Young, Blonde, Scandinavian Women Camp in Morocco, With Predictable Results

 

Fox News has a story about two Scandinavian women in their mid 20s who went hiking in Morocco and were killed at their campsite. One was decapitated, one was nearly decapitated.  I don’t understand stories like this. Have these young women never heard of Islam? Modern western societies are fanatics about safety, even putting bicycle helmets on their kids to ride around their own yard. But then they take insane risks because of … well, I’m not sure what.

I’m a fairly experienced traveler in somewhat risky places, but I would never consider taking risks like this. They go to a Muslim country, take pictures like the one above, and presume they will be safe. I just don’t understand why these women thought they could do this.

This was not a tragedy. This was murder. The real tragedy was that it is so predictable, so routine, that it wouldn’t even be a news story if they weren’t young and beautiful. I’m not being unsympathetic. Quite the opposite. But this rosy view of reality, despite all evidence to the contrary, is remarkable. And remarkably common. And remarkably dangerous.

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  1. Dr. Bastiat Member
    Dr. Bastiat
    @drbastiat

    Misthiocracy, Joke Pending (View Comment):
    The men arrested for the crime are reportedly from Marrakesh and are allegedly members of a “radicalized group”.

    Islam is a radicalized group.

    You could argue that only the true believers are dangerous.  The more devout they become, the more dangerous they become.

    If the only members of a faith that are dangerous are the ones that really actually believe in that faith, then that is a problem.

    But the more devout a Christian becomes, the less dangerous he becomes.  The guys on my front porch with little Bibles may be annoying, but they’re not dangerous.   Not to anyone.  That’s an important difference.

    Multiculturalism is willful blindness.

    • #31
  2. SWBart Inactive
    SWBart
    @SWBart

    Young people tend to forget that the larger world can be a dangerous place when they are raised in safe orderly places.  You don’t say which of the countries of Scandinavia they were from, but they are all orderly safe places where you could go camping like that.  They may have just wanted warmer weather and found a bargain flight.  Without a good grounding in history or world events I could see how a couple young women could do not even think that it might not be a good plan.

    • #32
  3. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    I saw this story.  My solution?  A ban on all tourism to Muslim countries from western governments similar to what the US did with Cuba (I’d add Indonesia for a different reason).

    Muslims view westerners as infidels, which means they can do whatever they want to do to them.  Even if the men who did this heinous act are convicted and executed, the base population is still taught such behavior is acceptable.  It’s like those idiots bicycling for peace.  They also got killed for who and what they were.

    • #33
  4. Dr. Bastiat Member
    Dr. Bastiat
    @drbastiat

    Stad (View Comment):
    They also got killed for who and what they were.

    That thought crossed my mind as well.  These young ladies died for their religion.  They are martyrs for the cause of modern leftism, perhaps the most dominant religion in the world today.

    I didn’t put that in my post, because to my mind, that is an insult to them.  But if they are true believers, that’s really not a criticism.  They died for what they believed in.

    There are worse things, I suppose.

    But since I’m not a leftist, this appears horrifying to me.

    • #34
  5. Arizona Patriot Member
    Arizona Patriot
    @ArizonaPatriot

    Hang On (View Comment):

    You could look at it as devolution.

    Image result for Vikings

    She could have taken care of herself in Morocco.

    Actually, it seems more likely that these two poor hikers thought that they were something like this girl, strong and able to protect themselves.  This is a silly fantasy of the Leftist media.  Real Viking girls would be slaughtered by Moroccan men, or by just about any other men.  In hand-to-hand combat, men are vastly bigger and stronger than women.

    I don’t want to stress this point too much, though.  I’m a pretty big guy and I know how to use a gun, but I wouldn’t want to count on being able to defend myself from a couple of other guys, Jihadi or otherwise.  My rule is to stay out of Morocco, but heck, I don’t even go to Mexico anymore.

    • #35
  6. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    Misthiocracy, Joke Pending (View Comment):

    Morocco’s government spends a fair bit on tourism promotion.

    Dig their tourist information web site:

    https://www.visitmorocco.com/en

    Compared to other muslim-majority countries, Morocco is one of the least dangerous.

