Suspected hate crimes reported to the police in Finland during2020 totaled 852 cases, which is a 5.22% fall from 899 hate crimes in the previous year, according to the Police University College.
As in previous years, the lion’s share (88.5%) of all hate crimes were motivated by national-ethnic origin (649/75.8% of all cases) and religion (108/12.7%). That was followed by sexual orientation (68/5.4%) and disability (30/3.5%).
During the year under review, the Roma minority saw a rise of 34% to 79 suspected cases.
One explanation for the rise is that the Roma in Finland has started to report discrimination cases to the authorities. A good example is to the Non-Discrimination Ombudsman.
The scariest matter that Thursday’s documentary revealed about one of Europe’s most Islamophobic countrie was how far racist discourse promoted by politicians could lead a country. In a standard pyramid of hate (see below), where genocide is the final outcome, the apex of Denmark’s pyramid of hate is deportation, and physical elimination of whole groups like Muslims.
Watching the documentary and the comments by an Islamophobic Danish People’s Party (DPP)* MP Marier Krarup and Matias Tesfaye, minister of immigration and integration, showed the source of the country’s “racism is both cultural and legal,” according to Jonas Eika.
Tesfaye went on to say that Denmark was right in taking a more uncompromising stand against Muslims or people from the Middle East and North Africa. This statement was made by the son of an Ethiopian refugee who supports cooperation with the Islamophobic DPP.
According to Politico, the Social Democrats of Denmark supported confiscating the jewelry of refugees to pay for their asylum, forcing the children of immigrants to attend compulsory child care, and banning the niqab.
Michelle Pace, professor in global studies at Roskilde University, expresses dismay at how the ruling Social Democrats are drafting laws and using harsher Islamophobic discourse than the DPP.
“I can’t believe that I am saying this,” she continued, “[but] it is a reality, and that is because they [Social Democrats] want to please their voters. They want to be reelected in the next election.”
The message that come through loud and clear from Tesfaye and Krarup in the documentary is, apart from their Islamophobia, there is no room for diversity, especially Muslims, in Denmark.
Kaikki, erityisesti poliitikot ja valtion virkailijat pitäisi tietää, että sana “tasa-arvo”* tarkoittaa miesten ja naisten yhdenvertaisuus. Mutta mitä poliitikko saattaa viestittää kun käyttää sana tasa-arvo yhdenvertaisuuden sijasta?
Yksi asia hän viestittä on että kiinnosta on vain naisten ja miesten yhdenvertaisuutta. Hänelle ei ole tärkeä yhdenvertaisia oikeuksista kun puhutaan mm. uskonnosta, etninen taustasta, kansalaisuudesta tai kielestä.
Poliisin nettisivu on hyvä esimerkki siitä kuinka “tasa-arvo” käytetään yhdenvertaisuuden sijasta. Valkoisia poliisi naisia ovat nettisivulla näkyviä mutta miksei heti näky “yhdenvertaisia” esimerkkejä mm. ei-valkoisi poliiseja?
Tasa-arvon ja yhdenvertaisuuden sekava käyttö Suomessa heijasta laajempi yhteiskunnallinen ongelma ja osoittaa miksi syrjinnän ja rasismin taistelu on sekava.
Koko yhdenvertaisuuden (myös tasa-arvon) edistäminen on pahasti sirpaloitu Suomessa ja salli kahden tärkeän sanan väärinkäyttö.
*Suomalaisessa lainsäädännössä ‘tasa-arvo’ tarkoittaa miesten ja naisten välistä tasa-arvoa. Sitä koskee laki naisten ja miesten välisestä tasa-arvosta. Suomen perustuslaissa määriteltyä periaatetta, jonka mukaan ketään ei saa ilman hyväksyttävää perustetta kutsutaan puolestaan yhdenvertaisuudeksi. Siitä säädetään erikseen yhdenvertaisuuslaissa (Wikipedia).
