Christmas gnomes discussing life's finer points in a shop window.
There were two bombings in Stockholm tonight, one car bomb and one suicide bomb. Luckily the bombings were failures, killing only the suicide bomber and injuring two civilians. It seems that the purpose of the bombings is to punish Sweden for its silence in response to Lars Vilks' cartoons portraying the prophet Mohammed as a dog. It's unfortunate that the method of response chosen was a violent attack on Drottninggatan, the street in central Stockholm known for its markets and window-shopping, especially now during the Christmas season. The general feeling here is shock. I personally fear for Sweden's Islamic community, with these suicide bombings coming just months after the polarizing, far-right Sverigedemokraterna gained their first seats in the Swedish parliament, a consequence of anti-Muslim sentiment within the general public.
This is proving to be an interesting holiday season.
Love,
D
I'm happy you weren't downtown last night!!!
ReplyDeleteI read the article on nytimes and thought this line was funny:
"Still, comments from Foreign Minister Carl Bildt on his Twitter account did not attempt to hedge the issue. His post read: “Most worrying attempt at terrorist attack in crowded part of central Stockholm. Failed — but could have been truly catastrophic...” "
this is the first time a mass-murder has been attempted at a spot i frequent. it feels so... invasive and humiliating! not what i expected. had no idea how bad i was at empathizing with people in war-torn countries.
ReplyDelete*at empathizing with people living in war-torn countries.
ReplyDeletestill don't know how i am at empathizing in war-torn countries.
I hope this doesn't spur some rash of copy cat attempts.
ReplyDeletePS I love the gnomes. They look edible?
ReplyDeletei think they are. they were surrounded by baked goods in any case.
ReplyDeleteFrom Wikipedia's entry on the 2010 Stockholm bombings: "The primary suspect is Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly (born 12 December 1981).Based on information from the suspect's profile on Facebook and the muslima.com dating site, where he was looking for a second wife, he was a 28-year-old Iraqi Swede, born in Baghdad, who grew up in Tranås and who was naturalized as a Swedish citizen in 1992.
ReplyDeleteThe narrative voices of people who write Wikipedia articles rarely disappoint: "Reports indicated he had steadily become more religious as well as angry over the later 2000s. During Ramadan in 2007, he tried to recruit other Muslims who shared his political views at the Luton mosque when he was given a chance to preach, however he stormed out of the mosque when confronted over his beliefs, and was eventually kept away from the mosque. His Facebook profile was reported as containing a mixture of technophile and Islamic fundamentalist attitudes, combining statements like "I love my Apple iPad" with references to "the Islamic Caliphate state" or Yawm al-Qiyamah."
ReplyDelete