    Heck, their homicide rate is lower than Canada’s.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate

    Between 2009 and 2016, Morocco didn’t make the top 25 for US travel warnings or the Top 25 for American deaths (Mexico holds the top spot in both rankings):

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/priceonomics/2017/03/21/ranking-the-most-dangerous-countries-for-americans-to-visit

    The archive of US travel warnings for Morocco is pretty sparse. Looks like things didn’t really start to get dangerous for tourists until recently:

    https://ma.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/security-and-travel-information/archive-alerts-messages/

    Addendum: Of course, one reason Mexico has the most American deaths is because it’s the top travel destination for Americans by a huge margin*.

    If you adjust the statistics to rank American deaths as a percentage of US visitors to that country, then Pakistan takes the top spot.

    (* Canada is the #2 travel destination for Americans and it’s not on the list of dangerous places for Americans to visit, so clearly the total number of visitors isn’t the only factor)

    Impressive chart.  What do the per capita figures mean? The number of Americans killed, on average, by each citizen of that country?  Pakistan’s population is…

    • #36
  7. EJHill Podcaster
    EJHill
    @EJHill

    Hang On:

    Image result for Vikings

    She could have taken care of herself in Morocco.

    You have no idea. That actress is Katheryn Winnick. Ukrainian by birth her family emigrated to Toronto early in childhood. From her Wikipedia page:

    She began training in martial arts at age seven, and obtained her first black belt at 13. By age 21, she had started three Taekwondo schools. She taught Taekwondo and self-defense to actors while completing her degree in Kinesiology at York University, Toronto.

    • #37
  8. Dr. Bastiat Member
    Dr. Bastiat
    @drbastiat

    EJHill (View Comment):

    Hang On:

    Image result for Vikings

    She could have taken care of herself in Morocco.

    You have no idea. That actress is Katheryn Winnick. Ukrainian by birth her family emigrated to Toronto early in childhood. From her Wikipedia page:

    She began training in martial arts at age seven, and obtained her first black belt at 13. By age 21, she had started three Taekwondo schools. She taught Taekwondo and self-defense to actors while completing her degree in Kinesiology at York University, Toronto.

    And a common street thug could kill her with his bare hands.  

    • #38
  9. Henry Castaigne Member
    Henry Castaigne
    @HenryCastaigne

    Hang On (View Comment):

    Morocco used to be the place English in particular would go to smoke hash legally. Much closer than Nepal. Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir, e.g. And there was always Ab Fab and their foray to Morocco.

    But then there’s Babel, which is a great movie, for entirely different side of Morocco.

    I’ve never been to Morocco. But a co-worker went with his wife, who is very attractive. As they were walking around the bizarre in Marakech, someone asked him how many goats he would take for his wife. His wife was shocked. My friend asked, “How will I get the goats home?”

    What’s a flattering number of goats? Like how many goats would Hally Berry get when she starred in Swordfish?

    • #39
  10. Henry Castaigne Member
    Henry Castaigne
    @HenryCastaigne

    Arizona Patriot (View Comment):
    Real Viking girls would be slaughtered by Moroccan men, or by just about any other men. In hand-to-hand combat, men are vastly bigger and stronger than women.

    Yeah but they would take one or two guys out with swords first and thus earn a stay in Valhalla.

    • #40
  11. Ekosj Member
    Ekosj
    @Ekosj

    There are two Spanish possessions on the North African coast… the cities of Melilla and Ceuta.   They sit on the Moroccan coast but they are part of Spain and hence the EU.    They are a magnet for illegal immigrants.     No need for the expensive and hazardous crossing of the Mediterranian in some overcrowded skiff.   Hop the fence in Ceuta and you are golden!

    • #41
  12. She Member
    She
    @She

    I am reminded of the sad case of Otto Warmbier, in North Korea.  And of this story about a couple of cyclists killed in Tajikistan.  I know there are more.

    As for the rest of it, I can’t even.  The young people of today have, for the first time in history, the entire experience of their parents and grandparents laid out before them in moving pictures, with random-access, and immediate, recall.  They ought to be able to distinguish the good guys from the bad, with no trouble at all.  (For the latest and profoundly impressive example of this, see Peter Jackson’s film, They Shall Not Grow Old.  And go see it, if you can, on December 27.)

