Finland’s hostile environment against Muslims, people of color and storms in teacups

THIS STORY WAS UPDATED

Finland’s hostile environment against migrants and minorities is relentless, unforgiving, even exceptionally vicious. Matters are in such a dire state in Finland that even the new government fears upsetting racists who hate asylum seekers, especially Muslims, migrants, and minorities.

The best example of the latter is the cases of eleven, yes eleven, Finnish women who are stuck at the al-Hol refugee camp in Syria with their children, which total 33, according to Yle. Other sources state that there are eight women and 25 children.

Apart from giving the cold shoulder to these women, their biggest crime was alegedly joining a terrorist group but abandoning their white Finnish culture for the Muslim faith.

By not assisting these women and their children, who are Finns, to return to Finland is setting a dangerous precedent: We can bypass the constitution and unilaterally strip a person of his or her citizenship rights, which are supposed to be inalienable.

ted If these women are suspected of committing crimes when they were with Isis, they should be brought before a court of law and tried. Instead of allowing our worst lynch-mob reaction to getting the best of us, maintaining the rule of law is vital: People are innocent before proven guilty.

Apart from the eleven Finnish women in Syria, another case involving eight suspects that were handed prison terms is another example of racist mob bullying in Finland.

Even if one sexual assault is one too many, our reaction should reinforce the rule of law and not a hysteric knee-jerk reaction that labels a whole community. The politicians, media and police should understand this but apparently don’t grasp the consequences of their questionable actions.

The coverage of the Oulu sexual assault cases by the media and police are a case in point.

One of the biggest lessons that these groups should learn is that they have a lot of power and what they say and do have serious consequences on a whole community like Muslims and people of color.

Here is a good example of how these three groups shoot an ant with a bazooka. In my opinion, media coverage of Muslims reveals that the Finnish media is Islamophobic.

Concerning the Oulu sexual assault cases, Migrant Tales reported that from November 27 to February 13, only the state-owned broadcaster Yle published 77 stories on the topic. On January 14 alone, Yle published 13 stories about the issue.

When compared with a similar sexual abuse case of minors involving white Finns, there was a different reaction. The story about the pedophile ring accused of sexually abusing 6-15-year-old boys lasted only a week in the news with seven stories published by Yle.

Last but not least, is Center Party MP Mikko Kärnä who shows us another example of how storms are created in teacups with the help and encouragement of the hostile environment. He was quoted as saying in Uusi Suomi that the Center Party should ditch the government if its migration policy is “reckless.”

Kärnä was referring to the government’s plans to accept 13 of the 53 asylum seekers on the Sea Watch womanned by Carola Rackete.

Apart from showing how the hostile environment works in Finland, what else does it reveal? Deep-seated institutional racism, bigotry, power, privilege, and impunity.