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This Swedish video shows a different side of Rinkeby

When Stockholm suburb Rinkeby makes the news it tends to be for its problems, but a new video from two Swedish film-makers highlights a different side to the area.

This Swedish video shows a different side of Rinkeby
Film-makers Olle Öberg and Liban Abshir Mohamed. Photo: Pontus Hammarström

International readers may be familiar with Rinkeby through the headlines it made in February when a riot broke out days after Donald Trump thrust the spotlight on Sweden with his “last night…” comments. When the suburb is given attention, it is generally for the wrong reasons.

Inspired by a lack of information on what day-to-day life is like in Rinkeby, Olle Öberg and fellow YouTuber Liban Abshir Mohamed decided to go to there themselves, talk to the locals, and film what happened.

“It's easy to get the idea that Rinkeby and other suburbs you've never been to are dangerous and really bad places. I'm not saying they're perfect at all, but I don't think it's like what the media says either,” Öberg told The Local.

“Rinkeby's a great place with nice people. The media and most of Sweden think otherwise, I wanted to prove them wrong,” added Abshir Mohamed, who is from nearby Tensta.

One of the key points to emerge from the film is residents are frustrated that many don't base their opinions of Rinkeby on personal experience taken from going there, and instead rely on second-hand accounts. One local summed that up in the video by pleading “you should come here. It's people living here, not animals”.

“Everybody said of course there were problems like everywhere, but not only there. I grew up in a small town called Uddevalla where there was recently a triple murder. I doubt anyone is afraid of going there, so why should you be afraid to go to Rinkeby?” Öberg questioned.

“Rinkeby has become a symbol for suburbs where a lot of people from other countries live. In my opinion it's bad for everyone that Sweden is so segregated: it causes a lot of problems, fear, and hate between people. The big problem with today's society is people don't meet each other, and that's what we should really be afraid of and work on.”

READ ALSO: Sweden to get new anti-segregation authority

The reality though is that Rinkeby does have major challenges, and is one of 15 areas Swedish police judged to be “particularly vulnerable” in 2015. The day after the most recent riot The Local went to the Stockholm suburb to report, and residents had plenty to say about the area's issues, with several noting that they feel a minority of troublemakers are not being adequately dealt with.

Öberg acknowledged that there are problems in the suburb, but he feels that the attitude towards the area from some parties doesn’t help.

“It's important to focus on how to make things better. The media judges the people living there and blames them, but it's a problem for society. It's a very small part of the people living there who cause trouble, the majority seem to be really tired of it,” he explained.

“We met some teenagers who asked us why we were filming and had a negative attitude. They wanted to act cool and behave the way expected of them when the media shows up – play up to the stereotype of a young guy living in the suburbs. Since we were nice, they couldn't do much more than walk away. If we wanted to paint a bad image of Rinkeby, we could've just provoked them to do something, blur their faces, and put it online. But we didn't want to do that.”

READ ALSO: What Rinkeby residents think about the riots

The people who cause problems are very much in the minority, he concluded:

“They're not representative of the population of Rinkeby. We wanted to show the everyday life and nice people there. Many of the older people we met told us it's youngsters causing trouble from time to time. I think they are frustrated, feel excluded and do things the way society expects them to. No one believes in them or where they are from, and that's one of the big problems. It would be better to invest in their and everyone's future.”

READ ALSO: How is Sweden tackling its integration challenge?

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CRIME

EXPLAINED: What we know about the attack on a Swedish anti-fascist meeting

Several masked men, described by anti-racism magazine Expo as "a group of Nazis" carried out the attack at an event organised by the Left Party and Green Party. Here's what we know so far.

EXPLAINED: What we know about the attack on a Swedish anti-fascist meeting

What happened?

Several masked men burst into a Stockholm theatre on Wednesday night and set off smoke bombs during an anti-fascism event, according to police and participants.

Around 50 people were taking part in the event at the Moment theatre in Gubbängen, a southern suburb of the Swedish capital, organised by the Left Party and the Green Party.

“Three people were taken by ambulance to hospital,” the police said on its website, shortly after the attack.

According to Swedish media, one person was physically assaulted and two had paint sprayed in their faces.

“The Nazis attacked visitors using physical violence, with pepper spray, and vandalised the venue before throwing in some kind of smoke grenade which filled the foyer with smoke,” Expo wrote on its website

The magazine’s head of education Klara Ljungberg was at the event in order to hold a lecture at the invitation of the two political parties.

What was the meeting about?

According to the Left Party’s press officer, the event was “a meeting about growing fascism”. 

Left Party leader Nooshi Dadgostar described the event to public broadcaster SVT as an “open event, for equality among individuals”.

As well as Ljungberg from Expo, panelists at the event included anti-fascist activist Mathias Wåg, who also writes for Swedish centre-left tabloid Aftonbladet.

“They were determined and went straight for me,” Wåg told Expo just after the attack. “I received a few blows but nothing that caused serious damage.”

“I was invited to be on a panel in order to discuss anti-fascism with representatives from the Left Party and the Green Party,” he told the magazine. “I didn’t know this was going to happen, but there’s obviously a risk when Expo and I are in the same place.”

What has the reaction been like?

All of Sweden’s parties across the political spectrum have denounced the attack, with Dadgostar describing it as a “threat to our democracy” when TT newswire interviewed her at the theatre a few hours after the attack occurred.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, from the conservative Moderates, called the attack “abhorrent”.

The Moderates, Christian Democrats and Liberals are currently in government with the support of the far-right Sweden Democrats, while the Social Democrats, Left Party, Centre Party and Green Party are in opposition.

“It is appalling news that a meeting hosted by the Left Party has been stormed,” Kristersson told TT. “I have reached out to Nooshi Dadgostar and expressed my deepest support. This type of abhorrent action has no place in our free and open society.”

“Right-wing extremists want to scare us into silence,” Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson wrote on X. “They will never be allowed to succeed.”

“The attack by right-wing extremists at a political meeting is a direct attack on our democracy and freedom of speech,” Green Party co-leader Daniel Helldén wrote on X. “My thoughts are with those who were affected this evening.”

Sweden Democrat party leader Jimmie Åkesson wrote in an email to TT that “political violence is terrible, in all its forms, and does not belong in Sweden.”

“All democratic forces must stand in complete solidarity against all kinds of politically motivated violence,” he continued.

His party has previously admitted to being founded by people from “fascist movement” New Swedish Movement, skinheads, and people with “various types of neo-Nazi contact”.

“It is an attack not only on the Left Party, Green Party and the Expo Foundation, but also on our entire democratic society,” Centre Party leader Muharrem Demirok, who referred to the attackers as “Nazis”, wrote on social media. “Those affected have all my support.”

Christian Democrat leader Ebba Busch and Liberal leader Johan Pehrson both referred to the attackers as “anti-democratic forces”.

“It is never acceptable for a political meeting to be stormed by anti-democratic forces,” Busch wrote. “There is no place for this in our society.”

“Anti-democratic forces like this represent a serious threat to our democracy and must be met with society’s hardest iron fist,” Pehrson said.

What about the attackers? Has anyone been arrested?

Not yet. The police had not made any arrests at the time of writing on Thursday morning.

According to TT, police did not want to comment on who could be behind the attack.

It is currently being investigated as a violation of the Flammable and Explosive Goods Act, assault, causing danger to others and disturbing public order.

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