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?
On Friday, we read about an assault against a Perussuomalaiset (PS) politician in Jämsänkoski. Pekka Kataja, who was rushed to the hospital to treat his head wounds, broken ribs, and a concussion. The PS politician, who has made a name thanks to his anti-Muslim opinions, claims that the men who attacked him were “Arab-looking” and that the attack was politically motivated.
As we wrote in a previous blog entry, we should do everything possible to condemn and stamp out violence. If the attack against Kataja was politically motivated, this would be a very worrying sign.
But some question marks arise from Kataja’s claims. Some of these are:
Did the “Arab-looking” suspects speak Finnish with an accent?
Kataja has a long track record for his Islamophobic views. In a 2017 Yle election compass, he mentioned as one of his goals was to end “asylum tourism” and that Finland cannot afford to pay billions [of euros] to provide for them;
” Didn’t any red lights start to flash when the two “Arab-looking” suspects asked him to show his ID for a package with party flyers?
Did the suspects speak Finnish with an “Arabic” accent?
The PS believes that the attack was politically motivated. Why would anyone target a political noncelebrity in a small town in Finland?
Another one of these questions is that the attack was politically motivated because he wanted the Jämsä asylum reception center closed.
Speaking to one former resident of the reception center, expressed elation of its closing.
“It was the best news I had heard,” he said.
The “Arab-looking” suspect claim smells like a conspiracy theory of the PS. They have used such campaigns very effectively in the past, as we saw in Oulu with the sexual assault cases.
Thanks to the Tapanila sexual assault case about a month before the parliamentary elections of 2015.
In the last three parliamentary elections, conspiracy theories about sexual assault by foreigners have played an important role in attracting votes.
Pekka Kataja, a Perussuomalaiset (PS)* campaign manager from Jämsänkoski, was brutally attacked Friday at his home by what he called two “Arabian-looking” men. He claims that the attack was political because, as an ardent Islamophobe, he was in favor of shutting down the Jämsä asylum reception center.
While all forms of violence should be condemned, what happened to Kataja is unacceptable and an affront to the rule of law. We hope that Kataja’s recovery will be swift.
Here is the flip side of the story: Of all the parties in Finland, the PS knows how to label and exploit Islamophobia for its political means.
Moreover, there may be something fishy or missing from the big picture when members of the PS start to spread conspiracy theories like the Tweet below by Olli Kotro.
“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
There are a number of questions that the Kataja incident raises:
According to a new survey on the police service, an editorial in Finland’s largest daily Helsingin Sanomat claims today that trust in the police runs high, even if the survey showed that confidence in the police had fallen by four percentage points to 91%.
The editorial also puts in a favorable word for the media, which it claims enjoys strong acceptance from Finns because it is a trusted source due to the lack of fake news, and the high literacy levels of its readers.
While there is a lot of trust in the police and national media, we have to make a further important question: Which groups trust the police and media?
If we look at the question from the perspective of the radical right and the rise of populism and far-right ideology in Finland, about 18%, or about half a million voters, question the latter two institutions.
Finland’s largest opposition party, the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, is openly Islamophobic, misogynist, and openly hostile of the mainstream media, and in many cases of the police.
The rise of anti-Muslim racism and other forms of discrimination in Finland are a cause for concern. How much do minorities like the Roma, Saami, migrants, and their children trust the police and national media?
If you asked some members of the Roma community what they think about the police service, the answer you may get may or may not surprise you. The same goes for people of color who commonly accuse the police of systematic racism and ethnic profiling.
Why are such groups usually sidelined? Why aren’t their opinions important?
The Helsingin Sanomat editorial forgets, like commonly other sectors of society, to ask what these minorities’ opinions are. Not asking them is denial and systemic racism; both our blind spots that continue to see Finland as a monolithic slab of whiteness.
It is hoped that these surveys about the police service and media don’t sideline minorities.
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.
Toinen asia on kuin Hotel & Spa Resort yrittää Facebookin kautta puolustella mitä oli tapahtunut.
Mutta sitten kun uutinen savutti valtakunnan median mittoja, Hotel & Spa Resort tunnistaa rikos ja virheen:
“Teimme virheen asiakaspalvelussa romaniasiakkaiden kohdalla. Kyse oli kovassa paineessa olleen työntekijän inhimillinen virhe. Hän huomasi heti tapauksen jälkeen itsekin sanoneensa väärin ja on tapauksesta äärimmäisen pahoillaan. Pyydän [toimitusjohtaja Markus Heiskanen] nöyrästi anteeksi kyseisiltä asiakkailta.”
Johtiko syrjintä tapaus “kovassa paineessa olleen työntekijän inhimillinen virhestä?”
Tuskin enkä uskon. Syrjintä on syrjintä-
Ktaso video ja näet mitä tapahtui suununtaina (5.7.).
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.
The year is 2020, and still, people of the Romany minority are refused entrance to a hotel and spa in Rantsalmi, located in the region of South Savo. Jim Crow is alive and well in some parts of Finland.
The receptionist of the Hotel & Spa Resort Järvisydän refuses entry in the video below to Roma women. When they ask if this is the hotel and spa’s policy, the receptionist says, “yes.”
It is shameful that this is still happening in a country like Finland, which claims to have one of the best education systems in the world, a comprehensive welfare state, and laws that are supposed to ensure that everyone is equal before the law.
