Finland’s tabloids, Iltalehti and Ilta-Sanomat, are part of the country’s racism and Islamophobia problem. Back in 2015, Ilta-Sanomat stated on a billboard that 10,000 “illegal refugees” will come to Finland.
In their ever-alarming way to boost sales, Iltalehti led a story with the following headline:
“This is how Finland prepares if a lot of illegal migrants cross the eastern border: ‘People can sleep safely,” Interior Minister Maria Ohisalo is quoted as saying.
The question: Are people crossing the eastern border “illegal migrants” or asylum seekers?
Read the original story (in Finnish) here. See the original posting (in Finnish) here. Ila-Sanomat claims that “this year 10,000 illegal refugees will come to Finland.” Illegal refugees? No such thing. Source: Facebook.
After almost a year after the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* almost pulled off the parliamentary elections of April, Finland’s largest daily, Helsingin Sanomat, treats the Islamophobic far-right party.
A story by Tommi Nieminen correctly points out that the violence called by some PS MPs is unacceptable but then blows his speak-out-against-the-far-right-with-one-hand-and-support-it-with-another with this statement:
Political protest movement – in which the Perussuomalaiset could be included – is an essential part of democracy.”
This sentence by Finland’s largest daily is the reason why Helsingin Sanomat plays down the threat of the PS in politics and society.
How can a party like the PS, which wants Finland to trash its international agreements so that no Muslims and other people of color can enter the country, be good for democracy?
How can a party that believes in pseudosciences like eugenics support ethnonationalism?
Instead of writing wishy-washy articles that play down the far right, why doesn’t Helsingin Sanomat write an editorial denouncing violence against migrants, minorities, women, and our Nordic way of life?
This is one of the big unanswered questions that Nieminen analysis exposes as well as the following: Why write now – almost 10 months after the parliamentary election – about this topic?
His answer? A Hollywood ending to our far-right and racism social ills will come when both sides will kiss and make up.
Migrant Tales has always understood the threat that parties like the PS pose on our society.
After the April 2011 election, when the PS scored their historic victory, raising the number of MPs from 5 to 39, we wrote: “Far-right populism is an illness inflicting Europe at present and it now has a beachhead in Finland.”
Back then, our blog got cited by Time Magazine. The above quote was a response to PS chairman Timo Soini’s statement: “We [the PS] are not extremists so you can sleep safely.”Has Finland slept politically safely since 2011?I don’t think so.
Back before the 2011 election, Migrant Tales was one of the few blogs that openly questioned and warned about the rise of the PS in Finnish politics.
Recently SAS Airline made a video about how everything Scandinavian is copied culturally. What the video forgot to tell us is that even if it copies everything, it is selective about what it copies.
Remember the story about a Muslim Swede called Aye Alhassani, who was told flat out that she would have to take off her hijab if she wanted to work as a flight attendant?
Certainly, the SAS ad did not mention this. It didn’t even mention how different Scandinavian and Nordic countries like Finland copied racism.
“Thank you, colonialism, for being one of the roots of our present-day racism,” the SAS ad should state.
https://youtu.be/ShfsBPrNcTI
But the ad is right: Everything in our culture, everyone’s culture, is copied.
All of the anti-immigration populist parties in the Nordic region have grown strongly and even been in government.
The Progress Party of Norway recently exited the government because a woman and her two sick al-Hol refugee camp children were brought for treatment to the country.
The Danish People’s Party suffered a big blow in the last election but has succeeded at turning Denmark into one of the most Islamophobic countries in Europe.
Finland and Sweden, both, supposedly, examples of Nordic social equality, have the far-right Sweden Democrats and Perussuomalaiset leading in opinion polls.
No, SAS, there are some things Scandinavia and Finland would have been better off not copying.
The far-right populists in Scandinavia like representatives of the Islamophobic Danish People’s Party are having a fit about a SAS Airline ad that was taken down because it said the truth about culture: everything is copied.
SAS said in a statement: “It is regrettable that the film is misunderstood, that some choose to interpret the message and use it for their own purpose.”
The good news? “We are now continuing the planned campaign, and we hope that it emphasizes the core message that travel enriches us,” the airline said.
https://youtu.be/ShfsBPrNcTI
One reason why far-right populist groups are going nuclear due to the ad is because it exposes their lies and fake nationalism.
The video asks what is truly Scandinavian?
The answer: “Absolutely nothing…Everything is copied.”
And continues: “Everytime we go beyond our borders we are colors, innovation, progress…[we] bring the best of everything to here…in a way Scandinavia was brought here piece by piece by everyday people whofound the best of our home awa from home.”
The tweet by Saksa Saarikoski of Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s biggest daily, represents to the tee how our society has changed and become ever-suspicious of asylum seekers.
Finland’s interior minister, Maria Ohisalo, has correctly criticized the EU for its lame and disastrous asylum policy. The suggestion that Ohisalo wants to bring refugee minors from the island of Lesvos to Finland has – surprise, surprise – unleashed a torrent of debate.
