The incident of Finnish police brutality, where they physically forced Muslim asylum seekers to remove their hijabs, is not surprising in the least, taking into account the year (2017) and the Häme region of Finland.
Seven months after the incident with the Muslim women, Migrant Tales published a story about how the police gave tacit approval to the questionable role of far-right vigilante groups like the Soldiers of Odin.
At that time, Detective chief inspector of southern Finland, Markku Tuominen, surprised many people In January 2016 when he was quoted as saying that Finns should avoid contact with foreigners. In December, we even read that the police service of Häme welcomed street patrols in the town of Asikkala, according to Hämeen Kaiku.
Asiakkala is located between Hämeenlinna and Lahti.
Apart from supporting far-right vigilante gangs, several asylum reception centers attacked many arson (terrorist?) attacks in 2015. One of these was razed to the ground in Kankaanpää, where five white Finnish suspects were held last year for suspected far-right terrorist charges.
Adding another element to the country’s hostile environment towards asylum seekers and migrants, the Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* were in government. Their presence spearheaded numerous laws that tightened Finland’s already restrictive immigration law.
Here’s the question: Due to the hysteria and knee-jerk reaction of authorities like the police to the record number of asylum seekers in 2015, some police did not have any problems giving the green light to far-right and neo-Nazi vigilante gangs patrolling Finland’s streets.
Even if the defendants of the incident forced Muslim women to take off their hijabs, the year and the general Islamophobic atmosphere in Finland encouraged the police to act in such an aggressive manner.
