Twice over the course of four days, an 800-year-old church in Stockholm was firebombed. On Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021, several Molotov cocktails were hurled at the 12-century Spånga church, located in a Muslim majority area.
According to the church’s pastor, “the alarm was triggered when a window was smashed and flammable liquid thrown at the front gate and one of the windows. However, the fire was quickly put out by the police, who used a powder extinguisher.”
The same church had been fire-bombed just four days earlier, on Jan. 20, 2021: two explosives were hurled at and smashed through the church windows, and another was hurled at the church gate.
Moreover, according to one report,
Spånga parish has been subjected to attacks on several previous occasions. In December 2018, an explosive device was detonated in the same parish. No one was convicted for the blast.
Hailing from the 12th century, the Spånga Church is one of the oldest in the Swedish capital. It is located on the outskirts of Tensta and is flanked by Rinkeby, both notorious for their heavy presence of immigrants (about 90 percent of the population)… Both areas are dominated by immigrants from Muslim countries and are formally classified as “particularly vulnerable” (which many consider to be a palatable euphemism for a “no-go zone”) due to failed integration and major problems including unemployment, rampant crime and Islamic extremism.
Attacks against churches have become a familiar sight in Sweden. Last year alone, a number of churches, mostly those in troubled suburban [i.e., heavily Muslim migrant] areas, were subjected to various types of attacks and vandalism, including those in Gottsunda, Uppsala and Rosengård, Malmö.
Actually, attacks on churches have become “a familiar sight” all throughout Western Europe, wherever there is a notable Muslim/migrant presence. In France, which has one of if not the largest Muslim populations in the Western world, two churches are reportedly attacked every day.
Along with arson attempts, typically—and rather with diabolical intent—altars are desecrated, crucifixes broken, statues mocked and/or beheaded. In one instance, vandals plundered and used human excrement to draw a cross on the Notre-Dame des Enfants Church in Nimes; consecrated bread was found thrown outside among garbage. One week later, vandals desecrated and smashed crosses and statues at Saint-Alain Cathedral in Lavaur; they mangled the arms of a crucified Christ in a mocking manner and an altar cloth was burned.
The same situation prevails in Germany, which also has an immense Muslim population. In Bavaria and the Alps alone, some 200 churches have been attacked and many crosses broken: “Police are currently dealing with church desecrations again and again,” one November 2017 report noted before adding, “The perpetrators are often youthful rioters with a migration background.”
Moreover, the desecration of churches has for centuries been a Muslim trademark—a sort of “Islam was here.” As copiously documented in Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West, whenever Muslims invaded Christian nations, untold thousands of churches were ritually desecrated and despoiled, their crosses and other Christian symbols systematically broken. Think what ISIS did but on an exponential level—and not for a handful of years but for over a millennium.
Despite all these telltale signs, Christian leaders in Sweden have responded with the usual cluelessness. “I do not know why anyone would want to do this,” said the church’s pastor, Jerker Alsterlund.
Perhaps because their religion teaches them to see and treat churches as “dens of iniquity … worse than bars and brothels”?
Other Christian leaders responded by compounding their cluelessness; they projected their own Christian principles onto those who follow a distinctly different set of principles: “It is a deeply unempathetic person without love and respect who did this,” said MP Anders Österberg, previously vice chairman of Spånga-Kista parish.
Unlike Christianity, which teaches “empathy” and “love and respect” for the “other,” Islam teaches hate and contempt for the non-Muslim, the “infidel,” who is referred to as an animal in the Koran, the Islamic holy book that further commands Muslims to hate and oppose all non-Muslims—“even if they be their fathers, sons, brothers, or kin” (Koran 60:4; 58:22).
Even so, “An attack on a religious building is a violation of values deeply rooted in human identity,” said Björn Cedersjö of the Swedish Christian Council.
