Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Mauri Peltokangas, a far-right politician and member of the Nazi-spirited Suomen Sisu association, labeled government ministers “a**holes” for not expressing concern about the attack against the party’s campaign manager Pekka Kataja.
Those who have followed the Kataja incident will note that it is a pretty mixed up story. First, Kataja pins the blame on “Arab-looking” attackers, then changes it to far right even if he adheres to the same Islamophobic mindset.
The post on Peltokangas’ Facebook page was removed, which is yet proof that he is a loudmouth opportunist who takes racist, Islamophobic, and misogynist potshots at his rivals. Peltokangas can’t stand the heat so he is the first to exit the kitchen.
If you are surprised that the PS parliamentary group will not take any action against Peltokangas, this Islamophobe has a long history of rants and racist statements.
Writes Peltokangas: “Each of our ministers are sorrowful a**holes. Eveyone is silent even if the victim works for parliament.”
If a recent (22.2.2020) rant below, which lasts 2:36 minutes, Peltokangas utters around every 20 seconds the following swear words:
Two days and nine years had gone by when Norway and Europe witnessed the horrific events of 22/7 that left 77 people dead and many others with physical and psychological injuries for the rest of their lives.
One of the matters that we can learn from the far-right terrorist is that words can turn into bullets.
The far-right terrorist and “the end of an era of multiculturlaism.” Source: Springer
In his manifesto, “2083 a European Declaration of Independence,” he cites the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and its chairperson Jussi Halla-aho as a credible (sic!) source on the takeover of Europe by Muslims.
The far-right was riding the crest of the wave in 2011. In Finland, the radical right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party had scored their historic parliamentary victory. But then three months later, Anders Breivik appeared from nowhere and went on to murder 77 people to save – according to him – Europe from being overrun by Muslims.
On a day like this, the only thing we can and must do is not to forget.
Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, who is no friend of Muslims, said in her speech Wednesday that Norwegians must “fight every day for the values which were targeted by the terrorist.”
“July 22nd reminds us that life can be endangered when hate is allowed to stand unchallenged,” she said.
While no sensible person will deny the crimes by Breivik were horrific, we must acknowledge that he grew up in a country that armed him with such hate.
Until January, the Islamophobic Progressive Party (FrP) share power with Solberg’s conservative Høyre. The FrP ditched the government because of the repatriation of a Norwegian woman allegedly linked with Isis had her five-year-old child, who needed medical treatment.
I am certain that Breivik’s stain on Norway will never wipe off. And this is good because it is a reminder of what hatred and racism can do.
In August, Norway almost underwent another Breivik-style terrorist attack when a young man attacked theAl-Noor Islamic Center near Oslo. Fortunately, a 65-year-old man foiled the attack.
Perussuomalaiset (PS) chairperson Jussi Halla-aho is the Finnish version of Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán. If he had his way, Finland would deport Muslims, deny asylum to people dependent on race, encourage dog-eat-dog economics, and scale down the welfare state.
Halla-aho’s alternate reality and that of his party sometimes cause a knee-jerk reaction: WTF.
We have ready about the brutal assault that PS councilperson Pekka Kataja suffered Friday. Wouldn’t you have it that Halla-aho and party secretary who is an ethnonationalist, Simo Grönroos, speculated right after the attack that it was not an isolated crime but politically motivated.
Taking into account how much Kataja has changed his interpretation of events, we are still in the dark about the motive of the assault.
We read about the brutal assault against a Perussuomalaiset (PS)* campaign manager Pekka Kataja. There was great interest in what happened when he mentioned that the suspect(s) were probably “Arab-looking.” Silence befell the PS after Kataja changed his story by claiming that the attackers were probably from the far-right.
One question that arises here is why is Kataja so keen on telling us what ethnic or political grouping they were?
In February 2018, a Pakistani was brutally assaulted in Vantaa by three white Finnish youths. Apart from being stabbed up to thirty times, suffering a fractured skull and other injuries, interest in the story ended after the police said four days after the assault that the attack was not a hate crime.
The assaulted Pakistani recovering in hospital in March 2018. Photo: Enrique Tessieri
The police announced Tuesday that charges against the suspects changed from attempted manslaughter to attempted murder after five days that the crime took place. With the case of the Pakistani victim, the police changed the charges weeks later in April toattempted murder from attempted manslaughter.
While both stories have race or ethnicity as underlying factors, in the beginning, this changed and this forced interest to die down. What emerged after that was hypocrisy.
PS chairperson Jussi Halla-aho and party secretary Simo Grönroos were quoted in Kainuun Sanomat as saying after the attack that it was politically motivated.
“Everything suggests that this was not an isolated crime, but specifically an attack against Kataja, the party’s political activities and an attempt at homicide,” Halla-aho and Grönroos were quoted as saying in Kainuun Sanomat.
One PS member, MEP Laura Huhtasaari’s aide, went as far as to suggest the conspiracy theory that the hit job against Kataja came from the EU elite and EU secret services.
