Month: December 2021

European Islamophobia Report: Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The European Islamophobia Report 2020 was published on December 29. Below is the Finland chapter of the report. The editors for the report are Dr. Enes Bayrakli and Dr. Farid Hafez.

While the government of Prime Minister Sanna Marin has tried to roll back some of the draconian immigration law measures of the previous government, Islamophobia continues to be an obstacle in treating Muslims and other minorities as equal members of society.

The big question will be the 2023 parliamentary elections and if the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus), which is flirting with the far-right Finns Party (PS), will emerge – as recent opinion polls suggest – as the winner and form the country’s next government.

The actions and messages of Kokoomus are a cause for genuine concern for Finland’s culturally diverse community, especially Muslims.

In Finland, officials are quick to remind newcomers about gender equality, but too little is mentioned about equity for everyone irrespective of their background. Finding a job is part of the integration program, but too little is mentioned about discrimination at work and in the labor market. Due process still takes too long, and there are big questions about how seriously Finland sees institutional racism, the rise of fascism, and other social ills like hate speech.

Ensuring that Finland is not a hostile place to minorities is paramount and ensures that social ills like Islamophobia will not undermine the country’s democratic institutions.

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Somali-Finn victim’s mother appeals manslaughter conviction

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The mother of eighteen-year-old Keyse Abdifatah Maalesh, stabbed to death at Kannelmäki Helsinki railway station on April 26, 2020, by a white Finn called Miro Pesonen, is appealing the involuntary manslaughter ruling on September 7, 2020, by the Helsinki District Court.

The mother who said that she had not found the energy to pursue the case because of health issues, believed that the Court of Appeal would decide on their appeal “soon.”

Keyse Abdifatah Maalesh was stabbed and killed on April 26 at the Kanneläki train station of Helsinki. The police did not consider the death a hate crime. Source: Facebook

She added that at the time of the death of her son, she felt abandoned by the authorities, the Somali and foreign community.

“I was all alone,” she added. “I felt abandoned by the authorities, the Somali and foreign community.”

“We appealed the decision of the Helsinki District Court and are hoping to raise the conviction to 9-10 years from 5 years now,” she added.

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A question to the Kankaanpää police: Was a proper investigation carried out on the burning of an asylum reception center in 2015?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

In 2015, when a record number of asylum seekers came to Finland, a number of attacks were carried out against asylum reception centers. One of these was in Niinisalo, located a stone’s throw from Kankaanpää, where over two weeks ago a group of white Finnish terrorist suspects was detained by the police.

While a lot of questions abound about the motives and ideology of the white Finnish terrorist suspects, there is one question that needs an answer.

For those who don’t remember, a building going to house asylum seekers was set alight and razed to the ground in December 2015 in Niinisalo. Perussuomalaiset* MP Juho Mäenpää, elected to parliament in 2019, claimed jubilantly after the arson attack: “Great. There is a god. My prayers have been answered.”

I interviewed Mäenpää and asked him about the arson attack. “Politicians should wake up to the situation [of asylum seekers],” he said, “if they don’t it could spark a civil war.”

The person thanking God for the burning of the future asylum center and threatening a civil war is none other than Mäenpää, who is Southern Ostrobothnia district manager of the far-right and Nazi-spirited Suomen Sisu association. During a session of parliament in 2019, he labeled asylum seekers “an invasive species.”

On the left the future asylum reception center razed to the ground in Niinisalo and (left) Mäenpää thanking god for burning it down. Sources: Yle and Twitter
Continue reading “A question to the Kankaanpää police: Was a proper investigation carried out on the burning of an asylum reception center in 2015?”

The sources of Finland’s far-right problem: downplaying and denial

Posted on by Migrant Tales

“The main agents of ideological violence are not isolated ‘lone wolves’ but are usually interconnected with communities, non-violent agents and legal entities, at times even including connections to law enforcement personnel.”

Mihai Varga

Over two weeks have elapsed since the police announced the detention of five white-Finn terrorist suspects in the Western Finnish city of Kankaanpää. Reaction to the detention has varied, but one matter is for sure: Denial shrouds our ability to identify and challenge the social ill.

The terrorist suspects of Kankaanpää are no joke. They meant business but does Finland mean business when challenging such groups? Is our exceptionalism blinding us from tackling the social ill? Photo: Police

Denial comes in many ways:

