What about if what happened to a 10-year-old Muslim girl last month is true?
Remember the picture of a 10-year-old Muslim girl that went viral on the Internet on December 19? We still have not heard from the parents of the terrible picture of the girl below. What about if the story is true and that racism was the spark that caused the incident?
While we don’t know why, the police and the principal of the Juvanpuisto school in Espoo may consider what happened “not racist” because of the age of the children. If this is the case, they know that children learn their racism from their parents and their friends. One case in Mikkeli a few years ago shows how cruel children are when it comes to racist bullying and harassment.
If the school wants to resolve what happened behind closed doors, it is its right. However, hiding what happened from the public eye is wrong and will only permit these types of incidents to happen – as they do – again.
Here is the question: What about if the four children suspects who attacked the girl did try to rip off her hijab and insulted her for wearing one? What about if it was not the first time that the girl experienced racist bullying at school? What does it say about the school and how it counters this type of bullying?
The police and school deny what happened to the girl had to do with racism. There were even reports in the media that the wounds that the girl suffered weren’t diagnosed as serious after taken to the hospital.
Certainly, physical wounds are one matter but the psychological wounds from what happened will most likely affect the girl for the rest of her life.
If racism was the culprit, and if the police and the school principal brushed the incident under the carpet by playing down what happened, it reveals worrisome issues about our society and about those that protect and educate us into becoming members of society.
Continue reading “What about if what happened to a 10-year-old Muslim girl last month is true?”
MP Ozan Yanar is right: President Sauli Niinistö’s New Year’s speech is problematic
Whenever President Sauli Niinistö comments about asylum seekers, migrants and minorities there is usually a problem (see links below). Those of us who are anti-racist activists, will never forget his two-extremes argument, which puts people who fight to defend human rights as one extreme with the other extreme consisting of Neo-Nazis and other far-right groups like the Perussuomalaiset.*
His New Year’s speech didn’t leave us disappointed. Green League MP Ozan Yanar rightly pointed out some of the flaws in his speech about migrants.
The president said that migrants should take responsibility by “exerting control” over the actions of members of its community, tweeted MP Yanar. Migrants are not a monolithic group.

President Niinistö responds to MP Yanar’s tweet by stating that he did not mean migrants but everyone irrespective of their background. If this is true, why didn’t he say so in his New Year’s speech?
I have mentioned it before and I will state it again: President Niinistö is no friend of Finland’s culturally and ethnically diverse community. It is unfortunate that he prefers to hand out populist soundbites.
White Finnish privilege #56: How Islamophobic is Finland?
Ever thought why political parties like the Perussuomalaiset,* Blue Reform and politicians from other parties, especially from the National Coalition Party, are so keen at pointing the finger at Muslims? Do they do so because they are racists? Opportunists? Political gold diggers?
What about the media that permits this type of anti-social behavior to go near-unchecked?
I have never heard the following statement made by a Finnish journalist when interviewing Islamophobes: “There are in Finland an estimated 70,000 Muslims and that amounts to just 1.3% of the population. What gives?”
Islamophobia and hate crime go hand in hand as in the case of a Pakistani migrant who was brutally attacked in February. Source: Migrant Tales.
Continue reading “White Finnish privilege #56: How Islamophobic is Finland?”
White Finnish privilege #55: It is that time of the year – Christmas!
Far-right poliicians and Islamophobes of varying hues commonly blame Muslims for banning traditional Christmas parties at school. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth. Those wanting to remove Christmas parties are Finns who believe that religion should not play a role in our schools since we are officially a secular state.
What happens when most of the students of the schools aren’t Christians and you insist that the Christmas party must go on? What does it say about our respect for other religions and cultures? Is it a power trip? Does it send a warning that we call the cultural and religious shots in Finnish society?
The Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church is by far the biggest in Finland with 72.6% (4.004 million) of the population belonging to that faith. The second- and third-biggest religions in the country are the Islamic faith and the Finnish Orthodox Church with 1.3% (70,000) and 1.1% (61,690), respectively.
One question we could ask is why do we keep under a magnifying glass a congregation that accounts for only 1.3% of the population? The answer, I believe, is obvious: Islamophobia that lives another day thanks to denial and misinformation.
Why the open hostility if Finland is a country that guarantees religious freedom? Why is there so much hostility?
White Finnish privilege #55
A good example of white Finnish privilege is organizing Christmas parties at schools and by denying other religions the same public spaces. While Finland states publicly that the adaption of newcomers to Finland is a two-way process (Integration), it is in practice a one-way process (assimilation).
Disagree? Wasn’t President Sauli Niinistö quoted as saying in YLE, just before presidential election day that the only “public” spaces that foreigners have are the four walls of their homes?

