Comment: Apart from recovering from a financial meltdown in September 2008 and the adverse effects of globalization, another explanation for the rise of far-right parties in Europe has been the political terrain left by traditional left-wing parties that no longer appeal to voters as in the past.
Far-right parties have emerged in almost every country in Europe: BNP in England, France’s National Front (FN), Swiss People’s Party, Lega Nord of Italy, Sweden Democrats, Danish People’s Party, Ataka of Bulgaria, Hungary’s Jobbik , Dutch Party for Freedom (PW), FrP of Norway and others.
The report, published by Magma Media below, does not consider the True Finns a far-right party per say but one with populist roots.
While the True Finns’ leader, Timo Soini, has renounced racism and is publicly against inciting violence against other ethnic groups, some of the candidates of the party would think twice about signing such a pledge. The anti-immigrant wing, led by Jussi Halla-aho, does not mind peddling the Islamophobic rhetoric of far-right parties in Europe.
See a recent story published by Migrant Tales on the ties some True Finns candidates have with Suomen Sisu, a far-right group.
The authors don’t see a very smooth future for Soini despite his good success in the polls. Since the True Finns are a hodgepodge of ideologies and political passions, it is this heterogeneity that poses its greatest threat.
What do you think?
__________
Ääriliikkeet ja poliittinen populismi ovat lisänneet kannatustaan eri maissa. Kyse on rajat ylittävästä ilmiöstä. Populismin alla on selvästi toisistaan poikkeavia liikkeitä ja puolueita. Ideologioissa, tavoitteissa, toimintatavoissa ja ääriliikkeiden esittämissä uhkakuvissa on eroja, mutta myös yhtäläisyyksiä.
To keep on reading click here.
To read the report (in Finnish) click here.
To all those who are pro-immigration, aren’t you worried at the prospect in the near future of a white minority Europe, USA and Canada?
David Coleman, a professor of demography at Oxford University and who has published over 90 papers and eight books has said that White British people will be in a minority in their own country by 2066. White (non-Hispanic) Americans a minority by 2045. You can add Canada, France, the Netherlands and possibly Sweden to that timeframe.
Muslims are already demanding Sharia law to be introduced in Europe so I shudder to think what will happen in 50 years time when their numbers have multiplied many times. In the next century I’m sure historians will question how the West declined and vanished and why did they let it happen.
–To all those who are pro-immigration, aren’t you worried at the prospect in the near future of a white minority Europe, USA and Canada?
Klay, in the first place you cannot predict the future with a pocket calculator. Second, your view assumes that cultures don’t change; they remain stagnant and stable. Moreover, people have free will and are not robots guided by culture. Far-right parties still live in a nineteenth century time warp when it comes to culture. Their views are in many cases racist and alamrmist.
The “pocket-calculator” view of Europe is, thus, not valid. It is fear-mongering.
Google in the United States “race war” and see what comes up. Here is a link.
The best way you ensure harmony in society is inclusion: mutual acceptance, respect and equal opportunities. That will ensure a dynamic society in the future. Disagree? Go back to the 1930s up to 1945 and see what racism did to Europe. Read your history if you want to see the future.
Klay
How interesting that you define your scenario in terms of colour. Don’t hold back – tell us what you really think.
Magma is political stuff (you failed to tell that, you lied). What you say enrigue?
You are keen to tell that something is political if not what you like 🙂
If you disagree what Magma writes, say so. It offered an interesting analysis of why the far-right is rising in Europe. What is your opinion on the matter?
What I don’t understand here is why the West has to approve of Muslims demands, when if you happen to go to one of their countries, you have no say in how things are done, I as a woman would probably not even stand a chance to land a good job, if I do maybe they would not take me seriously. So as you say Enrique, mutual acceptance is something that I do not see it as being really mutual.
Muslims generally do not accept different religions for example. If I want to visit Medina, I can’t because I am not Muslim, but they can freely enter the Vatican city, I highly doubt they do. You cannot tell or joke about Mohammed in front of a Muslim, yet the whole world makes fun of Jesus, the Pope, the church, etc and Catholics do not go around yelling: infidels and resorting to aggression.