“I wonder if the murder attempt against Pekka Kataja was an attempt and ordered by the EU elite or the EU intelligence services?” Olli Kotro is MEP Laura Huhtasaari’s aide. Source: Twitter
Attempting to picture Kataja as a political martyr, the speaker of parliament, Anu Vehviläinen, stated in the tweet below that those responsible for what happened must be brought before justice.
But let’s go back to the original question: What type of violence captures the interest of the media, social media, politicians, and the general public?
As mentioned, when Kataja stated that he suspected the far right of attacking him, the PS fell silent. The same matter happened in the case of the Pakistani: Interest by the media fell after the police mentioned that what happened was not a hate crime.
It appears that the Kataja incident, which is dreadful and we should strongly condemn, may surprise us yet again. The PS has an issue with far-right ideology, and it is no secret that Kataja has made Islamophobic statements in the past.
What far-right groups did he not get along becasue there are a lot of them in the PS. Is he talking about Suomen Sisu?
Kataja is also the aide of PS MP Jouni Kotiaho, who wrote in an OP-ED piece in Jyväskylä-based Keskisuomalainen that the radical right is “insignificant group” in Finland even if some have accused the PS, the second biggest party in parliament, of being radical right.
Moreover, Kataja’s boss claims in the Keskisuomalainen column that “[e]ven, if you can count the number of Nazi supporters with one’s fingers and racism does not happen in practice in Finland at all.”
As we are trying to figure out if Kataja’s story holds water or if what happened was something personal as some suspect. Let’s stop all this hypocrisy about how much we are against political violence and violence in general, which is targetted by the PS against Muslims and people of color.
But let’s agree on one matter: condemn all types of violence irrespective of the victim’s background. The ethnic background of the victim should not be a factor in how much media attention a victim gets.
The Pekka Kataja story, the Perussuomnalaiset (PS) councilor of Jämsänkoski, is constantly changing. First, he claims that “Arab-looking” men assaulted him. That has now morphed into “possibly” it was the far right or far left.
Kataja even claimed that he was attacked due to his opinions of an asylum reception center, which he wanted to be closed.
The problem with the latter theory is that few if any at the asylum reception center has ever heard of him.
“The asylum seekers at the reception center don’t read Finnish papers so they are unaware of people like this man [Kataja], said a Jämsänkoski asylum seeker.
While we should forcefully condemn all types of violence, there is a generous dose of hypocrisy emerging from the Kataja affair. On the same day as Kataja was attacked, the family of Left Alliance Helsinki councilperson Suldaan Said Ahmed was threatened with a bb-rifle.
How many PS politicians condemed what happaned to Ahmed’s family?
Why isn’t anyone showing their repugnance for racism and hate speech perpetrated by parties like the PS?
We have recently read about two cases where security guards use force to handle a passenger that does not have a ticket. In both these cases, there is a link: both are black passengers. Both passengers were also on a transport or at a station operated by the Helsinki Regional Transport Authority (HSL).
The first case took place on June 23 in Espoo, while an East African nursing student was escorted violently out of the train. One security guard allegedly held her hand while the other had her in a chokehold.
“It was quite shocking when I saw this recent case,” said the East African nursing student. “I get nervous when I board a train because of what happened to me.”
The woman said that her lawyer has asked the police for the video footage of the incident but they have refused because the case “is still under investigation.”
The Helsinki Regional Transport Authority (HSL) announced today that the company plans to arrange “social equality” courses for ticket inspectors, according to Yle.
If the victims of both cases are correct, it exposes what we’ve known for a long time: Some have more rights in our society than others despite the social equality rhetoric we often hear and made possible by our exceptionalism.
Almost two weeks past when a 17-year-old black adolescent was allegedly violently assaulted by security guards for not having a valid ticket. The black adolescent ended up handcuffed and held on the floor while his white friend was allowed to leave.
The violent treatment of the security guards should not surprise us since a comprehensive study in 2018 on ethnic profiling by the University of Helsinki showed how ethnic profiling, especially by security staff, was a source of particular concern.
“Many said [in the study] that security guards were often rude and treated them roughly, even violently,” said the University of Helsinki Professor Suvi Keskinen of one of the ethnic profiling study’s findings.
The two cases in the story are a good opportunity to expose how systemic racism works in Finland.
How many black policemen are there in Finland? What about those that work for security firms? Too few to make a significant impact on policy.
And let’s not forget as well the racist trolling against the victim’s mother on social media.
The confidence of their impunity and ther racist arguments reveals how far some have stooped and how much work there is still to do on the anti-racism front.
Migrant Tales insight:Dr. Faith Mkwesha’s child was was held and mistreated by security guards who handcuffed him and resting his knee on her child’s back. Apart from being a traumatic experience for her child and the mother, all of this happened because he did not have a valid metro ticket, which he thought incorrectly that they were valid for two hours.
