The election result in Finland was what it was. Stop acting surprised.

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Don’t be surprised by what you see. It is real and dangerous. 

Sunday’s election results should not come to any surprise. Far-right parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and white supremacist groups like Suomen Sisu have worked tirelessly to promote Finland’s hostile environment against migrants and minorities.

One clear and irrefutable outcome of Sunday’s parliamentary election is that Finland will become an ever-hostile place for migrants, minorities and especially Muslims.

The election result will encourage greater microaggressions and bullying at the work place and at school. It will embolden many people who have issues with racism. Why? Because words and actions have direct consequences.

Seventeen-and-a-half percent, or 538,731 voters, gave their blessings to the PS and hardline Islamophobes and fascists. These politicians speak of “migrants” near-constantly but forget to tell you that they are only targeting about 10% of them.

The election results also reinforced the need for migrants and minorities to raise their voices against the hostile environment being promoted by parties like the PS.

Continue reading “The election result in Finland was what it was. Stop acting surprised.”

Social Democrats win elections in Finland but hard times await migrants, minorities and especially Muslims

Posted on by Migrant Tales

THE STORY WAS UPDATED

With 99.5% of the votes counted, it appears that the Social Democrats will win the elections. While the Finnish media has spoken about the Perussuomalaiset’s (PS) good showing, there has not been a word said about how far-right populism will continue to impact and change the country.

Considering the dismal leadership that our politicians, starting from President Sauli Niinistö, have shown in tackling xenophobia, none of us should be surprised by the result and the PS’ success at the polls.

Social Democrat chairperson, Antti Rinne, has said that he refuses to form a government with the Islamophobic PS.

If the rise of the PS under Jussi Halla-aho, who was convicted in 2012 for ethnic agitation and breaching the sanctity of religion, it is a stark warning that hard times await Finland’s migrants, minorities and especially Muslims.

What does the rise of the PS, which is the only party that had a clear anti-immigration message, mean for the country? How will it influence other parties and will it bring them in line with the PS’ anti-immigration message like the Danish People’s Party has done in Denmark?

The same fact that Sarah Chander, senior advocacy officer of the European Network Against Racism, raises an important question concerning social inequalities in society.

One good piece of news was the dismal result of the Blue Reform party, which did not win a seat in parliament.

If the election result is anything to go by, the good showing of the PS and some of its most Islamophobic voices show that a large segment of voters has a taste for Islamophobia and racism.

Social Democrats (SDP), Perussuomalaiset (PS), National Coalition Party (KOK), Center Party (KESK), Greens (VIHR), Left Alliance (VAS), Swedish People’s Party (RKP), and Christian Democrats (KD). Source: Helsingin Sanomat.

* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. Despite the name changes, we believe that it is the same party in different clothing. Both factions are hostile to cultural diversity never mind Muslims and other visible minorities. One is more open about it while the other says it in a different way.

A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.

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LAUSUNTO: POHJOIS SUOMEN ISLAMILAINEN YHDYSKUNTA: Muslimiyhteiso halua työskentelä tehdäkseen Oulusa paremman asumispaikan kaikille

Posted on by Migrant Tales

ISLAMIC SOCIETY OF NORTHERN FINLAND

POHJOIS SUOMEN ISLAMILAINEN YHDYSKUNTA

Linnankatu 23-25, 90100. Puh: 0500582371

Lausunto

Oulun muslimiyhteisö on tehnyt paljon ja aikoo jatkaa väsymättömästi työskentelyä tehdäkseen kaupungistamme paremman asumispaikan kaikille.

Suojelupoliisilta on tullut raportti 22. päivä Maaliskuuta Suomen turvallisuustilanteesta. Mitään ei mainittu muslimiyhteisön panoksesta. Kansan pitäisi tieätää meidän panoksesta, mitä annamme maan turvallisuuden eteen.

Vuonna 2016 kantasuomalainen suunnitteli pommin asettamista erääseen konserttiin Oulussa, joka olisi tappanut ja vahingoittanut monia ihmisiä. Osa meidän muslimiyhteisön naisjäsenistä tunsi tämän henkilön, ilmoitti hänestä poliisille. Tämän ilmoituksen avulla poliisi sai ennaltaehkäistyä tämän hirveän suunnitelman totuetumisen.

”Oulun muslimiyhteisö teki kansalaisvelvoitteen mukaisesti ja antoi poliisille tärkeän vihjeen, jolla estettiin tragedia.” ”Ei ole meidän tehtävämme erikseen ilmottaa medialle tästä suunnitelmasta. Se on poliisin työtä.” Valitettavasti ihmiset eivät tiedä meidän panoksesta.

Muslimit eivät ole tuore ilmiö Suomessa, olemme asuneet tässä maassa jo 1800-luvulta kun Tatarit muuttivat tänne Venäjältä 1870-1920. Ensimmäisen kerran Ouluun muutti muslimi vuonna 1950. Suomen muslimeille tämän päivän vaikeasta ympäristöstä huolimatta on tärkeää korostaa näinä vaikeina aikoina meidän uskollisuutemme tälle maalle ja sitoutumisemme asua rauhassa ja harmoniassa kaikkien kanssa.