Source: Yle News
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He said:
Continue reading “White Finnish privilege #55: It is that time of the year – Christmas!”
Facebook Suomen Muslimiverkosto: Vandalism during Christmas
Migrant Tales insight: The mosque, which is run by the Islamic Society of Northern Finland, is once again the target of vandalism. Since September 2017, the mosque in Oulu was vandalized eight times. It is shameful that a country like Finland, which claims to promote social equality, allows such acts to happen. Which politicians will speak out against such acts of vandalism? Why are they so quiet?


Go to the Facebook page here.
10-year-old Muslim girl of Espoo: The police say one thing while others say another
In earlier statements and interviews to the media, the Finnish police have claimed the presence of “wild” rumors about a ten-year-old girl, who was assaulted. The picture with the girl on social media had text that claimed that her hijab, or veil, was torn off and that she was left unconscious after being hit by four roughly same-aged classmates.
Fact or fiction?
It appears that there were two suspects instead of four and that her hijab wasn’t torn off. While she has blood over her, it seems that the injuries she endured weren’t life-threatening.
The Western Uusimaa Police said that racism played no role in what happened.
Fact or fiction?
Read the original statement here.
The father of the victim, claims through a close friend states that four classmates had insulted his daughter’s hijab and then beat her. The girl was bullied before at school, apparently because she is a Muslim.
The Facebook posting clearly states that the father of the victim believes that his daughter was a victim of Islamophobic bullying and assault. In other words, racism was a factor.
Toiminta ilman rasismia ja rasismia vastaan ei ole demonisointia