Once again; failure to step outside oneself and one’s religious (in this case, Christian) principles and appreciate the worldview of another set of principles—those of Allah and his prophet: to Muslims, only mosques are “religious buildings.” All other temples—Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu—are, as aforementioned, places where the worst forms of evil are propagated. Why? Because, unlike secular buildings and institutions, non-Muslim places of worship deal with the divine and, in so doing, contradict the teachings of Allah.
Incidentally, such ignorance and projection is not limited to the leadership class, as one might expect, but infects the laypeople too: “Sad! The church of my childhood, where the graves of my parents and many friends lie,” read one tweet treat concerning the firebombings of Spånga Church: “Who or what hates and wants to harm our churches?”
“Sad,” indeed.
Binging in Muslims into any country is soooooo Ignorant, it makes me laugh. They can stay in their own county and there is no reason to leave, other that they want to migrate for one reason and that is to dominate the whole planet. It is called, by them, Creeping Sharia. Wake up People.
Sweden is very supportive of jihadists and deserves to be taken over by islamists!
Swedish churches remove crosses so as not to offend muslim ‘refugee’ they are sheltering while deporting Christians fleeing from persecution.
Oh yes, Christianblood, there is a big difference between Islamists and the people of the West like me and many many others who have been trying to find answers to some of their questions as, for example, not only why is Christianity the most persecuted religion in the world today especially in Muslim countries but, more important, why is the silence of our Western media and press about it deafening, while Muslim migrants arrive every day in our European shores. Some of us who read Raymond Ibrahim know that Christianity and other minorities are being persecuted in practically every Muslim majority country but the media and press seem to inform us only about the Muslims of Myanmar or those of India or China, and very rarely mention Christians (I remember only Boko-Haram and the 200 kidnapped Christian girls – a drop in the ocean). From reading Raymond Ibrahim, we are also know of the 1400 years of Muslim conquest of Christian lands, and of their wish to conquer the West, by immigration since they can’t do it by other means, but why does it seem that we keep getting boatloads of them without being allowed to talk about it or even question it. Where has our freedom of speech gone? I finally found an answer in a book by Leo Hohmann, ‘Stealth Invasion’, published as recently as 2021. I read only up to Chapter 4 (which is the chapter I suggest everybody interested should read first).
It is the old idea really of ‘World Government’ but now kind of renamed as globalist, global governance, or world governance, defined by Hohmann, a Christian himself, as “the idea that the world’s problems could be solved if the world came together, erasing borders between nations, making every nation and people group an interdependent part of the whole. National sovereignty is considered an impediment to the creation of a global superstate run mostly by unelected bureaucrats. Think of it as collectivism, which is socialism, only on a global basis” – explained as made up of communities of immigrants who will assimilate but not integrate, thus eroding, in time, sovereignty and patriotism. I don’t know about you but this reminds me of what our friend Lenin was trying to do years ago? However, the bulwark that these elites find along the way is “Christianity and its adherence to Judeo-Christian values”. And this seems to explain the antagonism to Christianity and the silence about its thousands of persecuted and murdered members worldwide.
The old political idea of ‘World Government’ (anybody interested can download the article free from the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy) seems to have been revived, renamed and reformatted, to suit the present situation using mostly (the very willing) Muslim immigrants with their commitment to sharia, national borders erased, and several blocks of nations united in the manner of the EU, and governed like the EU by unelected bureaucrats, and we’ll all live happily ever after. And this grand idea includes not only elite Democrat Presidents like the Obamas and the Clintons but also Republicans like George Bush (don’t know if his father was included), and some Republican Senators, which clarifies for me their alliance with Democrats, which I used to find somewhat perplexing and found difficult to explain as just ‘anti-Trump’. So many things make sense now to me at least.
If anyone is interested, get hold of a copy of this book before it becomes “unavailable” at a regular price from the original publisher, as did the book by the French historian Sylvain Gougueheim, ‘Aristote au Mont Saint-Michel’, 2008 (yet untranslated into English) for which I had to pay a fortune to get on the internet.