    But it seems that many of the young are oblivious of the lessons of history.  That, and the fact that so many are unmoored from concepts of “good” and “evil” (and in many cases are taught that there is no such thing as evil, and that everyone (except those of your parents and grandparents generation) are wonderful people who will not hurt you) it’s no wonder that their naivete leads them to believe that no-one means them ill. Couple that with the tendency that the young have to believe that they are immortal, and it’s a recipe for disaster.

    Heartbreaking.  And so unnecessary, if only folks would be rational about it.

    • #42
  13. Rightfromthestart Coolidge
    Rightfromthestart
    @Rightfromthestart

    Manny (View Comment):

    It’s absolutely amazing. They have bought into the stupidity of multiculturalism, that all cultures are equally humane or have similar values. Let me guess, these poor women were Liberals.

    And one other thing, this is why I advocate immigration policy based on cultural compatibility. No, not all cultures are the same.

    Bingo! It is said political correctness is a war on noticing things ( or noticing the obvious) in this case having been raised in a world of sexual equality in all things they seemed to fail to realize that they are attractive women venturing into a world where they would be considered prey. 

    • #43
  14. Rightfromthestart Coolidge
    Rightfromthestart
    @Rightfromthestart

    Just another thought, does something like this rouse Scandinavians to anger or have they become the passive Eloi that H.G Welles envisioned.  

    • #44
  15. Full Size Tabby Member
    Full Size Tabby
    @FullSizeTabby

    the Moroccan government is very dependent on European tourism, and thus has a strong interest in maintaining an image of safety for European tourists.

    I am acquainted with a young (American) man who recently finished a multi-year stint operating businesses in Morocco as part of his mission to spread Christ. Although while he was there he kept his head down because such spreading of Christianity was technically illegal, he said he didn’t get hassled much by the Moroccan government because the Moroccan government was so busy protecting the European tourist business that they didn’t have time to hassle otherwise peaceful Christian missionaries. 

    The Moroccan government will probably work had to try to keep such an event from repeating.

    • #45
  16. Manny Coolidge
    Manny
    @Manny

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    Misthiocracy, Joke Pending (View Comment):
    The men arrested for the crime are reportedly from Marrakesh and are allegedly members of a “radicalized group”.

    Islam is a radicalized group.

    You could argue that only the true believers are dangerous. The more devout they become, the more dangerous they become.

    If the only members of a faith that are dangerous are the ones that really actually believe in that faith, then that is a problem.

    But the more devout a Christian becomes, the less dangerous he becomes. The guys on my front porch with little Bibles may be annoying, but they’re not dangerous. Not to anyone. That’s an important difference.

    Multiculturalism is willful blindness.

    Actually I can’t think of another major religion that one has to worry about your safety as they become more devout. Only Islam. 

    • #46
  17. Henry Castaigne Member
    Henry Castaigne
    @HenryCastaigne

    Manny (View Comment):
    Actually I can’t think of another major religion that one has to worry about your safety as they become more devout. Only Islam. 

    There is a particular variant of Burmese Buddhism that seems to be utter garbage. 

    • #47
  18. Manny Coolidge
    Manny
    @Manny

    Henry Castaigne (View Comment):

    Manny (View Comment):
    Actually I can’t think of another major religion that one has to worry about your safety as they become more devout. Only Islam.

    There is a particular variant of Burmese Buddhism that seems to be utter garbage.

    Ok. I’m not aware. 

    • #48
  19. Mountie Coolidge
    Mountie
    @Mountie

    Europeans haven’t corner the market on naivety

     

     

     

     

    • #49
  20. Henry Castaigne Member
    Henry Castaigne
    @HenryCastaigne

    Manny (View Comment):
    MemberManny  

    Henry Castaigne (View Comment):

    Manny (View Comment):
    Actually I can’t think of another major religion that one has to worry about your safety as they become more devout. Only Islam.

    There is a particular variant of Burmese Buddhism that seems to be utter garbage.

