This is a follow-up to the previous post about the former Lutheran archbishop who refused to speak at a Holocaust commemoration. Our Swedish correspondent CB sends this report:

This is from the blog by one of the editorialists of Svenska Dagbladet, the big conservative newspaper in Sweden. Gudmundson was able to get a copy of an email from a reporter of the TV program Existens, and it’s about reporters and programs that wish to expose growing Jewish extremism.

This is something they feel is important in a climate of growing anti-Semitism and violence directed towards Jews. Strange logic: “People want to kill Jews — let’s see if the Jews get extreme!”

What’s the reason for this move? To show the reactions of a people being persecuted in so many countries? Or a way to begin the exoneration of Hamas — that is, the Jews are equally bad, or worse?

Gudmundson began by noting that “the Catholic Church is exonerating a Holocaust denier. The former archbishop in the Swedish Lutheran Church refuses to speak at a commemoration of the Holocaust. In Malmö there is at present a trial of a man accused of funneling millions of Swedish krona to the anti-Semitic terror organization Hamas. But in an email, the Swedish television program Existens asks for signs of growing Jewish extremism.”

Here’s the email from last Friday (in English in the original):

– – – – Original Message – – – –
Subject: Inquiry from the Swedish Television
From: Eva Renström
Date: Fri, January 30, 2009 2:38 pm
To: mail@…
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Dear Peace-worker,

My name is Eva Renstrom and I’m working as a journalist at the Swedish Television; the public service company in Sweden, with a program called Existens; Existence. It’s a secular program about religion and society, and our assignment is to describe what happens when these two meets and collides.

Now we are planning to do a program about the escalated Israeli/Palestinian conflict, and what happens with the manifestation of the religions; Islam and Judaism, in the current situation.

Our focus will be Islam, but we intend to discuss growing radicalism and intolerance among the Jewish population as well. Here in Sweden, we see moderate movements in this direction. But since everything in Sweden is more or less moderate in comparison, we suspect that the effect is enhanced in the rest of Europe as well as in the Middle East. We want to know more about the risk of increased radicalism and extremism, about where this situation can take us. We want to know more about if and how the religious manifestation will change.

– – – – – – – – –

Now I’m looking for someone to talk to; who can analyze the situation, especially when it comes to the situation among Jews. I’ve read about you on the web site, and I thought that you maybe can help me! I’m grateful for your help!

Best wishes, and a nice weekend to you!

EVA RENSTROM
Reporter SVT Existens

I just looked up the statistics: there are approximately 18,000 Jews living in Sweden today, out of a total population of 9 million. That is, about 0.2% of the Swedish population is Jewish.

Reliable statistics on the number of Muslims in Sweden are impossible to come by. Most analysts suggest that it is at least 400,000, or about 4.4% of the Swedish population.

In other words, there are more than twenty times as many Muslims in Sweden as there are Jews. Not only that, there are Swedish Muslims who openly, explicitly, and publicly call for the extermination of the Jews.

These rabid Jew-haters face no legal consequences for their behavior. Can any of our Swedish readers tell me whether SVT has aired any investigative programs about Muslim extremists in Sweden who advocate genocide against the Jews?

If the zealous sleuths of Swedish television look long and hard enough, they might be able to find a single loony Swedish Jew proclaiming “Death to the Arabs!” Maybe.

And if they do, you can bet they’ll parade him in front of the cameras to demonstrate that the Jews are at least as bad as Hamas, and no wonder the Palestinians want to kill all the Jews.

Behavior like this by the producers of state-funded television programming is nothing less than an abomination.