የእናት ቤት ይሻላል ዘንጋዳ ደረቁ

ያሰኛል ይሄን ከዚህ በታች ያለውን የአንዲት በዴንማርክ አገር ለሚገኙ ግለሰቦች በጉዲፈቻነት ተስጥታ በወላጆቿ ናፍቆት የተነሳ በአሳዛኝና ልብ በሚሰብር ሁኔታ እየተሰቃየች ያለች ጨቅላ ወገናችንን ህይወት በቅንጭቡ የሚያሳይ ምስል ለተመለከተ:: ስሟ ማሾ ሁሴን ይባላል ከታናሽ ወንድሟ ጋር በጉዲፈቻነት የተሰጡት ከ ሁለት ዓመታት በፊት ሲሆን በጣም የሚያሳዝነውና የሚያስገርመው ወላጆቻቸው በህይወት የሚኖሩ መሆናቸው ነው:: ዛሬ ማሾ (ስምን መልዓክ ያወጣዋል ነው ወይስ ነበር) እንኳን ማሾ ሆና ለሌላው ብርሀን ልስትለግስ ቀርቶ ጋዟ አልቆባት ለመጥፋት ጭልጭል የምትል ኩራዝ መስላ ያ ፍልቅልቅ እና ሳቂታ የልጅነት ወዟ ተሟጦ ልቧ በናፍቆትና በሀዘን ተሰብሮ ዴንማርክ አገር በሚገኝ ወላጅ አልባ ህጻናት ማሳደጊያ ውስጥ ሳትወድ በግድ የመከራ ገፈት ከታናሽ ወንድሟ ጋር በመጋት ላይ ትገኛለች:: ወላጆቿ እሷንና ወንድሟን በጉዲፈቻነት እንዲሰጡ የተገደዱት በወቅቱ ሀኪማቸው በደማቸው

Stop exporting weapons! Swedish Anti-war activists

Ant-war activists here in Stockholm early this evening (November 28, 2012) urged their government to stop manufacturing and exporting weapons. The activists staged their protest outside at a defense fair which is entitled  "the Future Defense & Security", Nordic's largest ever fair held in Sweden where more than 1000 people from around the world were attending the fair. Members of the Facebook group "stop the death fair" during the fair's second day staged a mass deaths in that harsh weather which participants laid themselves outside the exhibition hall and played dead for 10 minutes to symbolize victims in various countries across the globe who are/were affected by Swedish weapon exports. A local amateur band played a kind of funereal song which reflects human suffering due to weapons used in various parts of the earth. The organizer, Swedish Peace, on the occasion said weapons factories in Sweden can be converted in to various civilian facilities to improve the livelihood of humankind. Reports shows that Sweden's Arms exports have more than quadrupled over the past decade, from just over three billion to over 13 billion. This represents an increase of over 300 percent. The five largest recipients of military armaments from Sweden in 2011 were in order Thailand, Saudi Arabia, India, Pakistan and Britain. These five countries alone accounted for 60 percent of exports.  

I'll stand by my imprisoned colleagues: Turkish Journalist

Baris Pehlivan made this remark today at a public gathering organized early in the afternoon by the European Federation of Journalists as part of the international campaign called "Set Turkish Journalists Free". Right now, there around 76 journalists who are behind bars in various prisons of Turkey. Pehlivan works for a private Turkish TV channel called ODATV and he was imprisoned, released and tomorrow he will face another terrorism charges in Istanbul's court. I asked him why doesn't he seek asylum in Sweden instead of risking his life and he said he would rather stand by his colleagues and live in Turkey until all of them are set free. He is accused by Turkish authorities for being a member of an imaginary terrorist group which allegedly plotting a coup d'eta in Turkey. He and his wife claimed that hundreds of innocent Turkish citizens are being locked up for having different opinions than the regime allows. There is a terrible situation for the press and freedom of expression in Turkey. The number of imprisoned journalists in spring was more than 100, which was more than in China. Pehlivan was jailed together with some 40 journalists during last Christmas, for being involved in the so-called Ergenekon plot.