There are many things that one can do to retard or facilitate adaption of newcomers to Finland. One of the worst is constant suspicion by politicians who have no qualifications or understanding of migration. Good examples are National Coalition Party MP Pia Kauma who does not have the faintest idea about migrants but is still strolling with her baby carriage; members of the Perussuomalaiset* party who call certain migrants “harmful.”
The worst way to help adaption of newcomers to Finland is by treating them as unequal members of society and by using labels such as “person of migrant origin.”
If you want to speed up the process of adaption of newcomers to Finland and make them a part of our society, we must then really wish that and take down those structures that permit institutional racism to see another day. But how serious are we about turning newcomers into active members of society and how much ignorance and racism guide our attitudes? Unless we don’t understand this, all integration programs are doomed to failure.
How to describe Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Veikko Vallin’s tweet below? Vallin, who likes to be called the Trump of Tampere, likes posing with MAGA caps and often makes racist remarks about asylum seekers, who are mostly Muslims. He even brags on social media about how he was able to escape taxes in Finland by moving to Estonia.
One does not have to look too far into Vallin’s social media history stained with racist posts.
The PS MP now tries to show is “anti-racism” side with the following tweet:
“@jemustakalio of the Greens speaks about “brown” people. It is an odd word. If anything, it differentiates [people]. For me, skin color does not mean anything. We are all people irrespective of our skin color.”
Source Twitter
Everyone can see how disingenuous Vallin’s tweet is. What about if we substituted the term skin color with “religion” or “Muslim?”
I doubt that he’d ever claim that we “are all people irrespective of our religion.”
The hard truth about Vallin’s tweet is that it is typical of people who believe Finland is only white and that there is only one kind of Finn. It is a convenient way to close one’s eyes to racism’s harm to people in Finland.
The only appropriate time people like Vallin accept “brown Finn” is when it labels such groups as criminals.
Vallin believes that racist statements will get him reelected.
This week we learned about how widespread women in the rescue department are victims of sexual harassment and discrimination, according to Yle. We also learned about the ministry of justice’s plans to tackle discrimination and hate-speech awareness with a 52-point program with the help of training increased support for organizations racism and hate crime.
Writes Yle News: “In the future all Finnish police departments will undergo training on non-discriminatory police work while municipal councillors will take courses on hate speech,” reports Helsingin Sanomat.
As parties like the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus), Christian Democrats and Movement Now (Liike nyt), and especially the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* have encouraged and given a platform to racism and bigotry, in the same way, more have spoken out against discrimination.
Do we need to know the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP’s track record and what he has said about asylum seekers, Muslims, people of color, and other minorities in the past? His tirade against asylum seekers was so racist that the Left Alliance bloc threatened to leave the meeting if Vallin didn’t stop talking.
Vallin, an avid Donald Trump follower who boasts about how little taxes he pays in Finland because his money is in Estonia, likes to also take pictures of day-care children and women in Muslim attire and publish them without permission on social media.
There is an old saying that goes something like this: I was a liberal in youth so I would not be a fascist in old age.
What motivates a politician to twist and exaggerate facts to stigmatize migrants? National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) MP Heikki Vestman’s speech in parliament Wednesday is a prime example of how some politicians spread Islamophobia to attract attention and gain power.
His unsubstantiated talking points motivated me to write an email to him, which he has not yet responded to.
Moreover, the MP uses code to tell us what groups he is targetting. The term “asylum seeker” usually means Muslim.
“When I heard your speech and rationale Wednesday (20 October), I wondered how a young, apparently intelligent person could house such opinionated and unsubstantiated claims about migrants. If you are honest, would you want to [live and] grow up in a country where this type of discourse is ongoing by politicians seeking power and attention? Read some history and check out how the Finns were labeled in Sweden during the 1960s and 1970s.
Does the phrase “en finne igen” ring a bell?
After North America, the greatest number of Finnish immigrants, or about half a million people, moved to Sweden. In the 1960s and 1970s, Finns had a terrible reputation in the neighboring country. Whenever a crime occurred, Swedes usually responded, “it must be a Finn,” en finne igen.
Here is a question to Vestman: Why are you picking and bullying vulnerable groups of people who cannot defend themselves from your attacks?