Saarikoski’s tweet below picture well the integrity of the ongoing debate: “I understand that we must help children, but is a fast lane to bring 16-17-year-olds [to Finland] reasonable? Doesn’t that encourage a system where the child is sent first, and then the family arrives later? That puts children in harm’s way and to exploitation.”
Really, Saarikoski? Do you have any proof? Are all children sent to the EU aim to help their families come to the EU?
Erna Bodström gives Saarikoski an answer: “Hey Saska, if you want facts, why don’t you find out instead of tweeting without knowing [what you are talking about]? As a journalist, you have learned how to find facts.”
When a journalist at Finland’s largest daily makes such comments about asylum seeker minors, it reveals something worrying about our society: We are hostages to our racism and crippled to change our point of view.”
A dumb question: What the f**k is wrong if a person wants to migrate or flee violence for a better life and future?
What is wrong with these people who want to rob people of this right?
Any sensible person, irrespective of his cultural and religious background, does not condone sexual harassment. Even so, the police and Iltalehti continue full steam ahead to blame Muslims for these types of crimes.
The blame game is so potent that we forget that most of the sexual harassment cases are committed by Finns. It is not a question of being a white Finn or a foreigner, but a serious issue that men have concerning women.
Moreover, the Iltalehti story does not tell us if these are convictions or how many tourists are suspects. It is all written in code: foreigner + sexual assault means Muslim in Finland.
In countries like Finland, publishing and spreading sexual harassment stories will get you far. If we look at the Oulu sexual harassment cases alone, they were like a lifesaver for the Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)*.
Jussi Halla-aho, the chairperson of the far-right Perussuomalaiset party, tweets: “Yeah, really in the Perussuomalaiset party wants a mutliethnic or cultural Finland, which is consistently in our party’s program and in our practical activities.” Source: Twitter.
The media and the police gave a lot of support to the PS’ fear-mongering in Oulu as did government parties like the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) by spreading the same anti-Muslim racism. Today, Finland is being held hostage by a far-right party in parliament that is set on destroying our institutions and because it feels invincible.
The trick? Yell rape out loudly as you and blame migrants for all of the country’s problems.
Why doesn’t the media and society, in general, get fed up with racist wise tales on a topic like sexual harassment?
One reason may be that our society has failed in challenging our racism and hatred. These types of social ills are fueled by our ignorance and fear, which in turn are spoon-fed populist quantities by parties like the PS.
If we look at our society, the forces of the far-right are challenging and mocking at us. It is a good matter that Finland is starting to wake up to this threat and slay the ogre back to where it came from, the gutter.
One matter is for certain: You don’t need to prove somebody is a racist because that person does it for you. Racists also think people are stupid and can’t see through them.
While I am not suggesting that Turkkila is a racist, he’s had a big role in helping the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and its politicians to spread the party’s Islamophobic message and their brand of hatred of people of color.
Matias Turkkila “feels angry” because he name was mentioned onpage 315 of the report: “As in previous years, Laura Huhtasaari, PS vice president and MP, ranks high on the Islamophobic network together with the president of the party, Jussi Halla aho, who was convicted in 2012 of ethnic agitation and breaching the sanctity of religion. Others include: Teuvo Hakkarainen, Sebastian Tynkkynen, Atte Kaleva, Matias Turkkila, Marco de Wit, Marko Mäki, Junes Lokka, and Tiina Wiik. Even if Muslims account for an estimated 1.8% of the total population and nonEU migrants from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Africa amount to 16.9% (63,362 in 2017) of Finland’s foreign-born residents, Halla-aho, Huhtasaari, and other Islamophobes like the neo-Nazi PVL make a big deal about Muslims being a threat to society. Huhtasaari, who supports U.S. President Donald Trump and Hungary’s strongman Viktor Orbán, is worried about the “Islamization” of Europe. In a recent post on social media, she expressed her three greatest concerns: “no substitution for Finland’s population and culture; we don’t want Finland taken over by Islam; and we don’t want people in our streets to be substituted for women and girls wearing veils.” Source: European Islamophobia Report 2018.
Some facts about how Turkkila and how he has furthered racism with the help of the Islamophobic network:
He’s was PS Jussi Halla-aho’s campaign manager. Halla-aho was convicted in 2012 for ethnic agitation and breaching the sanctity of religion;
Founding with Halla-aho or by himself Hommaforum, an Islamophobic platform to frame and attack antiracists and other people they don’t like;
He is editor os Suomen Uutiset, a PS publication that regularly spews hatred and misinformation about people of color and Muslims.
The question: Does Matias Turkkila belong to the Islamophobic network of Finland?
If there is one party that racializes sexual assaults, especially committed by Muslims, that party is without a doubt the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*. Its chairperson Jussi Halla-aho, first vice-president Riikka Purra, MP Sebastian Tynkkynen, and the rest of the 36 MPs of their party in parliament.
All of them, the 39 PS MPs, used Islamophobia and xenophobia to get elected. They have nothing else to bring to the political table except for their hatred of Muslims and non-EU citizens.