A recent column by Seida Sohrabi exposed, in my opinion, how people justify racism and social inequality. I and many others trust the law of this land while people like her have faith and trust institutional racism.
Sohrabi claims to have a master’s in political science; she is an elementary school teacher and gives talks about her views on how migrants should adapt to Finland.
If you read the column as well as her past opinions, I wonder if she understands how our Nordic society functions. She has probably read the Constitution, but like many populists, she does not take it seriously and relies more on society’s prejudices and institutional racism.
Moreover, if she has said before that schools should prohibit children from wearing the veil (hijab), does she prevent their use in her classes? Does she teach her pupils to hate their religion as she does?
Sohrabi, who is a close friend of Islamophobe pseudo authority on Islam, Atte Kaleva, is an example of how people with migrant backgrounds and minorities clamoring to create a space for themselves, will do and say anything to be accepted.
Sohrabi moved to Finland when she was six, which explains why she speaks Finnish without an accent. Is she a “foreigner” or a “Kurdish Finn?”
Atte Kaleva on the left with Seida Sohrabi promoting the politician’s book, “Jihad and Terror.” Already the title of the book should tell you that it is meant for populist and Islamophobic consumption. Helsinki University Middle East expert Hannu Juusola wasn’t too enthused by the book “Unfortunately, there are also an embarrassing amount of factual errors in the book. Read Juusola’s review (in Finnish) of Kaleva’s book here.
Just like a recent story on exploitation of migrants in the labor markets shows that many of these companies are run by migrants, many people with migrant backgrounds but who have lived most of their lives here house pretty Islamophobiv views of Muslims.
Sohrabi is not the only one in this questionable group. There are others like Morocco-born Junnes Lokka, Marco de Wit, who is of Dutch background, Miki Sileoni, whose father is Argentinean, and Gleb Simanov to name a few.
Black people who suck up to white USAmerica are called Uncle Toms. It’s a bit the same thing in Finland but in a different context. On the one side, they attack migrants and minorities who are struggling to create a space for themselves in their new or not-so-new homeland while on the other they cloy to white power.
The Urban Dictionary defines an Uncle Tom as, “a black man who will do anything to stay in good standing with the white man including betray his own people.”
It is unfortunate but true, in Finland we have migrants and minorities who will also do anything to stay in good standing to white Finns. Could we call these people “Tuomo-setä,” “setä Tuomo” or “mamu-setä?”
Moreover, I will continue to support and defend the laws of this land while others seek acceptance, encouragement, and refuge from institutional racism.
The mayor of Teuva Veli Nummela, the town’s newspaper Tejuka were straightforward about the attack against a Muslim in early June in the western Finnish town of Teuva.
Nummela wrote in a blog about the anti-racism work done at the town’s schools. “We will evaluate these practices [anti-racism] at the beginning of the new school year. We want to do our best in the fight against racism and violence and respect for human rights.”
Tejukka‘s June 17 editorial, “Measuring civility,” where it not only openly condemns what happened to the Muslim, but that “racism should not be accepted in any shape or form.”
The town newspaper published an editorial and several stories about the incident interviewing the victim, the police, and a foreigner living in Teuva.
If we look at the motive of the attack (bias indicators), there is a strong case to charge the perpetrators with a hate crime.
The police are not ruling out a hate crime but appear not to be in any rush to do so.
The police state: “For now there is no information that points to a hate crime but we are not ruling out such a possibility.” No evidence of a hate crime (bias indicator)? For one, check out the victim’s car. Source: Poliisi
So what makes what happened on June 7 to a young Muslim a hate crime?
A hate crime is a criminal offense that has a bias motivation targeting a particular group that could be based on real or perceived gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, age, or disability.
Even if crimes are serious offenses, a hate crime can have a lasting impact on the victim and the community.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PDz123cRT8
If we look at some possible bias indicators of the Muslim in Teuva in early June, they could be victim perception (white Finns versus a Muslim), intense violence (the victim ended going to the hospital), his property (a car) was damaged. Later there was graffiti written on it.
According to the Criminal Code of Finland (766/2015), Section 5, there are grounds for increasing the punishment if the crime “was based on race, skin color, birth status, national of ethnic origin, religion or belief, sexual orientation or disability of another corresponding grounds.”
I spoke with the Muslim today and he is recovering from what happened.
“I will move [from Kristiinankaupunki] to Helsinki at the end of this month,” he said. “I cannot live here because I am afraid to go outside.”
The reaction and impact of the crime have all the characteristics of how hate crimes affect the victim and community.
While hate speech is not a hate crime, in this case, it is a strong case for bias motivation. The suspects threatened to kill him, and while assaulted, an older man asked him to “ask Allah for help.”
I would be very surprised if the police do not charge the suspects for committing a hate crime. Contrarily, it would be another blow to police credibility and reinforce that the police are not interested in protecting minorities.
The bias indicators speak for themselves and suggest that what happened was no ordinary crime.