National Coalition Party anti-immigration MP Heikki Vestman. Source: Kokoomus
Below are some unsubstantiated claims (that I translated and paraphrased) from Vestman’s speech. He was against loosening family reunification guidelines because the minors, whom he sadly referred to as “anchor babies,” could become a national security threat.
Vestman should know that having a family is a human right.
Islamophobia and other forms of racism are for some politicians their gateway to power and infamy.
Watching part of the firey debate Wednesday in parliament that led to a vote of confidence for the government, one wonders what some politicians, especially with the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party, have in their heads.
The saddest matter was the bullying and false claims about migrants, nothing more than storms in teacups.
Those politicians and parties who only think beyond their noses are doomed to hitting a wall.
They are heading towards such a fate because they believe that Islamophobic and other racist soundbites will help them to have and retain power and influence.
After launching an aggressive campaign and burning up a lot of money in themunicipal elections of June, the PS came in fourth place despite some polls, which showed it to come out on top.
The result was a huge disappointment and the party gasped for air.
If there is a crack line in the PS, their disappointing result in the municipal election is an indication that the public is growing weary of their broken-record scapegoat-migrant approach.
Kun Sanna Marin vuosi sitten pääsi Vogueen ja vieläpä kansikuvaan, persunaisten närkästys oli valtaisa. Ei tietenkään siksi, että suomalaispäättäjä, nainen ja pääministeri huomioitiin tunnetussa mediassa. Ei tietenkään, persunaisethan ovat kaikkien naisten puolesta ja haluavat tukea myös naispääministeriä, vaikka hän olisikin kommunisti. Mutta SE PUKEUTUMINEN! Sannalla ei ollut takin alla mitään, EI EDES RINTALIIVEJÄ JA MAHTOIKO OLLA RINTOJAKAAN!
Laura Huhtasaari, harras uskovainen, närkästyi eniten suomalaisrintojen puolesta ja organisoi pikaisesti kampanjan, jossa persunaiset näyttivät esimerkkiä, kuinka rintavarustus siveästi peitetään. Kalkkuna Looks olisi, modernia nimeämistä käyttäen, ehkä parhaiten tuota tyyliä kuvaava ilmaisu.
Kalkkuna Looks
Ihan uteliaisuuttani kurkistin nyt vuoden kierron jälkeen, kuinka hyvin persunaisilta on sujunut siveyden sipuleina esiintyminen ja millaisilla kuvilla naiskansanedustajat ovat tuollaisten epäsiveellisten sijaan vaalisonnikarjaansa kiihottaneet. Ja – oh my God! – siellähän on voitolla Sanna Marin -tyyli ja ehkä jotain vähän antavampaakin. Persunaiset ovat siis sittenkin huomanneet, että tyylikäs vihjailu ei ole naispoliitikollekaan ollenkaan haitaksi.
Mutta hoikkuus ei sitten ole hyväksi, sillä saattaa pääministeri menettää eduskunnan luottamuksen, kuten eräs maineikas persulääkäri keskustalaislehdessä julisti. Pitäkää kiinni läskeistänne, persunaiset, vaikka Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo onkin synnillisesti sanonut, että teissä pitää niitä olla, jotta saisi puristaa!
Luovuttakaa siis, persunaiset, ja olkaa niin kuin oottekin. Politiikan tiedoissa, taidoissa ja osaamisessa ette Sanna Marinille pärjää, se on selvyys. Mutta unohtakaa kateus myös ryntäinrintamilla, ei kaikista naisista millään saa yhtä edustavia kuvia kuin Sanna Marinista.
Voisi sitä paitsi toivoa, että perussuomalaiset, kun puolueensa rakastettu lempinimikin on persu ja politiikkakin on suoraan ahterista, alkaisivat enemmän julkaista Odinin potilaat -henkisiä kuvia. Siis takaapäin ja siveästi mustissa. Kun nuo ryntäät ovat niin läääst siison ja vaalikarjakin on sentään enimmäkseen ihan aikamiehiä eikä mitään tissimaidon lutkuttajia.