    Ok. I’m not aware. 

     

    • #50
  21. Manny Coolidge
    Manny
    @Manny

    Mountie (View Comment):

    Europeans haven’t corner the market on naivety

     

    Tajikistan is supposed to be a radical country.  My wife and I adopted our son from Kazakhstan, which is right next door.  We spent about six weeks in total (two separate trips) in Kazakhstan, which is relatively mild.  They were just learning their Islamic religion at the time, but it’s neighboring countries were hot beds.  If that biker had crossed north in Kazakhstan, he probably would have been ok.  

     

     

     

    • #51
  22. Manny Coolidge
    Manny
    @Manny

    Henry Castaigne (View Comment):

    Manny (View Comment):
    MemberManny

    Henry Castaigne (View Comment):

    Manny (View Comment):
    Actually I can’t think of another major religion that one has to worry about your safety as they become more devout. Only Islam.

    There is a particular variant of Burmese Buddhism that seems to be utter garbage.

    Ok. I’m not aware.

    Multiculturalism at work.  Oh yes I have heard about this and the way it is characterized in the media paints the Buddhists as the bad guys and the Muslims as pure victim.  I don’t know the exact facts and the legitimacy of the Buddhists’ claims.  The Buddhists don’t seem to be claiming a religious rationale for their actions.  It seems like it’s perceived victim hood.  Historically Muslims are the aggressors and Buddhists are not.  This would be one heck of an anomaly if how the media paints the picture were totally true.  I just don’t know.  I just don’t get sucked into Liberal sources any more.

    • #52
  23. The Cloaked Gaijin Member
    The Cloaked Gaijin
    @TheCloakedGaijin

    Rest in Peace.

    However, it reminds me of this, although they didn’t try it with a woman and apparently friendly people were keeping an eye on this rather large guy.

    • #53
  24. Henry Castaigne Member
    Henry Castaigne
    @HenryCastaigne

    Manny (View Comment):
    The Buddhists don’t seem to be claiming a religious rationale for their actions. It seems like it’s perceived victim hood. Historically Muslims are the aggressors and Buddhists are not. This would be one heck of an anomaly if how the media paints the picture were totally true. I just don’t know. I just don’t get sucked into Liberal sources any more.

    I agree and sympathize with all your points. But man, did Burma really need to expel 100,000 Rohinga people? I’m sure that there are some Islamic terrorists that are utterly cruel and evil but does the Burmese government really need to persecute everybody. 

    • #54
  25. Hugh Inactive
    Hugh
    @Hugh

    Hang On (View Comment):

    Morocco used to be the place English in particular would go to smoke hash legally. Much closer than Nepal. Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir, e.g. And there was always Ab Fab and their foray to Morocco.

    But then there’s Babel, which is a great movie, for entirely different side of Morocco.

    I’ve never been to Morocco. But a co-worker went with his wife, who is very attractive. As they were walking around the bizarre in Marakech, someone asked him how many goats he would take for his wife. His wife was shocked. My friend asked, “How will I get the goats home?”

    Two part solution to the violence problem in Africa:

    – 1 move all the people to Europe

    – 2 Africa becomes a tourist paradise.

    -fin-

    • #55
  26. Idahoklahoman Member
    Idahoklahoman
    @Idahoklahoman

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    EJHill (View Comment):

    Hang On:

    Image result for Vikings

    She could have taken care of herself in Morocco.

    You have no idea. That actress is Katheryn Winnick. Ukrainian by birth her family emigrated to Toronto early in childhood. From her Wikipedia page:

    She began training in martial arts at age seven, and obtained her first black belt at 13. By age 21, she had started three Taekwondo schools. She taught Taekwondo and self-defense to actors while completing her degree in Kinesiology at York University, Toronto.

    And a common street thug could kill her with his bare hands.

    She could fend off a guy who’s not very motivated, or perhaps one who is not very big, and untrained. It’s like how a cat can usually stare down a dog — it’s not that the dog can’t take him, it’s that he’s not interested enough to risk the scratches. An average-sized, motivated guy could take her unless she gets in a lucky shot. Or, better yet, has that sword on her.

