Month: May 2024

Finland’s Islamophobic network

Posted on by Migrant Tales

In writing the Finland chapter for the European Islamophobia Report 2023, I sometimes give a partial preview of the “Central Figures in the Islamophobic Network.” Last year’s pick could well be the same candidates for 2024.

An imam I spoke to a few years ago described well the difference of the racism of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and the National Coalition Party (NCP). “The Perussuomalaiset don’t hide their racism but the NCP does,” he said.

With the entry of the PS in government, I have noticed that the party has gone in the closet like the NCP with its hostile racist views. The PS, like the NCP, can claim with a poker face that the migration policy of the government isn’t racist because it is in line with other Nordic countries.

If this is the case, we could then conclude that all the Nordic countries’ migration policy is racist.

Despite the latter, the PS continues to be one of the most important facilitators for Finland’s Islamophobic, far-right network. It is Hungarian Trojan Horse making its presence felt in all circles. Like the NCP, it uses the cover of institutional racism to hide its vile racism.

The PS continues to have close ties with groups that are hostile to Muslim groups like Suomen Sisu, Soldiers of Odin, Hommaforum, Kansallismielisten liitouma (National Alliance), Sinimusta Liike (Black-and-Blue Movement), the banned neo-Nazi Pohjoismainen vastarintaliike, and others.

All the 39 MPs of the PS elected to parliament based their campaign on the party’s anti-immigration theme.

The main PS ministers of government, Minister of Finance Riikka Purra, Interior Minister Mari Rantanen, Justice Minister Leena Meri, Minister for Development Cooperation Ville Tavio, present and former Minister of Economic Affairs Wille Rydman and Vilhelm Junnla, Speaker of Parliament Jussi Halla-aho, maintain the hostile environment against migrants and minorities.

The European Islamophobia Report 2023 will come out in the summer.

EU election – Perussuomalaiset Mari Rntanen article inciting ethnic hatred in 1930s fascist progaganda

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Interior Minister Mari Rantanen and her far-right follower of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* like to copy and paste. Apart from inciting memories of the 1930s, when fascism and anti-Semitism were the order of the day, the PS continues to spread its Islamophobia and fascism.

The analogy that the PS makes in their EU election brochure should be condemned for being disgusting, racist, and inciting hatred.

An official complaint would be in place that the picture incites ethnic agitation.

How similar are the two pictures? The one on the left could not be found online. Nigel Farage scaring people before the Brexit vote. Source: Independent

The Finnish government’s vile 11 months in power

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“When a clown moves into a palace he doesn’t become a king, the place becomes a circus.”

A Turkish proverb

Finland has turned into a show of lying politicians who no longer rely on facts but on prejudice and bigotry. Even if we mention the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party, National Coalition Party’s (NCP) Prime Minister Petteri Orpo is the ringmaster, saying one thing and meaning another.

The only conclusion I can come to after living decades in Finland is that the country’s racism problem is getting worse.

The government’s ignorance, lust for power, and neo-conservative economic policies are concerning. It suggests that the government has few problems in throwing under the bus the rule of law, Human Rights, and international agreements.

One part of Finlnad’s, or particularly the government’s, alternative reality is its migration policy, labor market, and changes to social welfare.

These are not changes but they are referred to by the government as paradigm changes:

  • changing the period of residence from five to eight years for citizenship;
  • tougher rules to get a permanent residence and citizenship;
  • prohibit asylum seekers from getting a work permit;
  • speed up deportations and asylum applications;
  • tighter family reunification requirements;
  • a person will be forced to leave the after being unemployed does not find employment in three (non-specialists) or six months (specialists);
  • imprison undocumented migrants;
  • temporarily suspend asylum rights at the Finnish-Russian border;
  • deny dual citizenship rights to Russian nationals.

Politicians from the PS and NCP will tell you with a poker face that the paradigm changes in migration policy have nothing to do with racism since “we are bringing to line out policy with the rest of the Nordic countries.”

Could we conclude that all the Nordic countries’ migration policies are then racist?

