eastern state of affairs where different immigrant groups (mainly Muslims) make war on each other as well as on the Swedes.

While the establishment closes its eyes to the problems that come with a rapidly growing Muslim population in Sweden, ordinary Swedes seem to be growing increasingly upset. Prime Minister Stefan Löfven (right), however, appears to be at a complete loss as to why this is. Pictured at left: The results of rioting in a Stockholm suburb, December 2014.

The people suffering most cruelly in the “New Sweden” are the elderly. The costs of immigration borne by the welfare state have led to a quarter of a million retirees living below the EU poverty line. Meanwhile, the government recently added another 30 billion kronor (about $3.6 billion) to the migration budget. The 70 billion kronor ($8.4 billion) Sweden will spend on asylum seekers in 2016 is more than what the entire police force and justice system cost, more than national defense costs, and twice the amount of child benefits.

Sweden’s 9.5 million residents are thus forced to spend 70 billion kronor on letting citizens of other countries come in. In comparison, the United States, with its 320 million residents, spent $1.56 billion on refugees in 2015. The editorial columnist PM Nilsson commented in the business paper, Dagens Industri:

“To understand the scope of the increase in spending, a historic look back can be worthwhile. When the right bloc came to power in 2006, the cost was 8 billion [kronor] a year. In 2014, it had gone up to 24 billion. That summer, then Minister of Finance Anders Borg talked about the increase being the most dramatic shift in the state budget he had ever seen. The year after, 2015, the cost rose to 35 billion, and in 2016, it is projected to rise to 70 billion.”

For many years, the politicians managed to fool the Swedish people into thinking that even if immigration presented an initial cost, the immigrants would soon enable the country to turn a profit. Now, more and more research indicates that the asylum seeker immigrants rarely or never find work. The daily newspaper Sydsvenskan reported in February, for example, that 64% of Malmö’s immigrants are still unemployed after living in Sweden for ten years. The government openly calculates in its budget that in four years, 980,000 people will be living on either sickness benefits, disability pensions, unemployment benefits, “introduction benefits” or social welfare.

Swedes, who for many years have paid the highest taxes in the world without whining, are now taking to social media to express their anger that their money is going to citizens of other countries. More and more Swedes are choosing to emigrate from Sweden, mainly to the other Nordic countries, but also to Spain, Portugal and Great Britain, where taxes on pensions are considerably less.

But there are worse problems than the economic aspect. A sense of insecurity and fear has gripped the many Swedes who live close to asylum houses. On some level, the government seems to have grasped that danger: in a recent decision to continue maintaining border controls, Interior Minister Anders Ygeman wrote:

“The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (Myndigheten för samhällsskydd och beredskap), MSB, makes the assessment that the flow of migrants still brings challenges to upholding security in society, when it comes to the ability to maintain certain important public functions, among other things. Several of these challenges are expected to persist over time. The Police Authority’s assessment is still that a serious threat to public order and internal security exists. The Immigration Service still advocates border controls.”

Despite these ominous words, politicians still do not seem to understand that many Swedes are already experiencing “a serious threat to public order and internal security.” New asylum houses are opening at an alarming pace, against the will of the people living near them. In the Stockholm suburb of Spånga-Tensta, on April 15, local authorities held a public meeting, the purpose of which was to allow local residents to ask the politicians and officials questions about planned housing for 600 migrants — next to a school. The meeting, which was filmed, showed a riotous mood among those gathered there, many shouting that they were going to fight “until their last breath” to keep the plans from materializing.

Some of the comments and questions were:

• “We have seen how many problems there have been at other asylum houses – stabbings, rapes and harassment. How can you guarantee the safety for us citizens? This is going to create a sense of us against them, it’s going to create hate! Why these large houses, why not small ones with ten people in each? Why haven’t you asked us, the people who live here, if we want this? How will you make this safe for us?”
• “We already have problems at the existing asylum houses. It’s irresponsible of you to create a situation where we put our own and our children’s health in jeopardy, with people who are not feeling well and are in the wrong environment. Why is this house right next to a school? What is your analysis?”
• “Will Swedes be allowed to live in these houses? Our young people have nowhere to live. You politicians should solve the housing issue for the people already living here, not for all the people in the world.”

When the chairman of the meeting, Green Party representative Awad Hersi, of Somali descent, thanked the audience for the questions without giving any answers, the mood approached that of a lynch mob. People shouted: “Answer! Answer our questions! We demand answers!”

Everything points to the so far docile Swedes now having had enough of the irresponsible immigration policy that has been going on for many years, under socialist and conservative governments alike.

People are furious at the wave of rapes that have given Sweden the second-highest rate of rape in the world, after only Lesotho, and that recently forced the Östersund police to issue a warning to women and girls not to go outside alone after dark. People are scared: the number of murders and manslaughters has soared. During the first three months of this year alone, there have been 40 murders and 57 attempted murders, according to statistics compiled by the journalist Elisabeth Höglund.

The authorities have long claimed that lethal violence in Sweden is on the decline, but that is compared to a record-breaking year, 1989, when mass immigration to Sweden was already in full swing. If one instead were to compare the present to the 1950s and 1960s, when Sweden was still a homogenous country, the number of murders and manslaughters has doubled. Recently, the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brottsförebyggande rådet), BRÅ, had to admit that lethal violence did, in fact, increase in 2015, when 112 people were killed — 25 more than the year before. It was also revealed that the kind of lethal violence that has gone down was run-of-the-mill drunken homicides committed by Swedes, while the number of gangster-style hits carried out by immigrants has gone up dramatically. Improved trauma care for wounded victims also helps keep the number of murders and manslaughters down.