Continue reading “LAUSUNTO: POHJOIS SUOMEN ISLAMILAINEN YHDYSKUNTA: Muslimiyhteiso halua työskentelä tehdäkseen Oulusa paremman asumispaikan kaikille”

STATEMENT ISLAMIC SOCIETY OF NORTHERN FINLAND: Muslims work tirelessly to make Oulu a better city

Posted on by Migrant Tales

ISLAMIC SOCIETY OF NORTHERN FINLAND

POHJOIS SUOMEN ISLAMILAINEN YHDYSKUNTA

Linnankatu 23-25, 90100. Puh: 0500582371

 

STATEMENT

The Muslim community of Oulu has done a lot and will continue to work tirelessly to make our city a better place to live for everyone.

A report came from Secret police on 22nd March, 2019 about the security of the country. Nothing was mentioned about us in this regard. The Nation should know that we also contributed our efforts for the safety and security of this country.

In 2016, a white Finnish person was plotting to plant a bomb at a concert in Oulu that would have killed and injured a lot of people. The person, who was known by some of our women members, was reported to the police, which put a swift end to that evil plans.

“The Muslim community of Oulu acted and did its civic duty by turning to the police to help avert a tragedy,”  “It was not our job to inform the media about this plot. That was the police’s job. But unfortunately people dont know about our contribution.”

Continue reading “STATEMENT ISLAMIC SOCIETY OF NORTHERN FINLAND: Muslims work tirelessly to make Oulu a better city”

PART I: Migrant child custody in Finland aren’t always open-and-shut cases

Posted on by Migrant Tales
According to the City of Helsinki, “the core task of the family work is to strengthen interaction between children and parents”.

Migrant Tales has received many calls from migrant families stating that they were “deceived” into family separation.

An Iraqi family was driven into such a situation where the mother and the children were separated from the father. Due to the father’s war trauma, child-protection authorities decided it would be better for the father to live in a separate apartment from the wife and children.

After a while, an assistant from the child-welfare office was sent to help and support the mother in her daily chores. The assistant came but sat for two hours daily in the living room or at the dining table drinking coffee and making phone calls.

After some time, the family was invited to a so-called child evaluation center to evaluate the impact of war on the children. It would have surely been a good initiative for a family that had experienced war and for its children who were born during times of war.

At the end of the day, the family was surprised to hear that the children would not be allowed to leave the so-called evaluation center. The surprised family was told that the children now are in child care custody for evaluation.

”They took my children. I don’t sleep at night and I am dying from my pain [and loss],” the mother said, ”I cry all the time. They said we will take the children for one week to help you, but they never returned them home.”

She added: ”My children are eating pork at the Finnish family’s home. They are having urinary tract infections; they look pale and have lost lots of weight.”

There is absolutely something wrong here. Could what happened because of a translation-interpretation problem? Is it a deception?

The parents insist that the social worker always told them that what was being done was for the best of the children and that everything was going to be fine. The only problem, however, as the mother explained, was that the children talk about war and guns while they play.

Unfortunately, we have never heard the child-care authorities making a statement or stopping a deportation of a child at the airport because it was unsafe to deport them back to their home country. Moreover, we have not seen as well the system trying to help keep an immigrant family together, work with them hand in hand and to integrate them.

Another problem is that Immigrant parents in Finland are given their Wilma username and password but are left on their own to discover the Finnish educational system.

Junes Lokka’s “racist” and “Nazi clown” case: Court sends clear message who has racist immunity in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

When white people decide what is racism and what the boundaries are, they mess up and make matters worse for migrants, minorities and Others.

What are we supposed to make out of this? A well-known anti-immigration activist with ties to neo-Nazi and Islamophobic groups is called in a closed Facebook group by a journalist “a racist” and “Nazi clown.”

A district court of Oulu, where some sexual assault cases by migrants has turned the city on the fringe of hysteria, rules in favor of the Islamophobe and wins the case against the journalist for defamation. Is this another example of how people like Lokka have kidnapped common sense in Oulu?

Johanna Vehkoo’s lawyer Martina Kronström told Yle that “her client was stunned by the outcome and intended to appeal the verdict.”

And so are we at Migrant Tales.

Not only does the ruling show how much out of touch was the district court of Oulu about racism and hate speech, it sends a clear message who has racist immunity in Finland.

If you are a white male in the police service it is ok to make racist remarks. If you are a white woman calling somebody a racist and Nazi, then it is not ok even if that person was convicted for ethnic agitation.

Read the full story here.

Disagree?

Remember a closed Facebook group with 2,800 members who were police that openly insulted non-white Finns and asylum seekers? When Longplay exposed the Facebook page last year, where Vehkoo writes, no charges were eventually brought against the group because the prosecutor stated that the many racist messages were not intended to be publshed outside the group.

What about Johanna Vestola’s comment?

 

 

 

Yle poll: The PS becomes the second-biggest party. Thank mainstream parties like Kokoomus, the Center Party and the media.