Olen katsellut vähän kummissani oppositiopuolueiden reaktioita yksinkertaiseen kysymykseen: ”Oletteko valmiita yhteistyöhön perussuomalaisten kanssa.”
Ei ole perussuomalaisten demonisointia, jos sanotaan, että puolueen ohjelma sekä esiintyminen eduskunnassa ja mediassa ovat olleet selkeän rasistisia, muukalaispelkoisia, syrjiviä ja kansanryhmää vastaan kiihottavia. On osattava sanoa selvästi, haluaako vai eikö oma puolue tehdä yhteistyötä tällaisen puolueen kanssa.
On myös uskallettava sanoa se tosiasia, että Jussi Halla-aho ei edelleenkään, toimittuaan yli seitsemän vuotta kansanedustajana, euroedustajana ja nyt viimeiset kuukaudet puoluejohtajana, ole tuonut politiikkaan juuri muuta kuin omien äänestäjiensä kiihottamista kansanryhmää vastaan ja pelonsekaisia puheita raiskausrikoksia hyväksi käyttäen. Lisäksi hän on toiminut hyödyllisenä idioottina Soinille, Kokoomuksen kiihkokansallismieliselle ja rasistiselle sektiolle ja Keskustan junttirasisteille.
Muistutan vielä, kuinka Jussi Halla-aho hillitsi kiihkeimpiä saunan taakse viejiä aloittaessaan kansanedustajana v. 2011:
”Kansalaisvaikuttamisessa, kuten verkkokirjoittelussa, vallitsevat omat, usein hieman karnevalistiset lainalaisuutensa. Siinä pyritään ”viihdyttämään” yleisöä ja herättämään huomiota. Poliittisessa päätöksenteossa, etenkin korkeimmalla tasolla eli hallituksessa ja eduskunnassa, tämä ei välttämättä ole tehokkain tapa. Vaikuttaminen edellyttää suhteiden ylläpitoa etenkin virkakuntaan ja muihin poliitikkoihin, ja päätöksenteko tapahtuu suurelta osin kulisseissa, kahvipöydissä ja kuluaareissa. Poliittinen päätöksenteko ei ole viihteellistä eikä läpinäkyvää, ja tässä suhteessa lusikka on otettava kauniiseen käteen. Politiikassa asioita edistetään hivuttamalla, ei räjäyttämällä.”
Tämähän on onnistunut mainiosti. Halla-aho on syrjäyttänyt samanmielisen, homojen suhteen reippaasti, mutta mustien suhteen liian hillitysti esiintyneen puoluejohtajan ja puolueen perustajan, luonut hyvät suhteet Kokoomuksen ja Keskustan johtoon ja jatkaa hivuttamista.
Vaalien taas lähestyessä oppositiopuolueiden edustajatkin näyttävät jälleen lähtevän piirileikkiin. Ymmärrän, että politiikka vaatii malttia ja yhteistyökykyä. Kiehnääminen rasismin kanssa ei kuitenkaan ole sitä. Puoluejohtajat, kansanedustajat ja muut poliittiset toimijat, jotka eivät yksiselitteisesti osaa sanoa, että eivät halua tehdä yhteistyötä rasistisen, natsismin kanssa flirttailevan puolueen kanssa, jatkavat Soinin aloittamaa rasismin saattelua suomalaiseen hallintoon ja pitävät yllä Suomen asemaa EU:n rasistisimpana maana.
Äänten nälkä on kova. Meille on jo ehtinyt syntyä tapa hyväksyä hiljaa vaalikampanjoinnin aikainen kaksilla rattailla ratsastaminen. Jokaiseen puolueeseen ilmestyy perussuomalaisten äänestäjien kalastaja. Ja heitäkö ei enää ole mahdollista muuten houkutella ja viihdyttää, kuin rasistisilla puheilla? Pelkästään tämän pitäisi olla selvä hälytysmerkki jokaiselle kunnialliselle, yhtäläistä ihmisarvoa kunnioittavalle puolueelle ja poliitikolle.
Meidän äänestäjien tehtävä on, hivuttamalla tai räjäyttämällä, aloittaa Suomen maineen palautus äänestämällä eduskuntaan taitavia ja rehtejä kansalaisia.

Why aren’t we hearing the opinion of the parents concerning the beating of a 10-year-old Muslim girl in Finland?
The tragic picture of a 10-year-old girl below covered in blood kicked unconscious by her white Finnish classmates, raises a lot of interesting questions: One of these is why we’re not hearing what the victim’s parents have to say?
We have seen this play out before. The police are quick to claim that there is no racist motive in the media but they make no claim of this in their official statement.
Why would the police play down what happened Espoo, Finland?
The reason is simple: The police are anxious that what happened may provoke a reaction from the Muslim community. By stating there is no racist motive they are calming the situation.
Even if the police and the school want to brush this off as an innocent scuffle between children, we have to dig deeper. If there is a racist motive, the police must treat it as such and not deny it.
Migrant Tales stands behind what it published earlier Wednesday and will continue to pursue relentlessly this story.

One of the matters that the parents of the girl asked is not to show her face in social media.
Asylum seeker in Joutseno immigration removal center cell 222: Deportation halted!
The deportation of Mohammed, the twenty-one-year-old Afghan asylum seeker detained on December 10 and sent to the Joutseno immigration removal center, was halted today, according to Stop Deportations. Thanks to an appeal, the voluntary association against deportations and Mohammed’s lawyer were able to stop the deportation until his case is reviewed by the supreme administrative court.
Mohammed was very happy about the news.
“I don’t know when they will release me from here if today or tomorrow,” he said, adding that he might attend a Christmas party on Friday at the school he is studying.