Both the Perussuomalaiset and its youth chapter are opportunistic cowards. In this tweet affirming that cultural appropriation is ok, there is no Jew with a kippah. I asked them about this, but they never responded.
In the Perussuomalaiset Youth tweet above, the Islamophobic and far-right group makes a statement about cultural appropriation, which is ok, according to them.
If you look at the picture, the only thing I can make out is a Mexican, two Arabs, and, possibly, somebody from the Far East. There are no Jews in the picture because that would force all hell to break loose. The PS, like its youth organization, bully and pick on soft targets like Muslims.
Remember the Oulu sexual assault cases and the hysteria it brought upon Oulu and Finland? Not only were the PS guilty of spreading anti-Muslim racism, government parties like the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus), and even the police did so as well.
The spread of this racism would not have been possible without the collusion of the media. The media should know better to distinguish what racist reporting is and what is not.
Harvey Weinstein
In the United States, we’ve been reading about the scores of women that disgraced media mogul Harvey Weinstein sexually abused and raped.
In one story in the Huffington Post, it states that the Weinstein case has not only sparked debate about the sexism and abuse in the entertainment industry but anti-Semitism as well.
Writes the Huffington Post: “Several white supremacists and even one prominent Jewish magazine, though, have latched onto Weinstein’s Jewish identity as somehow explaining his abusive behavior towards women.”
Just like our far-right Islamophobic politicians like Halla-aho, Purra and others, anti-Semitic commentary in the U.S. came from the likes of David Duke, a white supremacist and Ku Klux Klan leader, who said that Weinstein is “a case study in the corrosive nature of Jewish domination of our media and cultural industries.”
Certainly, Muslims do not have the same power are Jews have in the United States. Even so, the racializing of the Weinstein case is strikingly similar to how the PS and other racists frame Muslims.
It is a case in point how the Finnish media treats Muslims and a good examples why the Finnish media has an “r” and “I” problem.
Kaikki tietävät, ettei Presidentti Sauli Niinistö ole kovin äänekäs kun puhumme rasismista, turvapaikanhakijoista ja eriarvoisuudesta. Niinistö ei myös näe, että rasismi on uhka suomalaiselle yhteiskunnalle.
Niinistö edustaa suomalaisten kaksinaismoraalia seuraavalla tavalla: yhdellä kädellä hän tuomitse rasismin mutta toisella hän ruokkii sitä
Hänen “tolkun ihmisten” ylistys on hyvä esimerkki siitä kuinka rasismia ja eriarvoisuutta ei tulisi haastaa.
”Kuulkaa, nyt tuli vastaan juttu, joka ehdottomasti pitää lukea. Se on Jyri Paretskoin kirjoitus ”Tolkun ihmiset” Iisalmen Sanomista. Kun lehti ei varmaan ihan kaikille vielä tule, niin liitän jutun tähän. (Lähde: Satakunnan Kansa)
Tolkun ihmiset kannustavat hiljaisuudella maahanmuuttovastaisuutta. Lähde. Ville Ranta.
Täsmälleen neljä vuotta myöhemmin, toimittaja Yrjö Rautio vastasi kolumnissaan napakasti ja paljasti mitä “tolkun ihminen” on:
“Ääripäistä puhuminen on vain raukkamainen tapa välttyä itse ottamasta vastuuta. Tolkun ihmisiä ovat vain ne, jotka nousevat vihaa ja pahuutta vastaan. Se on ihmisen moraalisista velvoitteista suurin.” (Lähde: Helsingin Sanomat).
Some Finnish politicians condemn racist acts with one hand but with another encourage them.
National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) MEP Henna Virkkunen stated in a tweet lofty European values after an MP of the same party said Saturday that it would be easier for Kokoomus to work with the Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party than with the Greens and left-wing parties.
She tweeted below: “The values that #kokoomus wants to build in Finland and Europe are education, tolerance, encouragement, caring, equal opportunities. Kokoomus wants an open, free, and internationally-minded community [and] this is distant from what the Perussuomalaiset represents.”
While her tweet is welcome, it reveals the ideological battle going in that party. One faction of Kokoomus is liberal and pro-EU while the other nationalistic, and xenophobic represented by politicians such as MP Wille Rydman, Jukka Kopra, Pia Kauma, Elina Lepomäki, Kai Mykkänen, and others.
Is Virkkunen’s tweet disingenuous?
In October, Virkkunen voted with Petri Sarvamaa, who is a member of the same party, with Laura Huhtasaari of the PS to not step-up search and rescue operations for refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean.
Virkkunen is also one of the 36.3% (85/234) MEP candidates who either “strongly disagreed,” “disagreed” or were “neutral” in an Alma Media’s election compass that asked: “Is it the obligation of the EU to save all those migrants who attempt to come to Europe and who are at risk of drowning in the Mediterranean?”
Virkkunen answered “disagreed.”
Is letting people drown or turning a blind tye to their fates in the Mediterranean European and Finnish values?
Over 27,000 people have drowned crossing the Mediterranean since 1993.
