If this question were asked to Prime Minister Petteri Orpo of the National Coalition Party, we would not have to guess his answer. Pointing to the anti-racism plan and a “very good” government program, Orpo would dodge the question in his usual style by sweeping the issue under the rug.
In other words, his response would be the government is not fueling racism.
But Orpo is no magician who can cover the sun with his finger with his denials and weak leadership. Each denial hides his disingenuous double-talk and outright lies but exposes them like foul air.
The policies that the government uses to oppress the most vulnerable members of society, single parents, the unemployed, migrants, and workers, include policies to undermine their power.
Two reports published in October show that matters will continue to worsen. The first one was published by the Police University College, which reported a record rise in suspected hate crime cases to 1,606 cases versus 1,245 cases the previous year.
As in previous years, the biggest victims were Muslims.
Due to the lame actions of the government against racism, I expect the number of suspected hate crimes to rise once again to a new record in 2024.
Last year was problematic for Muslims and minorities in Finland. Shortly after naming the new government in the summer, the government was marred by the resignation 11 days later of Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Minister of Economic Affairs Vilhelm Junnila. That was followed by the surfacing of 185 racist blog posts written in 2008 by Riikka Purra, the finance minister and PS chairperson.
Minister of Economic Affairs Wille Rydman’s 2016 posts came to public light, too. In one of them, he stated, “I’d still rather ban people wearing scarves than those scarves” and these “desert monkeys make me sick.”
The first weeks of the government were so scandalous that Munich-based daily Südddeutche Zeitung, christened Orpo’s government the “Chamber of Horrors,” while Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung called its start “a fiasco.”
Last month, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), reported that “one in two Muslims in the EU face racism and discrimination in their daily life – a sharp rise since 2016.”
Said FRA director Sirpa Rautio: “We are witnessing a worrying surge in racism and discrimination against Muslims in Europe. This is fuelled by conflicts in the Middle East and made worse by the dehumanizing anti-Muslim rhetoric we see across the continent.”
One of the findings of the FRA report was that after Austria, which had the highest levels of discrimination of the countries surveyed, was followed by Muslims in Denmark and Finland.
Has the government been directly responsible for the rise in racism in Finland of migrants and minorities like Muslims? I am certain that the strong anti-immigration message of the government hasn’t helped much. After the 2011 election, when the PS won 39 sets from 5 previously, some dailies like Kainuun Sanomt and researchers claim that racist attacks on the Somali community picked up.
The role of Islamophobia in Finland is so strong that the government succeeded in getting parliament to approve the pushback law, which gave the country the right to deny asylum at the border throwing in the dustbin the country’s human rights obligations and the rule of law.
The migrant community and minorities like Muslims, cannot and should not sit with their arms crossed as the government tramples on our rights and uses us as political cannon fodder.
Democracy is the only weapon we have to push back against such unfair laws and abuse.
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