Americans didn't prove me wrong this time.

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-872919

This image was taken in Stockholm, Sweden  on the eve of  America's 2012 presidential electio , as part of international CNNiReporters' opinion on U.S.A's election. First of all I would like to thank team CNNiReport for giving me this opportunity to express my choice of America's 2012 presidential candidate. As for the for first question, hmm who in his/her right mind would vote for a person who bashes everybody but the riches. So, my answer is I would have elected Mr. President Obama for his wonderful ideals and values, even though I have some reservations like he didn't put pressure on Ethiopia's late prime minister to release all prisoners of conscious in my home country. The second question is a bit tricky, in American election anything can happen; Americans have a different psyche, do you remember the 2004 election? I never and ever imagined George W. Bush would have had a second term; well the Americans proved me wrong so, the same thing may happen during this election. Fortunately, Americans didn't prove me wrong this time, they learned from their past mistake and elected the right person for the Oval Office. I do hope and wish Mr. Obama will deliver some of his promises from 2008 in his second term to Americans in particular and the world in general. I know everyone of us are expecting him to do so many things before the end of his tenure notwithstanding his enormous local and international challenge. My only demand for him is just to stop pampering and sponsoring tyrants in my home country Ethiopia and other nations across the globe; that really makes a big difference in millions people's lives in those respective countries where these dictators are trumping up human rights, abuse their powers and embezzle millions of aid money with impunity because of their western and eastern backings.   

Swedes are for Obama

As part of CNN's global iReporters team, I interviewed students of the School of Journalism, Media and Communication here in Stockholm, Sweden on November 6, 2012 to find out their opinions about America's 2012 presidential election, who they would vote for and who they think will win this election. All of them said they would vote for Obama and they think/hope that he would get a second term; even though they consider him as a right-wing by Swedish political standard. Their wish is fulfilled and Mr. Barack Obama will lead America for another four years.

No to foreign intervention! Pro-Assad demonstrators

Hundreds of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad's supporters in Stockholm went to the street early this evening downtown to protest against foreign intervention proposed by Syrian rebels to end the bloodshed in their home-country. These demonstrators were holding pictures of their president who lost credibility worldwide due to his brutality against his own people. In the meantime, more than two dozens of their fellow counterparts, mainly young boys/men, also held a spontaneous counter rally on the opposite side Sergel's square condemning the killing spree which has been being perpetrated by the regime in Syria since last year. The anti-Assad protesters chanting Koranic slogans and waving Syrian as well as Kurdish national flags.

Is it me or the "smartphones" aren't really "smart"?

As you may remember, I got my first ever smartphone a few weeks back and I'm blending into the "smart" crowd. Before I knew it, I just can't help but hooked up to my new toy:-), you know the usual, just trying to figure out some of the tricks how to sort out some problems, tweeting, facebooking,  playing games ( I missed the station I was supposed to get off while playing my favorite gran turismo video game last week). If anybody uses these gadgets, they really make life easier and do some magic with some exception. For example, one can download very many apps like video editors, photo editors and thousands of other apps to execute jobs that might take a lot of time, energy, expertise and money. I downloaded this video editor app which can trim images, as well as enables you to grab still pictures from those videos you've taken. So, with this background information, I went yesterday night to attend Selam Festival's (an entertainment/promotion organization based in Stockholm which has been bringing many artists from all the world to Sweden) 15th anniversary, leaving behind my borrowed camera home thinking that I would look cool & smart with my "smartphone":-), not really! I was standing and filming those amazing Ethiopian traditional singers and dancers the whole time, while almost everybody was shaking to the tunes. Alas, when the show was finished and I started to check out the images that my "smartphone" I thought captured, I couldn't believe none of them were there! Not even a single 50'' frame! I searched and searched but in vain, I will never forgive myself for being so stupid and relying on something which is called "smart". To make the long story short, I found out later that I should punch the save button every freaking time I finished filming which is not the case with "dummyphones" or my traditional camera. What's the point of making something simple complicated? My job, I suppose was/is just to choose my subjects, a good angle and press record and then the camera do the rest.