Before I’m back to read the remaining 10 chapters of my book, I would like to extend my warmest thanks to Raymond Ibrahim, whose articles and books led me to question and answer, and best wishes to all of you.
PS. The above comment was mistakenly put here but is meant as a reply to Christianblood in Mr Ibrahim’s article ‘Jihad Seeker’s allowance’ in the West, of February 8, 2021. Please forgive me and maybe Mr. Ibrahim or someone in his office can erase it from here because I tried but couldn’t. Apologies and regards.
The fact that Christians Wonder why, reflects on their lack of knowledge period. God said: My People Perish, due to Lack of Knowledge. There Ya Go. that’s why they wonder.
I think more willful ignorance Dan…which is far worse. Marching to and leading other with them, to their own destruction. A destruction that in the end, will be so horrific, it will be indescribable.
surprise! (time to wake up yet?)
“Why would anyone want to do this?” begs the question: Why, after all the centuries of recorded Islamic history, even to this present day, including the reality of Muslim murder and mayhem right under their noses, do these Western Christians and others not yet realise WHY?
Hi Ms T, see my reply to Dan Hilden above.
Reminds me of Chamberlain and co appeasing the Nazis…and we know how that went. Have they learned nothing?
“the usual cluelessness: “I do not know why anyone would want to do this”
They have an unmatched (in my experience) ability to remain clueless.
See my reply to Dan Hilden above AA.
Very fine analysis, thanks Raymond !!!
Thanks Raymond. I usually remain calm these days reading all this stuff. Been real busy on a basement remodel and a bit disconnected. After a treadmill walk and weight lift last evening felt that nice calm this morning…until… I read the article here. Definitely got riled.
I have given a couple of high level retired military men each other contacts. Included in a lager comment at one site, my comment was Highlighted. So hopefully these guys will begin a dialog about the “already here problem”, as I have come to call it. They are top notch on foreign policy but seem to ignore the insidious growth in the west, which is no longer clandestine in Europe at all but blatant, bold, outrageous actually.
I don’t think anyone of in the average citizen community can break through with this message of alarm. Has to be respected military.
All the journalists are not breaking through as Bruce Thornton said some years ago in a panel discussion with you and R Spencer I believe. ‘We’re preaching to the choir, not getting our message out…” I believe is a close approximation of what he said. No dummy that guy.
We need all the excellent work you all have done – but also now the vehicle to get that work out to the political leaders and force it into the mainstream media – whether they like it or not.
Got to stop there before I have to hit the bench press to calm down. Have a good one and thanks again Raymond.
I did but it disappeared.
OK Mary, be in touch at some point. I could not get a comment to post on another site. I think because I had the term 1619 Project which is a project that denigrates America and tries to say it was “Founded on Slavery.” Utter nonsense you know I’m sure. Take care Mary
Well put Don! I must admit that much as I try it’s difficult for me to remain calm these days. I have read practically every article I come across by Raymond Ibrahim and every one of his books and thank him so much for all his efforts in keeping us informed. Have also convinced a couple of my English friends to read Raymond’s books. I really can’t understand the silence of the entire Western press on worldwide Christian persecution. I remember even Merkel said once that Christianity was the most persecuted religion in the world today but she seems to have been silenced soon after.
Also, I finished reading Adel Guindy’s book which left me absolutely shattered. Since yesterday I started on ‘Stealth and Invasion by Leo Hofmann (published 2021) recommended by Bill Warner in one of his YouTube programs on Islam. I’ve read only about 50 pages (from about 250) and couldn’t sleep last night. Hohmann concentrates on the infiltration of Islam in the US, which gave me nightmares, and he quotes Raymond Ibrahim several times in his notes.
As for slavery, which you mention in your comment, it is always the same with the opposition which hurls insults because they have no real argument to oppose historical fact. The Americans never went inland in Africa but were sold the African slaves by Muslim slave traders in the African mainland And we were the first nations in the West to abolish slavery worldwide at the same time as developing the technology which made it possible to dispense of human slaves, even though it is still going on in some parts of Africa and elsewhere.
