Of the French soldier stabbed in the neck by a ROP-er:
Anti-terrorism investigators now say they have “high quality images” of a “tall, athletic bearded man” aged about 30, possibly of North African origin, praying near the spot where he attacked the 23-year-old soldier from behind with a knife or a box-cutter on Saturday. He then fled into a crowded train station and is still at large…
The soldier, Cédric Cordiez, survived the midafternoon attack and was discharged from hospital this morning but is said to be “traumatised” by the stabbing. It was carried out three days after a British soldier was murdered on a busy London street by two men shouting Islamist slogans.
Meanwhile, in Britain:
Vandals have attacked two of Britain’s most celebrated war memorials, apparently daubing them with the word “Islam” and covering over inscriptions.
In Switzerland:
An immigrant group based in Bern has called for the emblematic white cross to be removed from the Swiss national flag because as a Christian symbol it “no longer corresponds to today’s multicultural Switzerland.” Ivica Petrusic, the vice president of Second@s Plus, a lobbying group that represents mostly Muslim second-generation foreigners in Switzerland (who colloquially are known as secondos) says the group will launch a nationwide campaign in October to ask Swiss citizens to consider adopting a flag that is less offensive to Muslim immigrants.
In Sweden, where there is a weeklong Intifada taking place, the NYT manages to post a 1,343 word article (“In Sweden, Riots Put an Identity in Question”) without once mentioning either the word “muslim” or the word “Islam”. Go figure:
In Stockholm and other towns and cities last week, bands made up mostly of young immigrants set buildings and cars ablaze in a spasm of destructive rage rarely seen in a country proud of its normally tranquil, law-abiding ways…
[T]he unrest has shaken Sweden, which has a reputation for welcoming immigrants and asylum seekers, including those fleeing violence in countries like Iraq, Somalia and Syria, and regularly ranks in surveys as one of the world’s happiest places.
“I don’t know why anybody would want to burn our school,” Ms. Bromster said. “I can’t understand it. Maybe they are not so happy with life.”
The riots are not unprecedented here. In 2008 and 2010, immigrants clashed with the police in the southern port city of Malmo. But the past week’s arson attacks in Stockholm, the capital, and the spectacle of teenagers hurling stones at firefighters have left many Swedes wondering what went wrong in a society that has invested so heavily in helping the underprivileged.
While the violence was concentrated in relatively poor districts, most of their residents have been shielded from dire poverty by a welfare system that is one of the world’s most expansive, despite recent cutbacks…
The recent violence has been a boon to the Swedish Democrats, the anti-immigration party. Opinion polls suggest the party is gaining in popularity, partly because of the indignation many Swedes feel about being called racists after accepting so many refugees. Immigrants and the Swedish-born children of immigrants make up about 15 percent of the population, and last year Sweden nearly doubled the number of asylum seekers it took in and became Europe’s primary destination for refugees from Syria.