I learnt my lesson in a hard way; anyway, I will never leave my camera especially if I've to go to a big event like this one. Happy 15th Birthday Selam; it was really an honor to watch those dancers rocking the entire public. If some kind of devil didn't tell me still-pictures with the "smartphone", I would have ended up coming home empty handed. I think, I've a lot of catching-up for me as far as these "smartphones" are concerned. But, I wonder how many of those people with zero knowledge about technology, are managing their very expensive "smartphones":-) or are these gadgets just a status symbol?           

The Unsung Journalists of Ethiopian Gov't Media

Ethiopia's unsung prisoner
of conscious

Ethiopia is known for all bad reasons. Thanks to our late “visionary” and “democratic” leader, it's the second journalists jailer nation in Africa next to neighboring country Eritrea and it is in the top-list of those countries which forced their journalists into exile over the last decade. It is also known for other “good” reasons like its imprisoned or “freed” journalists are being honored by international advocacy groups; Reeyot Alemu an Ethiopian columnist sentenced to 11 years last July for the “terrorism” charges by Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), is among four of the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) 2012's Courage to Write award winners. Serkalem Fasil; another IWMF-2007 winner; who gave birth while in custody in 2005 and the wife of the prominent journalist/dissident blogger Eskinder Nega who was sentenced to 18 years jail term last July accused of terrorism charges and treason; received on her husband's behalf Pen-American writers' Foundation for 2012. I really appreciate such gestures given by these advocacy groups to acknowledge the plights of Ethiopian journalists but every time I read

የተረሱት የመንግስት ጋዜጠኞች

ሌሊሴ ወዳጆ የህሊና አስረኛ  

አገራችን ከቅርብ አመታት ወዲህ እድሜ አሁን በህይወት ለሌሉት ባለራዕዩ ልማታዊ መሪያችን እና ፓርቲያቸው፡ በተለያዩ ምክንያቶች ታዋቂነቷ እየገነነ መጥቷል።ሌላ ሌላውን ትትተን በፈረንጆቹ የ2012 ዓመት በዓለም ዓቀፍ ደረጃ ጋዜጠኞችን በማሰር ሁለተኛነትን ስተቀዳጅ፡አንደኝነቱን ግን ጎረቤታችን ኤሪትርያ ነጥቃናለች፡ወይ ነዶ፡እንዴት ተድርጎ። ምስጋና ለታላቁ መሪያችን ነፍሳቸውን ይማረውና (ይቅርታ ተዳፈርኩ አይደል፡ለካ አልሞቱም የሚሉ አንዳንድ ወገኖች እንዳሉ ዘንግቼው ነው)፡ አገራችን ባለፉት አስርተ ዓመታት ጋዜጠኞቿ እንዲሰደዱ በማድረግ በከፍተኛ ደረጃ ከሚጠቀሱት አገሮች ተርታ ውስጥ ትገኛለች። ከቅርብ ዓመታት ወዲህ ደግሞ በእስር ላይ የሚገኙ ጋዜጠኞቿ በማሸለም ታዋቂ ሆናለች። የሩቁን ትተን በዚህ ዓመት ብቻ ሁለት በሽብርተኝነት እና አገር በመካድ ወንጀሎች ተፈርዶባቸው ቃሊቲ በእስር ላይ የሚገኙት ጋዜጠኞቿ ማለትም እስክንድር ነጋ እና ርዕዮት ዓለሙ ከሁለት የተለያዩ የዓለም ዓቀፍ ሃሳብን በነጻነት የመግለጽ መብት ተሟጋች ድርጅቶች ተሸላሚ ሆነዋል። አብዛኛውን ጊዜ የመገናኛ ብዝሃንም ሆነ በመብት ተሟጋች ድርጅቶች በግሉ የሚዲያ ዘርፍ የሚያገለግሉ ጋዜጠኞች ሲታሰሩ በብዛት የሚያሰሙት ድምጽ

