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When the "Arab Street" Comes to Sweden

(Bloomberg) Noah Feldman - It's no surprise that President Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital has sparked violence in the West Bank and Beirut. But Sweden? The Swedish city of Gothenburg saw the firebombing of a synagogue, while in Malmo, demonstrators called for their own "intifada" and threatened to shoot Jews. This reflects a changed demographic reality. The "Arab street" is no longer restricted to Arabic-speaking countries. Arab and other Muslim immigrants now living in Europe increasingly play an active role in enacting collective political opinion. Indeed, because Western European states respect civil liberties, Arabs and Muslims living in places like Sweden may have more freedom to protest than their counterparts in majority-Arab or Muslim countries. The writer is a professor of constitutional and international law at Harvard University.
2017-12-14 00:00:00
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