(I do not want to talk about the pedophile priests here, that is a totally different issue, I mean here, people who have embraced Catholicism as their religion and truly believe in it)
I have a friend who works at a big petrochemical company, she designs the plants that are built in the bigger oil producing countries, namely Arab countries, yet the company doesn’t send her to these countries in what they call “transfer” because they know that as a woman in an Arab country she is in a “difficult” situation. A woman tourist goes to Egypt and she is not safe, Saudi Arabia cannot walk alone and has to cover herself, Iran same…. even though she is not Muslim.
So why are Muslims trying to change things in Western societies, which are usually secular, where there is freedom of cult. Why are they the only ones doing so? and not catholics, buddhist, hindu, etc.
That is something that I cannot approve and what Klay says that the Oxford prof said really sends shivers down my spine.
Enrique I am waiting for your opinion on this. One other thing I understand that if you go working to Saudi Arabia for example, whites a confined to kind of a condominium, where they can be free, and they are all settled there with no exception, but once you are out of it, specially for women, if you do not “respect the rules” basically, covering yourself or not mixing with males that are not either your husband or father, then the chances that the religious police will get me are sky high.
Maria, are you going to move to Saudi Arabia?
Why do you fail to see that, when you as an immigrant go to their muslim countries, they would not treat you equally? So why are they demanding special treatments here?
As a matter of fact my best friend in France is muslim, and she has told me personally on countless occasions, how those muslims in Islamic republics are the worst thing that can happen to the planet and to muslims like her, who keep their religion private as it should be, and acknowledges that because of them many are suspicious of the very word ISLAM, in fact those extremists are even attacking their fellow muslims in their own countries for the same reasons they attack the West.
Why should anybody be lenient with people like that???!!!!
Why are you asking if I am moving? Again you strategically failed to answer to my question, which was:
Why should muslims get benefits abroad if when you go to their countries and are not muslim you get none? specially for women
–Why should muslims get benefits abroad if when you go to their countries and are not muslim you get none? specially for women.
What are those “benefits” or are they rights? The answer to your question: Are you going to throw away your values for an eye for eye? The biggest losers of Islamophobia are those societies that condone it. You cannot preach social justice when you deny it from other groups.
I am not Islamophobic my best friend is MUSLIM, why can’t you get that those muslims that attack others just because, are not good people???!!!!!Coming to secular countries and demanding them to adapt to their religion is wrong, RELIGION IS A PRIVATE THING, nobody is entitled to impose his beliefs to other people, may them be Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Scientologist, etc.
I find it shocking that you accept the fact the the swimming pool in Helsinki should have special hours for muslim women, isn’t that a benefit and away of self-excluding the whole community from the rest of the community? luckily they stopped it.
By this reasoning Finnish emigrants should pay income tax at Finnish rates when they move to places like Andorra, the Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Monaco, Russia, UAE and so on where the local standard income tax rates are very low. I’m sure that Putin-Medvedev would be happy to treble the income tax paid by Finns working in St. Petersburg.
Why should Finns enjoy low taxes abroad? Why should USAmericans enjoy exemption from the death penalty in Finland? Why should a Colombian woman have access to abortion facilities in Finland that are illegal in Colombia?
Or maybe there is more to migration than naïve reciprocity and you should think before you write.
Why are you mixing religion and taxes?? As far as I understand taxes are regulated by law, not religion, religion is a subjective matter that should be kept private.
And abortion was legalized in Colombia recently, under 3 cases: rape, threat to the mum’s life and a foetus with bad problems and as a catholic I would never go to an abortion clinic here, but it is not because of that, that I am trying to change Finnish legislation on the matter just because it doesn’t fit with my beliefs.
And anyway you are as biased as Enrique if you think it is fair that Muslim women have privileges like swimming pool hours for themselves, then there should be swimming pool hours for catholic women only as well!!
So according to you I am entitled to demand at the university’s to have a Colombian food, I am entitled to demand the construction of more catholic churches and I am entitled to demand to have swimming pool hours only for Colombian people! Get a grip!
Also you did not answer to my question: why as an immigrant I have little to no saying in countries like Saudi Arabia, but then when those Islamist extremists come here, or to Sweden or to the USA they want everything to be accommodated accordingly to their beliefs!! BUT THEN AGAIN THE RACISTS ARE THE WHITES!