FairTrade Activists demand H&M to be FAIR

More than half a dozen activists of a local NGO called FairTrade made a protest by laying themselves down outside at the H&M (Hennes & Mauritz) head office in Stockholm yesterday afternoon ( October 25, 2012) to show their solidarity with workers who're alleged victims of bad working conditions and low wage by its garment factory in Cambodia. Christopher Riddselius, an organizer of the protest told me that the purpose of today's protest was also to demand H&M and other garment companies to improve the existing working conditions and poor salary to their workers in Cambodia and other Asian countries. Riddselius added that consumers, other governmental and non-governmental actors also have responsibilities to put pressure on companies like H&M to be fair to the people who produce their commodities in other countries. The protest which was held at the such cold weather lasted for 30 minutes.

I'm "SMART" & blending in with the crowd now

My stone-aged:-) crappy Sony-Ericsson cellphone which (heaven knows how old it was) I've been getting in touch with rest of the world, got nuts a few weeks ago for some unknown reason. Honestly, I was really sad for very wrong reasons:-)(don't laugh please) first and for most it used to bring me attention or should I say envious stares from fellow commuters or any hype smartphone users every time I flashed her to do the usual errands you know just strictly making/receiving phone calls and text messages; no surfing, no FaceBooking, no tweeting, no gaming, no iTunning, no face checking etc hahaha. My second reason was that she was really easier to operate and I neither need gazillion time to find and punch the keypads to send text messages nor had a hard time to find out how to save/delete contacts. Last but not least, she saved me from being excessively anti-social; what is there more irritating than two lovers gazing for hours and hours on their individual toys when it supposed to be "just the two of us" dinner date.

I'm not sure if I'm gonna be obsessed with this new gadget which I got it for free the day before yesterday from a very special friend who could have sold it for a few thousand Swedish Kroner; thanks my dear, you're one good reason to believe in the existence of humanity in a town where  I thought it was full of human mannequins. Voila, I'm now blending in with the crowd and saying goodbye to my dummy-phone which I honestly believe she wasn't. Well, I'm gonna miss my uniqueness until the crowd comes with something "smart", "cool" or whatever it is. One thing I'm sure is that I'll be nostalgic of the simplicity of old-fashioned communication, you know that adrenaline rushes which bumps into you whenever you feel like in the middle of going somewhere but you have to stay at home/office not to miss that phone-call from a new or ex-lover or your boss or from the job-interview, etc. Please share your first time experience of smartphone and how it changed your life afterwards.                    

የ2005 ዓ/ም አዲስ ዓመት አከባበር በስቶክሆልም

በስቶክሆልም እና አካባቢዋ የሚኖሩ በብዙ መቶ የሚቆጠሩ ኢትዮጵያውያን አዲሱን የኢትዮጵያ 2005 ወይም እንቁጣጣሽ መስከረም 8 2005 ዓ/ም ሃሉንዳ በሚገኘው የባህል አዳራሽ በመገኘት በዓሉን በተለያዩ ዝግጅቶች አክብረውታል። የዚህን ዓመት በዓል ለየት የሚያደርገው ስዊድን ውስጥ ላለፉት 19 ዓመታት እዚህ አገር እና በመላው ዓለም ለሚኖሩና ኢትዮጵያውያን የተለያዩ ዝግጅቶችን በማስራጨት የሚታወቀው የኢትዮጵያ ሬድዮ፡ እዚህ አገር ለ40 ዓመታት በስደት ለሚኖረውና በብእር ስሙ ሃይሉ ገሞራው ለሚታወቀው ታዋቂ ገጣሚና ደራሲ ሃይሉ ገብረ ዮሃንስ የዚህን ዓመት የክብር ሽልማት በማበርከቱ ነው። አንጋፋው እና ተወዳጁ አርቲስት ተሾመ አሰግድና ወጣቷ ድምጻዊ የዝና ነጋሽ በተለያዩ ጣእመ ዜማዎች የበዓሉን ታዳሚዎች አዝናንተዋል። Hundreds of Ethiopians who reside in Stockholm and its environs celebrated Ethiopia's New Year on September 8 2012 at Hallunda culture house. The voice of Ethiopia which has been on air for the last 19 years, honored famous Ethiopian poet/writer Hailu Geberyohannes a.k.a Hailu Gemoraw as 2004 Ethiopian of the year. Veteran singer Teshome Asseged and the young artists Yezena Negash entertained the public on that day.