A recent poll showed that 53% of Swedes now think immigration is the most important issue facing the country. The change from 2015 is dramatic — last year, only 27% said that immigration was most important. Another poll showed that 70% of Swedes feel that the amount of immigration to Sweden is too high. This is the fourth year in a row that skepticism about the magnitude of immigration has increased.

More and more people also seem to worry about the future of Sweden as a democracy with an increasing number of Muslims — through continued immigration as well as Muslim women having significantly more children than Swedish women do.

As statistics on religious beliefs are no longer kept, no one knows exactly how many Muslims are in Sweden. Last year, a poll showed that Swedes believe 17% of the population is Muslim, while the actual number, according to the polling institute Ipsos Mori, may be more like 5%. The company does not account for how it arrived at this number, and it is in all likelihood much too low. Ipsos Mori probably counted how many members Muslim congregations and organizations have, but as Islam is also a culture, and the country is equally affected by the Muslims who do not actively practice their faith, yet live according to Islamic culture.

In 2012, the Swedish alternative newspaper, Dispatch International, calculated how many Muslims were registered residents of Sweden at that time, based on the Swedish name registry. The number the paper arrived at was 574,000, plus or minus 20,000. For obvious reasons, illegals and asylum seekers were not included. The actual number may therefore have been much higher.

Since then, close to 300,000 people have sought asylum in Sweden. Not all of them have had their applications approved, but despite that, very few actually leave Sweden. The Immigration Service told Gatestone Institute that only 9,700 people were deported last year. Most asylum seekers are Muslim, which means that the number of Muslims in Sweden is fast approaching one million, or 10% of the population.

In his book Slavery, Terrorism and Islam: The Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat, published in 2005, Dr. Peter Hammond describes what has always happened throughout history when the number of Muslims in a country increases. Admittedly generalities, Hammond outlines the following:

• As long as the Muslims make up about 1%, they are generally considered a peace-loving minority who do not bother anyone.
• At 2-3%, some start proselytizing to other minorities and disgruntled groups, especially in prison and among street gangs.
• At 5%, Muslims have an unreasonably large influence relative to their share of the population. Many demand halal slaughtered meat, and have been pushing the food industry to produce and sell it. They have also started to work toward the government giving them autonomy under sharia law. Hammond writes that the goal of Islam is not to convert the whole world, but rather, to establish sharia law all over the world.
• When Muslims reach 10%, historically, lawlessness increases. Some start to complain about their situation, start riots and car fires, and threaten people they feel insult Islam.
• At 20%, violent riots erupt, jihadi militia groups are formed, people are murdered, and churches and synagogues are set ablaze.
• When the Muslims reach 40% of the population, there are widespread massacres, constant terror attacks and militia warfare.
• At 60%, there is the possibility of uninhibited persecution of non-Muslims, sporadic ethnic cleansing, possible genocide, implementation of sharia law and jizya (the tax for “protection” that unbelievers must pay).
• When there are 80% Muslims in the country, they have taken control of the government apparatus and are, as in, for instance, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, committing violence in the name of Islam or political power.
• When 100% are Muslims, the peace in the house of Islam is supposed to come — hence the claim that Islam is the “religion of peace.”

Hammond also writes that in many countries, such as France, Belgium, Great Britain and Sweden, most of the Muslim population lives in Islamic enclaves — and apparently prefer not to be assimilated into a Western society. This detachment strengthens the group internally, allowing them to exercise greater power than their share of the population might indicate.

Hammond’s description of the 10%-limit accurately describes Sweden. In the so-called exclusion areas, there are car torchings every day, and riots occur in the cities. (To name but a few examples, there were serious riots in Malmö 2008, Gothenburg 2009, Stockholm 2013, and Norrköping and Växjö 2015.) Sometimes, the unrest starts after a local Muslim has been arrested or shot by the police. Muslim leaders then immediately say they sympathize with their people’s reaction. During the Husby riots in 2013, Rami Al-Khamisi of the youth organization “Megafonen” wrote: “We can see why people are reacting this way.”

The artist Lars Vilks, who drew the Muslim prophet Muhammed as a roundabout dog, has been the target of several assassination attempts, and now lives under round-the-clock police protection.

Yet, almost no one in Sweden is willing to speak of these problems and how it all fits together. For months, Gatestone Institute has called politicians, civil servants, organizations and various minority groups, to ask how they feel about Islam in Sweden. Do they think Islam is compatible with democracy, freedom of speech and legal equality — and if so, in what way or what way not?

The questions seemed to provoke anger as well as fear. Some of the people we called said they were angry at the mere questions, but assured the callers that Islam poses no problem whatsoever for Sweden. Others appeared frightened and refused to answer altogether. In the hopes of getting at least some honest answers, we presented ourselves as ordinary, concerned Swedes. Countless people hung up the phone, and in general, many answers pointed to an abysmal ignorance about what Islam is, what consequences the Islamization of a country might have, or how much trouble Sweden really is in. The country appears totally unprepared for what lies ahead.

Ingrid Carlqvist is a journalist and author based in Sweden, and a Distinguished Senior Fellow of Gatestone Institute.