And I think your next move is going to start calling me Maria the something, just as you do with Tony and Tiwaz and replying by LOL at Maria the…
But you are totally not discriminative and attacking those that think differently than you. HAHAHA
LOL @ InjusticeDemon
Another opinion, this time from a Swede:
“Living in Sweden, supposed to one of the most tolerant countries in the world. The largest group of racists are the people from ME/NA. They are abusing the Swedish welfare program and a lot of them do not contribute to society in any way. Ofcourse not all of them behave like animals and shout racist to everyone that tries to talk sense to them about their culture and the way they behave and treat people with no respect while demanding to be treated with extreme amounts of respect, even if given no back. I have good friends from the ME/Na and the largest chunk of the ME/NA are good people but some of them are just, well lets just say that I can’t tolerate them. Also as I saw earlier in the thread, people commented on gypsies, thats just strange, the act as nothing have changed since the 19th century, they also wear strange clothes and have not adapted to society in anyway in the last 50 years. Tho as other swedes have commented about the ”sverigedemokraterna” being the racist, (new nazis ) thats not true, sure they used to be a racist political party, but they are not as bad as people try to make them look, all they want is not to have such a high amount of immigrants coming in every year. They do not want to throw anyone out of the country or anything like that.
Now this is my two cents of the situation in Sweden “
Maria
You recommended that moslems should not get benefits abroad if immigrants do not get similar benefits in their countries of origin. This is the doctrine of näïve reciprocity, but you don’t seem to understand what it means at the level of law.
One benefit that Finns enjoy abroad but not in Finland is lower income taxation. A system of naïve reciprocity would ensure that they continue to pay tax at Finnish rates wherever they go. One benefit that Colombian women enjoy abroad is easier access to abortion. A system of naïve reciprocity would require Finland to imprison a Colombian woman who secured an abortion on the same terms as a Finnish woman (and also to imprison the Finnish medical staff involved).
Naïve reciprocity would stop applications for asylum, as the applicant would be subject to the same persecution in Finland as abroad. For example instead of asylum, a Ugandan homosexual would face imprisonment or worse in Finland. Why should Ugandan homosexuals expect better treatment in Finland that a Finnish homosexual would receive in Uganda?
This is the doctrine of naïve reciprocity. This is what you recommended. I assumed that you hadn’t really thought about it, but you have persisted nevertheless.
Are you Tiwaz (or Tony the Toby) in disguise?
Justice Demon:
First of all I am not Tiwaz or Tony the Toby in disguise, I think you can read my other posts where I have give more than enough details of my life and I think you should have spotted the differences in our writing styles, I simply do not agree with you nicknaming people you don’t know like Toby, I don’t know him either, I just don’t agree with your behavior.
I am a woman, and I am Colombian.
You might have a good point in what you say and what I mean with the reciprocity only concerns my point of view on religion, not law, since I think it is something to be kept private. I am NOT arguing that Islam should be banned or something similar, I simply do not agree with the “special benefits” Muslims claim sometimes, like for example the “Muslim-women only” swimming pool hours, because a public swimming pool is precisely that public, for everybody, no preferences, then, in that case I think that I, as a Colombian catholic. should have the right for demanding “Catholic women only” swimming pool hours, or do I not qualify as an ethnic minority, or do you think that I do not have the right for claiming such things?
Yeah I forgot to say, you claim that everybody should be treated equally and stuff, well IN MY HEAD, this concept should be applied EVERYWHERE, in every country of this planet, thus my points on reciprocity, specially concerning religion, equality is not something proper only to Finland, the developed countries or the West, equality should be applied everywhere, sadly, as I said before this would require a massive moral shift in the human mentality and I don’t think it will ever happen, if we keep on going like we have done during all these years.
Cheers!
Maria
I’m not sure that the public swimming facilities were ever reserved for “Moslem” women only, nor am I even sure that this is technically possible for various reasons (some of them concerning the nature of Islam itself). Perhaps you could give details of the specific case that bothers you. I suspect that you will point us to an urban myth on a fascist website now, but perhaps you have a more reliable source.
It seems more likely that the facilities were reserved at certain times for women only, regardless of religious affiliation. Do you object to this as well?
Any individual or organisation can hire a public service building such as a swimming baths or school gymnasium for a private function. Indeed it is quite common for a local swimming baths to be hired for special instruction in life saving, canoeing, water polo, nude bathing etc. Are you suggesting that Moslem organisations should not be free to hire public facilities for private functions in the same way?