“The population changes, problems mount.” Let’s have a frank chat about the Great Replacement theory. How white Finns are becoming a minority and how Finland is being taken over by Muslims. “Let’s have a frank chat about the Great Replacement theory. How white Finns are becoming a minority and how Finland is being taken over by Muslims. Source: Facebook

Interior Minister Mari Rantanen and Finance Minister Riikka Purra before they were elected in 2023 and appointed ministers. Source: Facebook

The politicians leading Fnland in government leave a lot to be desired. Prime Minister Orpo has given them a platform to fulfill their xenophobic yearnings and racist antics.

Social Democrat MP Tytti Tupparainen said something that few in the media dared to ask. Eleven months of right-wing xenophobic policies have led us to even consider suspending the rule of law, Human Rights, and Constitutional rights through the pushback law.

Tuppurainen considered at A-talk the government’s pushback law as a Trojan Horse to spread the PS’ and NCP’s anti-immigration policies. She pointed her comment at Jukka Kopra (NCP) and Mauri Peltokangas (PS), two MPs who have made their career on spreading racism.

Watch program (in Finnish) here.

“Jukka Kopra has said that we should be able to turn back all asylum seekers. Mauri Peltokangas has spoken of them in very ugly terms as parasitic animals. With this attitude, we want to be careful that the government does not use this law as a pretext to drag Finland’s immigration policy in a more restrictive direction.”

The response by Kopra to Tuppurainen was an example of his and the NCP’s alternate state of reality. “I am in favor of a restrictive immigration policy precisely so that resources can be allocated to those who really need help,” he said.

Does Kopra’s response make any sense?

The government’s anti-racism program stops racism on paper

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The Finnish government has called for comment on its proposed six-million-euro action program against racism by June 10th. The program’s development began last year when then President Sauli Niinistö was questioned at an international press conference about racist remarks made by ministers in the Petteri Orpo government.

Announced in May, the program calls for anti-racist programs in ministries, schools, and volunteer organizations. It highlights the adoption of a national holocaust remembrance day and promises to make holocaust denial illegal. Other welcome issues, though modest in substance, is a reference to Islamophobia, but nothing on specific measures.

There is also no mention of intended legal reforms in response to charges against Finland by the EU Commission (ECRI) regarding weak legal protections against racism. It would be a systemic
change isf such measures were adopted but there is little in the program outline of that nature.

That is likely because such changes could get ministers like Riikka Purra- who recently reiterated her view that there was a conspiracy to replace white Europeans with immigrants- in trouble.

Her social media remarks about fantasizing shooting immigrant kids on a commuter train, as well as Minister for Economic Affairs Wille Rydman’s emails about wanting to ban Muslim women rather than their hijabs, was what got the government in trouble to begin with.

There is no specific mention of Africans, although an EU study recently found that group to be more discriminated against in Finland than in any country in Western Europe. Finland’s largest
immigrant minority, its Russian community, is also totally ignored although in other recent legislation, their travel and relations with families in their home country have been seriously hampered.

Continue reading “The government’s anti-racism program stops racism on paper”

Pushback law: A day that will live in infamy, a day when the government attempts to legalize illegality

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THE STORY WAS UPDATED

The Finnish government announced Tuesday a day that will live in infamy when it introduced to parliament Tuesday the  Draft Act on Temporary Measures to Combat Instrumentalised Migration, or the so-called pushback law.

In a nutshell, researcher Milka Sormunen sums up in a good essay what the law is all about: legalizing illegality.

Moreover, would you trust a government and Interior Minister Mari Rantanen to spearhead such a law? Rantanen is an Islamophobe that sees Muslims even under her bed.

In an editorial, Helsingin Sanomat hit it right on the dot: “The stage is now being set for how easily another government in another situation could also violate the constitution and international treaties.”

Two questions arise from the draft pushback law:
– Will it be effective in stopping what the government calls the instrumentalization of migrants at the Finnish-Russian border?
– If Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s government is ready to go as far as to trash Human Rights, international agreements, and the rule of law, what will he do next? Which minorities will be targetted? Russian-Finnish dual citizens?

The dismantling of the rule of law, like what happened in countries like Hungary or Argentina during the 1970s, usually starts with convincing arguments and threat scenarios.

If the parliament approves the pushback law, it will put Finland on a slippery slope, where xenophobic and racist politicians will “Instrumentalize” migrants and minorities to dismantle the rule of law.

Prime Minister Orpo and his cronies in government speak of paradigm changes in migration, labor, and social welfare sectors. Such actions have a price and may create paradigm changes to our democracy.