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Some were surprised to see in a poll published by Yle Thursday that the far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* became the second-most popular part in Sunday’s parliamentary elections after the Social Democrats. If we are honest with ourselves, the poll result should not have come as a surprise.

The party that the PS knocked to third place from second is the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus), which had tried – apparently unsuccessfully – to mimic that party’s Islamophobic and anti-immigration rhetoric.

If I were the head of the PS, I’d thank as well the Finnish media, especially Yle, for spreading the party’s anti-immigration rhetoric and making racism and fascism appear normal. If you want an answer to the latter question, take a look at Yle PS members on the board.

The greatest threat to Finland today? Terrorism? Yes, white Finnish supremacist parties like the PS. If Finland doesn’t watch out, it will turn into a Denmark, a country that is Islamophobic but on steroids.

The mainstream parties like the National Coalition Party, Center Party, Blue Reform, Christian Democrats should thank themselves as well for their efforts to make racism normal in Finland.

They have lacked the leadership to challenge racism in our society because they have issues with such a social ill among their ranks.

If I hated migrants and asylum seekers, I would vote for the real thing instead of an imitator.

Wouldn’t you?

Read the full story here.

* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. Despite the name changes, we believe that it is the same party in different clothing. Both factions are hostile to cultural diversity never mind Muslims and other visible minorities. One is more open about it while the other says it in a different way.

A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.

Viekää ruumiitkin, ettei pyhä maa saastu!

Posted on by Reija Härkönen

Sira Moksi Sipilä lähettää lapsen

Suomen valtio, siis sitä hallitsevat poliitikot ja virkamiehet sisäministeriössä ja maahanmuuttovirastossa, ovat tänään karkottamassa Suomesta äidin ja sylivauvan. Perheen toinen lapsi on haudattu Suomeen. Äiti ja kuumeinen vauva vangittiin pakkopalautusta varten viime tiistaina.

Mikä voi olla sellainen syy, jonka nojalla sairas lapsi viedään vankeuteen? Vainoa paennut äiti kuljetetaan pakolla maahan, missä hänellä ei ole mitään turvaverkkoja. Luonnollisesti yksityiskoneella, jotta kunnon ihmiset eivät joudu katsomaan muukalaisen hätää.

Onko tämä Suomen, äidin ja lapsen etu? Onko Suomen puhdasverisillä naisilla nyt enemmän tilaa synnyttää suomalaisia lapsia?

Suomeen jää tämän äidin pieni lapsi, joka makaa arkussa mullan alla. Poliisi ei salli äidin käydä haudalla ennen lähtöä ja pakkopalautetuille määrätään kahden vuoden maahantulokielto.

Eikö Suomen pitämiseksi puhtaan valkoisena myös vieraan väristen ruumiit pitäisi pakkopalauttaa omaistensa mukana? Näin vältetään pyhän kristillisen mullan saastuminen ja torjutaan vetovoimatekijöitä ja vääriä huhuja siitä, että Suomi-neidon sylissä olisi lapsen hyvä maatua.

Punainen kynttilä.jpg

YLE coverage of sexual assaults committed by white Finns and migrants is unbalanced, racialized and opinionated

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The bias and racialization of sexual abuse cases are best exposed by Yle’s Finnish-language service. On March 27, Finns read about a pedophile ring made up by five white Finnish suspects accused of sexually abusing 6-15-year-old boys. The story about the cases lasted only a week in the news with 7 stories being published by Yle.

Contrarily, the sexual abuse cases involving migrant suspects in Oulu totalled a whopping 77 stories from November 27 to February 13.

If there is a good example of shoddy, racialized and opinionated reporting by Yle, these latter two cases expose serious issue at the state-owned broadcaster. Yle reporters and management should get training to come to grips with their prejudices and racism.

Below are some stories published by Finnish- and English-langauge service of Yle and statements by the Oulu police:

VIOLENT PEDOPHILE CHILD PORNOGRAPHY RING BY WHITE FINNS WAS IN THE FINNISH- AND ENGLISH-LANGUAGE NEWS FOR A WEEK AND COVERED IN 7 STORIES: 

3.4. Pedofiiliringin epäilty yritti välttää vankilan yllättävillä syillä – “Vankilassa on vaikeaa tehdä bisnestä, lentoliputkin hankittu Jenkkeihin”

29.3. Psykiatri Hannu Lauerma maata järkyttäneestä seksuaalirikosvyyhdistä: “Ei ole yllätys, että tällaista toimintaa on myös Suomessa”

29.3. Pedofiilijutun pääepäilty teki “peruna- ja puikulakauppaa” huumekuriirin kanssa – tällainen mies on luontoyrittäjä ja kirkkovaltuutettu

28.3. Poliisi lapsiin kohdistuvasta seksuaalirikollisuudesta: ”Tämä karkaa käsistä, jos emme herää”

27.3. KRP epäilee: Viisi suomalaista mukana kansainvälisessä lapsipornoringissä – kuvissa suomalaisten lasten väkivaltaista hyväksikäyttöä

Continue reading “YLE coverage of sexual assaults committed by white Finns and migrants is unbalanced, racialized and opinionated”