This Facebook post was published with permission. See original posting here.
Author: Migrant Tales
Attacks against Soini, Ahmed and the Muslim community of Finland are symptoms of our silence
What do the attacks against Blue Reform Foreign Minister Timo Soini in Vantaa Sunday and today against Left Alliance MP candidate Suldaan Said Ahmed tell us about today’s Finland? For one, they tell us of a troubled country that has been asleep to the threat of far-right extremism, Islamophobia and other forms of racism.
While we should denounce formally all forms of violence, it is ironic that Soini, who gave xenophobic extremists a political platform, saw a member allegedly of the far-right vigilante gang, Soldiers of Odin, try to attack him.
It is pretty disheartening to see the monster that Soini help created trying to attack him after he had relinquished the PS’ leadership in June 2017 to his foe Jussi Halla-aho.
Ahmed states that the attack against him was by a man in the Itäkeskus metro station.
Ahmed tweets: “I was just attacked at the metro station and the aggressor scolded me for being, among other things, an infidel and pedophile. Don’t dream that you will go to parliament.”
Apart from the far-right violence that has a strong dose of Islamophobia, graffiti was painted on a mosque in Helsinki with the same words that the New Zealand killer wrote on his weapon that took 50 lives: “Remove kebab.”
See original Facebook post here.
The Imam of the Helsinki mosque or prayer room, Abbas Bahmanpour, said that it was the third time the building was recently attacked.
“These types of graffiti show sympathy for terrorists and far-right ideology,” he said.
In Oulu, where another mosque that has been vandalized nine times since September 2017, has now voluntary guards outside the premises after one of the suspects in the sexual assault cases of Oulu was convicted last week.
“Every Friday during prayer time we want to make sure that we are safe,” said Islamic Society of Northern Finland Iman Dr Abul Mannan. “We asked the police to patrol between noon and 1:30 pm when a lot of people at the mosque but they didn’t come. We then decided to take matters in our hands and use our people to guard the mosque.”
See the MTV news story here.
Migrant Tales published a story on Saturday about how Muslims in the northern city of Kemi are especially afraid to walk outdoors alone at night after the Oulu sexual assault cases became public in December.
A racist harassing a young Muslim woman at the bus terminal of Mikkeli, Finland
On taking the 8:30 pm bus today to Helsinki from Mikkeli, a white-middle-aged redneck (WhiMAR) started to get too close to a young young woman, possibly from Afghanistan, with an older woman and a young man. It wasn’t clear what the man said to the young woman, but he told his fat WhiMAR friend that, “She’s a good-looking woman even if she wears a rag [hijab].”
I told the WhiMAR to “behave” and stop harassing the woman. He stopped and appeared a little stunned that somebody cared.
The EU holds elecions on May 23-26 and Finland parliamentary elections on April 14. Source: European Network Against Racism.
On he bus, I told the driver to check with the surveillance camera if the harassment by the man persisted.
Let’s hope that nothing happens.
Asylum seeker hiding in Kemi, Finland: “Why do they [Finnish Immigration Service] make our lives so difficult?”
Migrant Tales reported Thursday about how a deportation had broken and separated a family of three (or four) in the northern Finnish city of Kemi. The family’s father, 58, and son deported on Thursday at around noon to Lebanon while the mother, 56, escaped from the hospital and is now in hiding.
When detained, the woman fell ill and was hospitalized but managed to escape.
Is it correct to say that it is a family of three or four? One of the parents’ sons died of cancer when they came to Finland in 2015 and moved to Kemi.
The woman dreads the prospect of returning to the Middle East because she would never be able to visit her son’s grave again.
The husband is a native of Lebanon and his wife was born in Syria. Both of them lived in Syria for about 15 years.
A friend, who got in touch with us and who knows the woman, alerted us about the woman’s situation.
“Why do they [Finnish Immigration Service] make our lives so difficult?” she asked the source. “Why don’t they let us stay [in Finland]?”
“She is in limbo fighting against time,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “The father and son are ok in Lebanon and the authorities [in that country] pomised them that they would revoke their Lebanese citizenship.”
According to the source, revoking the Syrian-born woman’s citizenship would take three months. It can only happen if a judge of the high court or president of Lebanon approve it.
“It would take [at least three-month] time,” the source continued. “It would mean that she would have to return to Syria, which is very difficult.”
The source said that the woman needs medication but did not know if it was for the heart or blood.
The woman was in better spirits after speaking to her husband and son.
THIS STORY WILL BE UPDATED
Kemi is a good example of Finland’s hostile environment against asylum seekers and migrants
The small 50-70 strong Iraqi community of the northern Finnish city of Kemi (pop. 21,256 in 2017) is feeling the brunt of the Islamophobic reaction of the highly publicized sexual assault cases of Oulu, located just 106 km from the city.
Even before the sexual assault cases became public at the end of last year, the situation of the small Iraqi community of Kemi was problematic.
One Iraqi resident of Kemi alleged in 2017 that the Red Cross advised Muslim asylum seekers not leave their homes after eight pm on Saturdays because it was too dangerous.
Apart from the hostile environment against asylum seekers and presence of far-right vigilante groups like the Soldiers of Odin, one asylum seeker was shot at in 2016 and another one had his middle finger broken by a member of the vigilante group.
And let’s not forget Islamophobic Kemi city counsellors like Harri Tauriainen of the Perussuomalaiset* party.
“Matters are now worse [in Kemi] than before because of what happened in Oulu,” said a former asylum seeker, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Kemi is a city located 106 km from Oulu and 711 km north from Helsinki. Source: MTV.
