Yaseen Ghaleb, joka on tuttu Migrant Talesin blogissa, on julkaisut ensimmäisen runokokellma Euroopassa. Onnittelut ja paljon mennestysta meidän kaikkien puolesta!
Jos kiinnostaa, voit ostaa Ghalebin runokirja tästä.
Former Danish immigration and integration minister, Inger Støjberg, was convicted to 60 days in prison for illegally separating asylum-seeking couples if the partner was under 18, reports Euronews. An uncompromising Islamophobic hardliner who served as minister during 2005-2019 was also responsible for passing a law that required asylum seekers to hand over valuables like jewelry to pay for their stays in Denmark.
The impeachment court, which had not convened for 26 years, found Inger Støjberg guilty of providing parliament with “incorrect and misleading information and that she had neglected her ministerial duties >”intentionally or through gross negligence.”
Apart from her conviction, parliament will decide whether she can continue to serve as an MP.
Maintaining her innocence and thanking her supporters, Støjberg was quoted as saying on Facebook that the ruling was a blow to Danish values.
Apart from other harsh laws against asylum seekers, Støjberg ended up in legal hot water when she initiated a policy of separating under-eighteen-year-olds from their partners on suspicion of forced marriages.
Continue reading “Bye-bye Inger Støjberg, something is not always rotten in Denmark”After the police had detained five white Finnish terrorist suspects in the town of Kankaanpää, students at the fine arts campus of the Satakunta University of Applied Science (SAMK) were surprised to read from Iltalehti that one of the apparent targets of the terrorist suspects was the school.
SAMK’s Kankaanpää campus has about 300 students.
“We had heard about how much those held in custody by the police wanted us out of Kankaanpää because we studied fine arts and because we weren’t from the town,” said a SAMK student, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid any reprisals against him.
Like the rest of Finland, the SAMK student had read about the five terrorist suspects on Friday (3.12) thanks to the media. However, on Wednesday, Iltalehti wrote that one of the targets was the school.
Some of the students feel abandoned by SAMK,” the student said. “We read the Iltalehti story [that the school was a target of the terrorist suspects] on Wednesday, but it was not until Friday that the principal spoke to the students of the school.”
It is disappointing to note that it took Finland’s largest daily, Helsingin Sanomat, five days to write an editorial on the threat posed by the far-right after the detention of five white Finns on Friday. Considering the media attention and general outrage in general that Abderrahman Mechkah knife attack caused in Turku in 2017, a question emerges: were the suspects in Kakaanpää the wrong type of terrorists?
Moreover, the suggestion that the Kankaanpää suspects were some isolated splinter group detached from society is an example of how the problem is being whitewashed. As Mihai Varga stated: “The main agents of ideological violence are not isolated ‘lone wolves’ but are usually interconnected with communities, non-violent agents and legal entities, at times even including connections to law enforcement personnel.”
Continue reading “Downplaying and whitewashing the far-right threat in Finland”From the days when Timo Soini headed the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party to the present, there’s one denial coming from the party that is an outright lie: The PS is not a far-right party with links to neo-Nazi, fascist and far-right groups.
I could list several examples, but let’s look at Kansallismielisten liittouma, a perfect example of the PS links with far-right groups. Eight of the 13 persons (61.5%) in the picture below are or were PS members.
Remember when PS MP Juho Eerola’s aide, Ulla Pyysalo, was caught seeking membership in Pohjoismaisen vastarintaliike (PVL), a neo-Nazi association?
There are many, many other shameful examples. You would have to be very susceptible to believe that the PS is not a far-right party set on destroying our democracy and Nordic way of life.
One notable guest of Kansallismielisten liitouma is Antti Niemi, the former head of PVL’s Finnish chapter.
How long will Finns put up with these types of politicians and parties and vote them out of power?
The detention of five far-right terrorist suspects in the western Finnish city of Kankaanpää Friday raises many questions. One of these is the collaboration of this group and others in the burning down of an asylum reception center in December 2015.
The asylum reception center in Kankaanpää wasn’t the only one that suffered arson attacks.
