THE STORY WAS UPDATED
It is surprising that in Norway, one of Europe’s wealthiest and whitest countries has suffered some of the worst terrorist attacks in Europe. Eight years ago, on 22/7, Anders Breivik emerged and killed 77 people.
The most recent terrorist attack by an alleged white supremacist in Norway on Saturday attacked with the Al-Noor Islamic Center near Oslo overpowered by a 65-year-old man who suffered minor injuries.
According to Aktuelltfokus, the suspect, Philip Manshaus, 21, was armed with shotguns, pistols and wore a uniform and helmet aiming to kill as many Muslims as possible. Manshaus was overpowered after he shot one person.
The Nordic region has seen a spike in Islamophobia in recent years and fuels Finland’s hostile environment against migrants and minorities.
Muslims in Finland don’t feel safe, and the recent terrorist act in Norway will not reassure them. Matters are exacerbated in Finland by the Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, where anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam rhetoric is their political bread and butter.
The Mosque in the northern Finnish city of Oulu has suffered nine acts of vandalism since September 2018. After the Christchurch mass killings when a white supremacist killed 51 Muslims in March, the Oulu congregation guards the Mosque during Friday prayers.
“This is very sad what happened in Norway,” said Dr. Abdul Mannan, the imam of the Oulu Mosque. “Norway is supposed to be one of the safest countries [in Europe]. These things should not be happening. We need to forge peace [between people],”
With parties like the PS fear-mongering that white Finns will lose power at the cost of non-white Finns, it is clear that matters will get worse before they improve.
Even so, our society, politicians and the media must wake up to the threat of white supremacist terrorism, which is the biggest threat to our security, democracy, and the rule of law.
Vänsterpartiet MP Malcolm Momodow Jallow of Sweden posted his reaction on Facebook: “The Government, the security service and so-called terrorism experts, can continue to mislead, lie and pretend like others but as long as you are not prepared to realize the seriousness [of the situation], it is a fact and true that these terrorists will continue with their terrorist acts and attacks!!! I hope that the police department is doing everything in their power in Sweden that makes sure that Muslims in Sweden can celebrate in security their [Eid] feast tomorrow.”
* The far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. In the last parliamentary election, Blue Reform has wiped off the Finnish political map when they saw their numbers in parliament plummet from 18 MPs to none. A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.