Here we go again with the great replacement theory and the government’s zero tolerance of racism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

With the Perussuomalaiset (PS) sinking in the polls, it’s clear that the Islamophobic party is pulling as many old tricks out of its racist hat. One of these is the great replacement theory, a white supremacist claim that Europe is white and not diverse

Tweets Purra: It is not a conspiracy theory to look at the statistics of what is happening to many countries in Europe at a rapid pace. You know it, I know it. Many people get upset when we talk about the change in population base as a result of mass immigration, but we just need to talk about it more. Source: Twitter

What’s the deal now, Purra? Polls not to friendly to your budget cuts and hateful hubris towards Finland’s most vulnerable? Oh I see, you are a “visionary” staring into the sunset breathing life to the same far-rght conspiracy theories that you denounced a while back. You are a fake and an opportunist..

Before being appointed interior minister in June 2023, Mari Rantanen, had posted and hashtagged far-right conspiracy theories like the great replacement. After removing such post on her socal media platforms, Rantanen wrote: “Let me be clear: I do not believe in conspiracies. Nor do I believe in the Great Replacement theory.”

MP Heikki Vestman and the government replace human rights and the rule of law with bravado and hubris

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National Coaaliton Party MP and chairperson of the constitutional committee, Heikki Vestman, has made a name for himself for his xenophobic statements and for flaunting human rights and the rule of law. His parliamentary committee has given the green light to the  Draft Act on Temporary Measures to Combat Instrumentalised Migration, or the so-called pushback law that will be introduced to parliament next week.

Vestman likes to spread macho bravado by portraying himself as a true “patriot” by throwing human rights and the rule of law under the bus, and bullying vulnerable groups like asylum seekers.

Rarely, if ever, will he and the media tell you what his behind the pushback law.

“As a Finnish Member of Parliament, I believe Finland and the Finns must be able to safeguard their security in every situation. It is a core task of the state.” said MP Vestman. What you are saying if we cut through your nationalistic bravado is: legalizing illegality.

Some ask why are the hundreds of people seeking asylum such a threat to national security if 32,360 asylum seekers came to Finland in 2015 and now tens of thousands fleeing war from Ukraine?

Continue reading “MP Heikki Vestman and the government replace human rights and the rule of law with bravado and hubris”

Finnish government to move ahead with pushback law

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Prime Minister Orpo announced today that it will give next week to parliament the Draft Act on Temporary Measures to Combat Instrumentalised Migration, or the so-called pushback law. In our opinion, the new law will not solve the problem at the border but will worsen it.

Disagree? Just take a look at other EU borders, and you will come to a startling reality: suffering and death.

Milka Sormunen called in her comprehensive piece on the draft law appropriately “Legalizing illegality.”

Prime Minister Orpo and his National Coalition Party, who have given the radical-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* a free hand on migration issues, did not mention a word about the four crucial factors undermining the draft law: breaching international agreements, the Constitution, Human Rights, and in general the rule of law.

Said Orpo: “I think that this law is drafted in such a way that it fulfills all the essentials [issues] simultaneously: First, the law works in such a way that we are not subject to instrumentalization [by Russia]. Secondly, it is written in such a way that it can be approved [by parliament].”

Source: Yle

Orpo said that the above two factors, which do not mention breaching Human Rights, the constitution, and international agreements, have a good chance of passing in parliament.

Some say that the PS’ policy of “zero asylum seekers” is one factor why the government, especially the PS, wants to close the Finnih-Russian border and deny asylum. Is it a coincidence that the majority of asylum seekers at the Finnish-Russian border come from Muslim-majority countries?

After this draft law gets approved, what other steps will the government take to undermine Human Rights and the rule of law?

The whole Fnnsh-Russian border conflict has a bitter taste of politics.

Rasismi Laajasalossa 2024

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Yleensä aina kun humalainen henkilö on paikalla, tiedän, että se tarkoittaa yleensä ongelmia. Rasmuksen julkaisemassa videossa päihtynyt mies paasaa rasistisesti naista ja hänen lastaan vastaan.

Jos tunnistat videolla esiintyvän henkilön, ota yhteyttä poliisiin.

Oheinen video saattaa sisältää voimakasta kielenkäyttöä, joka saattaa häiritä joitakin ihmisiä. Katsojien harkintaa suositellaan. Katso video täältä.