Mary, You amaze me. Your strength and conviction, love for freedom and mankind in general, courage to face the most horrific of challenges and last but not least your intelligence and eloquence in writing and speech.
For me, the calm comes from God in Christ on a daily basis. I’m in New Testament only right now and go from front to back. Gospel then letter until the four Gospels are done, then, I finish the letters straight through and repeat – forever. I’ll add in Old Testament again sometime this year and do it in the evenings. NT mornings which I’m doing now, usually a chapter/day – OT evenings with more contemplative time. Prayer of course, either long or brief is always some component.
I had to realize God has to direct my actions in His will and wisdom, also; That the rescue of the Western world was not up to me alone (except for the knowledge of the fact, that the “effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much”) but on God alone by what ever agency He choses to accomplish the rescue, if He indeed wills it.
In that total submission to God’s will in Christ, I find on a daily basis complete of relative peace, of course interrupted by the cares of life and trials at times – never talking perfection Mary – a lot of bumps in my life.
So I feel my direction to go to the top with the problem the only solution for this as too much for the common citizen as you know. If we’ve been gifted with the ability to see the problem, then we need to be in constant prayer about it and ask for the guaranteed wisdom from God on how to act, as it may be prayer only!!
But not for you and I and many others who want to take some kind of action.
Just know when to step back and recharge, I think you may be at that point of pull back – re-center, take a rest.
If you’re able to travel, you can have a vaca in the beautiful Berkshires of MA USA at my place in late spring or summer. Low mountain views, friendly neighbors and flat section for easy walking.
I have some good news for another time. Hope these thought are helpful.
Love you to pieces Mary, Take care.
I have to add that the white slave trade was about 3 or more times higher than the African slave trade (that is white women – sold in bazaars mainly for sex – and even men, by the Barbary coast slave traders). This is documented in plenty of books. And, from my own experience, I remember when I was still a child in Egypt and once in a while I saw an Arab with lighter skin and green green eyes, I used to wonder where did that guy get those green green eyes. Now I know.
Thanks Mary, and yes, I’m aware of all that and more even from Tom Sowell’s videos and writing and Larry Elder and others, + courses I’m taking at Hillsdale College (free online) USA.
Recently created a rudimentary pie chart of 5000 years of humanity and will have it digitized at some point to help in refuting the false claims about Western slavery.
My simple question to one young friend recently when he confidently exclaimed that America was ‘founded on racism’, was, “So did the slaves write the Declaration of Independence and Constitution – design the new government? After which he just stumbled a bit and said, “ah, well, no.” I just let it lie, we were driving to look at a job.
Be in touch.
Fantastic answer about the Constitution, Don. I’ll keep it mind for future reference. If I sometimes say something I am well aware you know of already in a reply to you I’m just letting off steam. I guess my excuse is I’m much older than you and despair of the situation especially for the young ones. But I am also heartened to know that those like you and Raymond will be here to defend our values and our civilisation.
Glad I saw this on my lunch break Mary. You never have to worry about offending me. I was just, letting you know I was aware and still fighting, wisely and effectively I hope. I’m 71 in March so not too young, just lucky to be very active at my age.
I never mind reinforcement of truths or even hearing them repeated, good food is always healthy and Truth is my favorite meal.
And you can vent to me anytime. Back to the salt mine here, have a good one.
What if the Noah’s Ark story in the bible is an allegorical warning for the future? What if the “rain” represents mass migration of the enemies of God and His people?
In that case, I wonder what the “ark” would be?
Sorry GMS, Can’t get behind that thought. End times in the bible, are laid out pretty well in the book of Revelations, last book in the New Testament.
Lots of figurative language so you’ll need a good come try to help you out.
John McArthur does a good job.
Among the Christian community, there are a few differing interpretations.
Shoot me a reply if you want any help.
PS. Meant “need a good commentary”