የ2005 ዓ/ም ደመራ በዓል አከባበር በስቶክሆልም Demera in Stockholm

በስቶክሆልም እና አካባቢዋ የሚኖሩ በብዙ መቶ የሚቆጠሩ ኢትዮጵያውያን የ2005 ዓ/ም የደመራ በዓል ዝናቡና ብርዱ ሳይበግራቸው ሃግሴትራ በሚገኘው የቅዱስ መድሃኒያለም ቤ/ክ ቅጥር ግቢ በታላቅ ድምቀት ማክሰኞ መስከረም 16/ 2005 ዓ/ም አከበሩ። ምሽቱን የሰንበት ት/ቤት ተማሪዎች እና ዲያቆናት ከበዓሉ ጋር ተያያዥነት ያላቸውን መንፈሳዊ መዝሙሮች አሰምተዋል። አቡነ ኤልያስ በእለቱ ቡራኬ ለምእመናኑ ሰጥተዋል።

Hundreds of Ethiopians residing in Stockholm and its environs celebrated Demera celebrated Demera, an annual religious holiday commemorating the discovery of the True Cross by Queen Helena (Saint Helena) in the fourth century by burning of a large bonfire, here early yesterday evening. This Demera-procession takes place in the early evening the day before Meskel or on the day itself, according to local traditions. Even though the weather was bad, the turn out was much larger than expected; young and old, men and women Ethiopians came in large numbers to celebrate the annual event. Sunday school students and the clergies sang religious songs praising Jesus and the power of the Meskel (i.e. Cross).

Thanks TPLF: I am ashamed to be an Ethiopian!

First impressions

Most of the times, they stay with us forever and I do hope that that is not the case with Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye, the two Swedish journalists who went through the worst and longest days of their lives in Ogaden and then in Kality prison in Ethiopia. Even though I was humbled and honoured to attend their first ever press conference after they had been “pardoned” by my benevolent government at the eve of Ethiopian new year, I couldn’t help but being ashamed about being an Ethiopian when the duo told about some very disturbing and thuggish atrocities that they were subjected to by the regime that calls itself a “democratically elected government”. Being ashamed about being an Ethiopian never stops coming back to my mind even after I left the press conference, and one of my Ethiopian acquaintances said

Oops I did it again and again and again: TPLF

Ethiopia “pardoned” the two Swedish journalists yesterday, after jailing them for more than a year in the Kality – one of its many notorious prisons. As an Ethiopian, such cliché-ridden action reminds me of a famous song by the American singer Britney Spears. You know, in Ethiopia, you'll be arrested for no crime, then charged with fabricated crime or a catch-term called “terrorism”, sentenced to long term jail sentence and then they put you on

Ethiopian Dissident Journalist Detained & Released at Speed of Light, But Why?

