PS MP Ville Tavio is a good example of how hazardous Islamophobia is to one’s perception

I once had the opportunity to write a rebuttal in the Helsinki Times to Perussuomalaiset (PS)* parliamentary group leader Ville Tavio. In his usual far-right fiery language, he suggested outright that Finland must treat migrants as second-class members of society.

He suggested in an op-ed piece in  Uusi Suomi that the Finnish Constitution should be amended to give Finns priority over foreigners.

Tavio has had many racist outbursts before. His most recent one was a parliamentary question asking why Muslim women should be allowed to use burkinis at public swimming halls. He now sounds the alarm that millions of asylum seekers will soon stream to Europe as a result of Turkey’s military action in Syria.

He tweets: “Turkey is threatening to spark a new immigration crisis. If the [mass] migration of people begins, is the Finnish army ready this time to stop foreign hordes at the border? What does defense minister @anttikaikkonen say? The fate of the nation rests on this question.”

Excuse me, Tavio, are you suggesting that we should start to deploy the army at our border because you are apparently hallucinating asylum seekers coming from the Middle East?

Are you ok?

Has the poison of Islamophobia kicked in?

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Tavio is a lawyer and he should supposedly know better and how to choose his words.

Believe it or not, he is a product of Finland’s world-class education system.

*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.