Former Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP, Ano Turtiainen, was convicted in 2018 for inciting violence against the Finnish Red Cross, which manages many asylum reception centers. The conviction has its roots in a 2015 Facebook post “liked” by PS MEP Laura Huhtasaari.
If we connect the dots and start asking the right questions about what happened from 2015, the answers we may get can be revealing exposing strange and not-so-strange bedfellows.
Moreover, it would be wishful and careless thinking to believe that the terrorist suspects in Kankaanpää acted alone and were totally detached from society.
Mihai Varga hit it right on the dot: “The main agents of ideological violence are not isolated ‘lone wolves’ but are usually interconnected with communities, non-violent agents and legal entities, at times even including connections to law enforcement personnel.”
For those who don’t remember, a building going to house asylum seekers was set alight was burned down in December 2015 in Niinisalo, located a stone’s throw from Kankaanpää. Perussuomalaiset MP Juho Mäenpää, elected to parliament in 2019 but a member of the Nazi-spirited Suomen Sisu association, claimed jubilantly back then after the arson attack: “Great. There is a god. My prayers have been answered.”
Continue reading “A trail of xenophobic and far-right violence in Finland and yet no suspects”An interview published today in The Guardian of Prime Minister Sanna Marin reveals that countries like Finland have not caved into populism, xenophobia, and toxic nationalism. Her leadership is a direct snub at those forces in Finland trying to bring down her government.
Marin said in the interview that she believed future governments would continue to promote Nordic state welfare values like social equality.
“I think so,” she was quoted as saying in The Guardian. “Because it’s work that’s ongoing. We have always worked for equality in Finland, and I think it’s also important in the future, and not only the equality of men and women, or the genders, but also the equality of minority groups in society.
Foretunately, human rights rank high in PM Marin’s government. If the opposition ever gained power, human rights would be compromised and demoted.
“We have to say this is not acceptable. We’re condemning the actions of Belarus. But at the same time we have to make sure that people’s human rights are respected in this situation,” Marin said.
Continue reading “PM Sanna Marin is a true leader”THIS STORY WAS UPDATED
The main agents of ideological violence are not isolated “lone wolves” but are usually interconnected with communities, non-violent agents and legal entities, at times even including connections to law enforcement personnel.
Five white Finns were detained Tuesday and remanded by a Satakunta District Court Friday, at the request of the police, on suspicion of terrorist offenses, according to a statement by the Southwestern Finland Police.
The police said that this far-right suspected terror offense is the first in Finland.
“We have found in their possession terrorist material which, when examined in conjunction with other criminal investigation material, reinforces the impression that they have become radicalized and gives reason to suspect them of terrorist offenses,” said Detective Superintendent Toni Sjöblom, head of the investigation.
While the detention of this group is good news and no longer poses a threat, the interesting question is to see the reaction.
If the suspects were Muslims, Finland would have a serious knee-jerk reaction from Islamophobic parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, National Coalition Party (Kokoomus), and others to draft tighter terrorist laws and more surveillance powers to the police.
Continue reading “Far-right terrorism in Finland has many direct and indirect supporters”Five white Finns born between 1995 and 1998 were arrested Tuesday by the police on suspected terrorism charges, according to Pori-based daily Satakunnan Kansa. The five suspects are from the Western Finnish region of Kankaanpää.
The police did not call the suspects white Finns but stated that they had “ethnic Finnish names.”
The police and the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service (Supo) will hold a press conference at 6 pm to release more details like the detention of the suspects and the danger they posed to the public.
Since the 2011 parliamentary elections, which saw the Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party win 39 starts from 5 seats previously, it has systematically tarred and feathered migrants, especially Muslims, people of color, and specific minorities.
Should you be surprised that all PS MPs elected in 2019 based their campaign on an anti-immigration message.
The PS demands that Finland should strive for zero asylum seekers (code for Muslims). Those that remain in Finland must endure the constant racism, labeling, and bombardment of their group.
PS MP Minna Reijonen epitomizes this toxicity in a question to the government during a session of parliament.
MP Reijonen parrots the PS’ populist and racist stance of migrants and minorities, planting the seeds of future social strife.
Continue reading “A Finnish Islamophobic party’s recipe for inclusion and ethnic understanding”