Ethiopia's Ministry of Justice released Temesghen Desalegn, editor of Feteh, from Kality Prison in Addis Ababa, the capital, on August 28 2012 at around 3 p.m. and dropped the charges it filed against him in unprecedented manner.  Desalegn was jailed days after the death of the country's Prime Minister, who was best known as a predator of the press, disclosed to the public after so much secrecy and conflicting reports by the ruling part. All of these charges the Prosecutor filed against the last remaining critical journalist in Ethiopia, might sound ridiculous in some part of the world; but in Ethiopia they're high profile crimes which could have put Desalegn in Kality however the same people who accused him of trying to incite violence among the general public, made a U turn and dropped all these charges which have never happened before. Sorry, just a slip-of -tongue; the same thing happened to the American journalist who was detained and released in less than 48 hours  last July. 

I'm glad that these two journalists don't have to go through all the nightmare, hundreds of fellow prisoners of conscious are being through. But, I can't help but to wonder why such preferential treatments are being given from a country with such a terrible human rights records. Hmm, maybe, is it some kind of charm offensive by Berket Simon to get sympathy for his deceased colleague/friend, who is trying refute all the allegation that business is as usual in Ethiopia post Meles Zenawi? Or the status quo will return after the staged drama of the funeral is undertaken and eventually you know the usual...

I hope this 'gesture' is 'genuine', will be extended to fellow Ethiopian and Swedish journalists, opposition figures/members and others who are being incarcerated for the crimes they didn't commit. One of my wishes for the coming Ethiopian New Year (which is 2005) alias Enqutatsh is that the old-guards learn from their unforgivable mistakes by releasing all prisoners of conscious in the country, make a reconciliation with the Ethiopian people and opposition parties at home and abroad so that to create a better place for all of us to live. I don't think, it's too early to make such wishes.         

Queries for my tiny-mini Blog scored 317% Increase! Google

I got the following mail on Tuesday August 25th 2012 from Google web-masters with a subject line "http://irefugee.blogspot.com/: Big traffic change for top URL".   

Search results clicks for http://irefugee.blogspot.com/2011/11/meles-stop-treating-your-daughter-as.html have increased significantly.

This message is not indicative of any problem in your site. It is simply to inform you that the number of clicks that one of your pages receives has increased recently. If you have just added new content, this may indicate that it has become more popular on Google. The number of clicks that your site receives from Google can change from day to day for a variety of factors, including automatic algorithm updates.

I know this particular article was one of the most popular ones ever since I published it on my blog last year in November, but I never thought it would score such unprecedented number of queries just in 24 hours (250 just in between August 25-26/2012) on Google's search engine. My wild guess is that this tribute is visited mainly by those millions of poor Ethiopians and Somalians, who are widowed/orphaned/bereaved/starved/raped/imprisoned, have become nostalgic of this peace-loving, very kind, genuine, visionary, democratic, inspirational, etc "leader" who passed away recently. Our  ''beloved'' and "benevolent" Prime Minister also will be missed Ethiopian and Swedish prisoners of conscious in Kality and other jails in Ethiopia including those who are charged in absentia for treason/terrorism. By the way, how are Moammer Qaddafi, Saddam Hussien, Adolf Hitler, Mobutu Sese Seko, Joseph Stalin and millions of your roommates doing? I hope they're making you comfortable at home and there are vacant rooms for your friends, you know, in Eritrea, the Sudan, Egypt, Yemen, Saudi-Arabia, Syria, Bahrain, Zimbabwe, Guinea-Bissau, Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran etc. so that you guys can have Tyrants-alumni and leave us alone in peace here. 

Enjoy your stay
one of your loyal worshipers from planet Earth.

Two of Ethiopia's most hated Patriarchs gone in a week – Divine intervention or just a Coincidence?

What a pity, what a pity, what a pity

                                                Gone Meles Zenawi, without tasting Kality. (Agust 21, 2012-Stockholm, Sweden).