    • #56
  27. Dr. Bastiat Member
    Dr. Bastiat
    @drbastiat

    Update:  FoxNews has a new story on this as of this morning.  It turns out that the group who murdered the young women videotaped their decapitation, and that video is circulating on Moroccan social media now.

    The article speculates that the killing may have something to do with terrorism, but that has not been confirmed:  “…authorities believe the horrifying attack bears some of the hallmarks of terrorism…”  The article does not mention the words “Islam” or “Muslim.”

    It’s hard-hitting fact-based journalism like this that creates sufficient levels of ignorance to lead to events like this.  The media is at least partially to blame for the deaths of these women, and many others around the world.

    • #57
  28. Doug Watt Member
    Doug Watt
    @DougWatt

    Tourists are robbed, raped, and murdered in the United States. The vacation mindset may reduce situational awareness that a person would practice in their own city, or country. Rental car companies in Miami removed their logos from vehicles because tourists and business customers were being robbed at about the moment they left the airport.

    I can think of areas that I wouldn’t recommend a tourist visit in American cities I’ve visited.

    • #58
  29. Lois Lane Coolidge
    Lois Lane
    @LoisLane

    I found all of these remarks interesting.

    I have a dear friend from Morocco who speaks multiple languages and is extremely cosmopolitan.  She’s a Muslim but one of the dearest people on the planet.  I would not think twice about visiting her home country, though I would hesitate to go camping in a remote spot even in the United States without a gun.  It does not seem these girls went to a remote spot though.  They were where many tourists go, so I don’t think they were being irresponsible.

    Look.  Do you guys remember the spate of tourist killings in Florida?  It prompted rental cars to change how they do license plates.  For a while, Germany considered the United States as one of the most dangerous countries on the planet to visit.  At that time I think we were THE most dangerous country.  There is plenty of evidence of violence in our cities, and several German tourists were brutally murdered while on vacation.

    On a European version of Ricochet someone might have posted…  Why’d you go to the US?  It’s a country full of armed and crazy criminals.  What a stupid risk!  Go to Paris!  (They’ve got those pretty yellow vests!)  All you have to do is watch an American newscast to know that place full of Trump supporters–a very scary lot–is not safe!

    Now let me be clear.

    I think one should be cautious when traveling abroad.  One should take into account the culture and risks of any foreign country.  Some countries are certainly more dangerous than others.  I would never, for example, go to North Korea or Afghanistan or Syria on vacation.  When in Turkey, we also stuck closer to Istanbul per some of the real radicalizing that we know is currently happening in that country.  But this is an unfortunate, horrible, brutal event that occurred in a place that is not known for this sort of tourist directed terrorism.

    I am so sorry for these girls and their families.  I will pray for them.  Call me naive, but I don’t think they did anything that was wrong or stupid.

    • #59
  30. Yehoshua Ben-Eliyahu Inactive
    Yehoshua Ben-Eliyahu
    @YehoshuaBenEliyahu

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):
    it’s really more about the baseless idealism of western civilization than it is about the two unfortunate women.

    Yes, baseless, because Western civilization at its Athenian core was pagan and the gods of Greek culture were capricious, appetitive, and vengeful.  Greek democracy lasted only 186 years, propped up by slavery and the conquests of Alexander the Great. The so-called Enlightenment of the 18th century was also essentially pagan.  Rousseau waxed poetic about “the noble savage” and may well have extolled leftist ideology had he still been around today.

    Western civilization reached its pinnacle on America’s shores, settled by people seeking freedom to worship G-d in their own way.  Lincoln, America’s greatest president, had profound reverence for the Bible.  But now America, too, is on the cusp of significant decline as it has exiled G-d from its schools and the public square.

    The sunny idealism of these two young women, charming as it may be, was devoid of an appreciation that there is evil — a concept of Biblical origin — in the world, much of it coming from Islam.  Living in Scandinavia, they should have known better although, in that secular portion of the globe, the word “evil” is probably never uttered, and definitely not in the context of Moslem mistreatment of Scandinavian women since that would violate the pieties of multi-culturalism.

    • #60
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