Justice Demon:
I think you are mixing a few things here:
Renting the facility: if a group of Muslim women rent and pay for the facility, they are entitled to do so, I do not have an argument with that, nor do I object against having “women only” times, where all women no matter their religion are allowed to swim together.
My issue is against the same group of women demanding to have exclusive hours just for them, without paying and without any substantial reason and I am against it because I am a woman too, why wouldn’t I be allowed to swim with Muslim women? what is the difference between a Catholic woman and a Muslim woman? As far as I know, the dress code in Islam is for preventing men to have temptations and thus the woman should cover herself, why would the same Muslim woman exclude me from me swimming with her if after all we have the same things, if you understand what I mean.
This is what I read:
http://yle.fi/uutiset/news/2011/01/helsinki_drops_muslim_women-only_pool_sessions_2266901.html
The article suggest that it was the case, thus they dropped it.
As far as I know Yle is not a fascist page and I have never been in a fascist or Nazi page, it would be stupid since I am not white and I think those are lunatics. I am for equality and as I told you EQUALITY EVERYWHERE.
Cheers
Maria
It looks very much as though this was based on a misunderstanding, but you also compounded that misunderstanding by suggesting that anyone had initially insisted on religious discrimination. The article most certainly does not state that anyone ever demanded a religiously exclusive privilege. My understanding is that any such demand would be un-Islamic. This is the main reason why I called you on the source of this story.
The Finnish language version of the same story includes some additional details. The session was originally on Saturdays when the pool was closed to the public anyway. It was advertised as a “swimming session for immigrants” scheduled to begin immediately after a (private) swimming school session for Moslem girls. These sessions were also attended by other women. The new arrangements apply following a major renovation to the pool facilities, with the women-only session moved to Tuesday afternoons.
It is credible to assume that an initiative for women-only swimming came from one of two sources. Either Moslem women coming to collect their daughters on Saturdays enquired about this or the local pool staff chose to introduce a policy with a view to including some swimmers who had previously felt excluded from public facilities. It’s not clear from the article which of these two basic options explained the original policy.
I know the pool in Jakomäki quite well. It’s a small, isolated facility right next to the local school and the article strongly suggests that mothers were invited to join their daughters for an extended swimming session after the formal lesson was over. It is likely that Moslem parents only consented to school swimming for their children on the understanding that the sexes would be segregated, but I see no evidence here that non-Moslem schoolgirls were specifically excluded from those sessions. The Finnish YLE article suggests otherwise.
There is nothing here that even hints at a demand made by Moslems to institute religious discrimination. That is your own contribution. You might like to reflect on why you were so keen to jump to this conclusion.
Ok, thanks for the explanation. I am glad it is not like I was thinking.
Maybe I was keen to jump to the conclusion because I had not all the info on the story.
Good luck with everything.
Cheers
I am glad this thing got cleared up. The point JusticeDemon is making is that too many people make fast conclusions. You are a Colombian and know what it feels to be excluded. All of us who are from the region have been there. That is why fighting racism, Islamophobia and other forms of bigotry is crucial. There are no exceptions or special cases when you start labelling other groups with hatred. There was an interesting article in Länsi-Savo, the daily from Mikkeli, that interviewed researcher Vesa Puuronen. He said that the hate speeches by many in Europe and Finland was strikingly similar to what happened in the 1930s in Germany. In other words, we are playing with fire when we stoke the flames of hatred and bigotry.
Hi Enrique, I do not think I have been labeling anybody with hate, I think I have made it clear that I am not islamophobic, my best friend is muslim, my point is that I do not accept anybody trampling on anybody, in any country, for reasons that are not justified. All throughout my posts I have been talking in general, not about Finland, and I have seen many cases where immigrants simply don’t behave and I do not accept it, as simple as it is, as I do not accept nationals breaking the laws either.
Hi Enrique, I do not think I have been labeling anybody with hate, I think I have made it clear that I am not islamophobic, my best friend is muslim, my point is that I do not accept anybody trampling on anybody, in any country, for reasons that are not justified. All throughout my posts I have been talking in general, not about Finland, and I have seen many cases where immigrants simply don’t behave and I do not accept it, as simple as it is, as I do not accept nationals breaking the laws either. Again I repeat my experience in Finland and everywhere else has been more than positive.
Cheers!