I'm neither religious nor a conspiracy theorist. However I can't help but contemplate about the power of some divinity which allowed two of Ethiopia's most controversial/hated political/religous figures, who were alleged by many as the architects of the polarization of ethnic division among Ethiopians, to go one after another as they came in just a matter of days. I don't know them personally, but met them from afar while I was working at

Stockholm Went Rainbow Last Week

The Annual Stockholm Gay Pride Parade held for 15th time here in the capital on Saturday (August 4th, 2012) with glitter, carnival, flamboyant costumes and strong political statements. The festival which was started last week on Tuesday (July 31st 2012) and was organized by The Stockholm Pride organization fetched hundreds of thousands of local LGBT groups, merry makers, tourists, and a few LGBT activists at home and from abroad. This year's festival hosted various seminars, debates, photo exhibitions, concerts during the whole week and raised issues related to LGBT asylum seekers, sexuality and gender, HIV/Aids, violence against women etc. This year's theme was tillsamans which means together, didn't go without controversy. According to Justice Party's on-line magazine, the latest issue of the magazine QX quoted festival manager Alf Kjeller as saying "Pride will be an arena for the entire community, we should not be political," and eventually quiet a good number local disgruntled LGBTQ activists aka Anarchists (mainly working class/unemployed/low-income earners & the youth) distanced themselves from it by holding their own Parade outside the official Gay Parade House downtown at small cafe to show their protest against the inclusion of authorities which deport LGBT asylum seekers to gay hostile countries and companies that make profits out of these deportations. These local activist didn't participate in this year's Parade due to the organizers' indifference to English Defense League's rally which took place later the same afternoon. The organizers, however, rejected these allegations adding that this year's motto is 'togetherness' so everybody's value is welcomed. Even though, some critics accused this annual event's original meaning of fighting against discrimination of LGBT group was hijacked by a financial stunt for high income earners, a  rather a gross and ostentatious show of tasteless exhibitionism and not being a forum to raise awareness and understanding about the issues of LGBTQ community; there were a few activists from Iran and Russia which made a statement about the ongoing harassment and killings of LGBT groups in those respective countries.

PS. Thanks Globalreporting.net for borrowing the camera (mine is destroyed by an angry SL bus-driver last month) and RFSL's Newcomers asylum-group for offering Pride's free entrance ticket; otherwise I wouldn't be able to capture these moments in real time. 

No Racists on Our Streets! Sweden's Anti-Fascism & Racism Activists.

The rally held here in Stockholm on August 4th 2012 by The English Defense League (EDL) and its host and sister group calling themselves the Swedish Defense League (SDL), was outnumbered by hundreds of local Anti-racist & Anti-Fascist activists/protesters. Less than hundred EDL members, the far-right anti Muslim & Immigration, along with its sisters groups from Denmark, Germany, Finland and the US Tea Party movement were participated at this rally in connection with the annual Stockholm Gay Parade claiming to defend local LGBT groups as well as natives from the threats of Islam/Jihad.

However, more than 200 local Anti-racism & Fascism activists categorically rejected the alleged threat of Islam and said it has been used as a pretext to promote racist agenda in Europe, Austraila and Americas against against refugees/immigrant. Local activists were chanting slogans like EDL go to Hell, No Racists on Our Streets during the whole time. To avoid confrontation between the two opposing groups police cordoned off for more than 2hrs the Norra Stora Bantorget square where EDL and its supporters held the rally and the counter demonstration by local activists on the other side of the streets. There was heavy local Police (Civil & Uniformed) presence and security was tight. The Police blocked all the roads leading to Norra Bantorget so I had to walk more than 20 minutes to get a closer look at the EDL's rally which otherwise would have taken me less than a minute. Even though the rally was finished without much violence as feared; one particualr guy (the one with blue shirt on picture 5) from EDL has been pushing, provoking and smacking trumpets of the anti-racism activists several times while I was there. “English Defence League” was launched in Luton, England in an attempt to mobilize an anti-muslim sentiment as a movement on the streets. The Local, an on-line magazine, quoted a statement by a group associated to the meeting “Stockholm was chosen for the Global Counter Jihad rally because of the actions of an Iraqi-born Swedish citizen, Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, who travelled to central Stockholm on December 11, 2010 in order to commit mass murder”.