According to the Kemi resident, Iraqis fear going out of their homes at night. One asylum seeker who went to Lidl, called the source at 8.30 pm because he feared walking back home at night.
A deportation that broke a family of three (or four) in Kemi, Finland
Migrant Tales understands that the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) ordered on Wednesday the detention of three asylum seekers living in the northern Finnish city of Kemi. Two of them, the father and son, were deported Thursday at 12:30 from Helsinki to Lebanon. The wife, who experienced the loss of her son in 2015 due to cancer, has gone into hiding after she escaped from the hospital.
The woman was interned after she fainted and fell ill when the authorities came to detain her, the husband and son in Kemi.
The Red Cross identification cards of the Lebanese-Syrian asylum seekers.
“The son is buried in Kemi and even if Migri wants to deport the women, she refuses to leave the country because she does not want to be far from her deceased son,” said a source who spoke on condition of anonymity. “The family is from Lebanon but they have lived many years in Syria and are naturalized citizens of that country.”
THIS STORY WILL BE UPDATED.
Abdirahim Husu Hussein: It’s time for change
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Have you applied for a rental property from your city but have had to wait for years simply because of your foreign name, while witnessing Finnish names get served within max 6 months? Over 100 cases have been recorded so far.
Have you applied for hundreds of jobs without even getting invited to an interview? Positions that are suddenly filled, once you contact them and they hear your name? Jobs, that are being given to people with half your qualifications… but with a Finnish background?
Have you been stopped and searched by the police supposedly randomly?
Have you had your dreams of higher education slashed by your guidance counsellor and other authorities; been told that you wouldn’t make it and should instead apply to ammattikoulu? Have you worked hard towards becoming a doctor, professor, engineer and so on, only to be recommended you become a lähihoitaja?
Have you been disrespected, called names, abused (verbally, physically, online…) and made to feat that sort of treatment simply because of your name, religion, colour of your skin or the language you were heard talking?
Continue reading “Abdirahim Husu Hussein: It’s time for change”
Ignacio Pérez Pérez: Two pictures after what happened in New Zealand
Ignacio Pérez Pérez was kind enough to send us these pictures taken from the Helsinki Railway Station shortly after the atrocities in New Zealand. There is a lot of care and love after so much hate.
Thank you Ignacio for sharing this with us.
One step forward for Islamophobes and two steps back for the Finnish media
Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Teuvo Hakkarainen, convicted for ethnic agitation and sexual harassment, is on the roll with the media again. This time, the PS MP has taped on his car anti-immigration slogans like “stop refugee terrorism – out of this country every [asylum seeker] man.”
These type of racist slogans are in special bad taste after what happened in New Zealand, where a white supremacist murdered in cold blood 50 Muslims.
While Hakkarainen is getting free advertisement and laughing all the way to the bank, few if any media is openly condemning this type of Islamophobia. At least not Helsingin Sanomat..
The Helsingin Sanomat article makes no mention about Hakkarainen’s criminal record or even questions his claim that asylum seekers cost Finland 3.2 billion euros a year. Hakkarainen’s source is a tabloid, Iltalehti, of a blogger that belongs to the same party as the PS MP and who is staunchly Islamophobic.
Read the full story (in Finnish) here.
Considering that the PS was in government (2015-2017) and that its chairperson, Jussi Halla-aho played down what happened in New Zealand and that one of its youth leaders condoned what happened by blaming it on “multiculturalism,” it is clear why there is a hostile environment in Finland against Muslims and migrants.
Such type of weak reporting happens a lot because the media somehow agrees with politicians like Hakkarainen.
The media is one clear culprit in Finland’s hostile environment.
Continue reading “One step forward for Islamophobes and two steps back for the Finnish media”
Statement Islamic Society of Northern Finland: Leadership is needed
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POHJOIS – SUOMEN ISLAMILAINEN YHDYSKUNTA
ISLAMIC SOCEITY OF NORTHERN FINLAND
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We on behalf of Islamic Society of Northern Finland would like to state the following with reference to the atrocities and masacar happened in New Zealand.
Atrocities such as what happened in New Zealand Friday not only instilled fear in the Muslim community of Finland but is a warning that this will happen again until the media and politicians take a tough stand against all forms of hatred like Islamophobia. We need such leadership in Finland today.
The mosque of Oulu has been attacked nine times since 2017, with the last one taking place on February 26. The suspect was caught on our video camera smashing the window at 5:10 am with a bike rack and throwing a smoke grenade into the premises.
Finland is a country that functions on the rule of law where religious freedom is guaranteed. Another important right that everyone, irrespective of his or her background, is to live in a country where one feels secure.
Despite the nine attacks against our mosque, the police have not turned up one suspect so far unfortunately.
It is saddening that the response of the media and politicians to hate speech and victimization of groups like Muslims in Finland goes generally unheeded. Almost every single day in Finland, Muslims are the subject to media onslaught and suspicious scrutiny. We are placed in a negative public light by people who should know better and who have influence over public opinion.
The situation is serious and we need leadership to tackle this problem, which, if not addressed, will lead to other attacks, even atrocities.
We are confident that Finland has the means to tackle this problem.
Moreover as per Finland Constitution Article No 1 and 10 all have rights to be secured. So the security of Muslim Community is important as per law.
As per law everyone should be allowed to practice their religion peacefully. Disturbing by any means is not allowed as per law.
Dr. Abdul Mannan
President and the Executive Board
Islamic Society of Northern Finland.
0500582371