  • The terrorist suspects are a lone detached splinter group
  • Even if the suspects had committed acts of violence and promoted their far-right white nationalist ideology in Kankaanpää before, the rector of the Satakunta University of Applied Sciences (SAMK), Jari Multisilta, downplayed the threat
  • Contrary to what some students felt that SAMK hadn’t given them enough support, Multisilta was quoted as saying in Yle that there was no threat to the fine arts campus in Kankaanpää by the suspects and that the authorities had not been in touch with the university
  • The fact that the police had not been in contact with SAMK about the threat reveals how they may have downplayed the problem in Kankaanpää
  • In 2015, a new asylum reception center was razed to the ground; we still don’t know who the possible suspects are and if like-minded groups carried it out
  • Yle A-studio airs over a week after the detentions a talk show about far-right violence with researcher Leena Malkki and police Superintendant Jari Tapanen
  • If the detained suspects were Muslims, a talk show and reaction would be much swifter
  • In the talk show, the rise of far-right terrorist violence is blamed on social media and an issue facing young people
  • There is no mention about how Finnish society and the police are responding to the rise of far-right terrorism and ideology
  • There is no mention about how Islamophobia can be a bridge between far-right ideology and terrorism
  • Why didn’t the A-studio program bring up how the rise of populist parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, far-right associations like Suomen Sisu among their ranks and their close links with even neo-Nazi groups promote far-right ideology are fertile ground for acts of terrorism?
  • The PS is the biggest party of the Kankaanpää city council
  • Why do we still know so little about this group and other ones that may be conspiring to carry out acts of terrorism?

Bye-bye Inger Støjberg, something is not always rotten in Denmark

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Former Danish immigration and integration minister, Inger Støjberg, was convicted to 60 days in prison for illegally separating asylum-seeking couples if the partner was under 18, reports Euronews. An uncompromising Islamophobic hardliner who served as minister during 2005-2019 was also responsible for passing a law that required asylum seekers to hand over valuables like jewelry to pay for their stays in Denmark.

The impeachment court, which had not convened for 26 years, found Inger Støjberg guilty of providing parliament with “incorrect and misleading information and that she had neglected her ministerial duties >”intentionally or through gross negligence.”

Apart from her conviction, parliament will decide whether she can continue to serve as an MP.

Maintaining her innocence and thanking her supporters, Støjberg was quoted as saying on Facebook that the ruling was a blow to Danish values.

Inger Støjberg. Source: Bashy Quraishy’s Facebook.

Apart from other harsh laws against asylum seekers, Støjberg ended up in legal hot water when she initiated a policy of separating under-eighteen-year-olds from their partners on suspicion of forced marriages.

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Some SAMK students of Kankaanpää feel that the school hasn’t given them enough support

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After the police had detained five white Finnish terrorist suspects in the town of Kankaanpää, students at the fine arts campus of the Satakunta University of Applied Science (SAMK) were surprised to read from Iltalehti that one of the apparent targets of the terrorist suspects was the school.

SAMK’s Kankaanpää campus has about 300 students.

“We had heard about how much those held in custody by the police wanted us out of Kankaanpää because we studied fine arts and because we weren’t from the town,” said a SAMK student, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid any reprisals against him.

Like the rest of Finland, the SAMK student had read about the five terrorist suspects on Friday (3.12) thanks to the media. However, on Wednesday, Iltalehti wrote that one of the targets was the school.

Some of the students feel abandoned by SAMK,” the student said. “We read the Iltalehti story [that the school was a target of the terrorist suspects] on Wednesday, but it was not until Friday that the principal spoke to the students of the school.”

Sources: Iltalehti and SAMK
Continue reading “Some SAMK students of Kankaanpää feel that the school hasn’t given them enough support”

Downplaying and whitewashing the far-right threat in Finland

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It is disappointing to note that it took Finland’s largest daily, Helsingin Sanomat, five days to write an editorial on the threat posed by the far-right after the detention of five white Finns on Friday. Considering the media attention and general outrage in general that Abderrahman Mechkah knife attack caused in Turku in 2017, a question emerges: were the suspects in Kakaanpää the wrong type of terrorists?

Pictures apprehended of the terrorist suspects. Source: Police

Moreover, the suggestion that the Kankaanpää suspects were some isolated splinter group detached from society is an example of how the problem is being whitewashed. As Mihai Varga stated: “The main agents of ideological violence are not isolated ‘lone wolves’ but are usually interconnected with communities, non-violent agents and legal entities, at times even including connections to law enforcement personnel.”

Continue reading “Downplaying and whitewashing the far-right threat in Finland”

The PS was, is, and will be a party with close ties to neo-Nazi and fascist groups

Posted on by Migrant Tales

From the days when Timo Soini headed the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party to the present, there’s one denial coming from the party that is an outright lie: The PS is not a far-right party with links to neo-Nazi, fascist and far-right groups. 

I could list several examples, but let’s look at Kansallismielisten liittouma, a perfect example of the PS links with far-right groups. Eight of the 13 persons (61.5%) in the picture below are or were PS members.

Remember when PS MP Juho Eerola’s aide, Ulla Pyysalo, was caught seeking membership in Pohjoismaisen vastarintaliike (PVL), a neo-Nazi association?

There are many, many other shameful examples. You would have to be very susceptible to believe that the PS is not a far-right party set on destroying our democracy and Nordic way of life.

One notable guest of Kansallismielisten liitouma is Antti Niemi, the former head of PVL’s Finnish chapter.

Source: Twitter

How long will Finns put up with these types of politicians and parties and vote them out of power?