Alongside our world-famous education system, Finland now becomes known for things that some would consider shameful but was never challenged enough like the Soldiers of Odin, a white (Finnish) supremacists hate group that has caught the attention of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a USAmerican anti-Semitism and anti-bigotry group founded in 1913.
Hatred, racism, and bigotry have a way of biting back at you if you don’t challenge it hard enough. In Finland, like in many parts of Europe, politicians, and the media have been too slow to react and lacked the courage to challenge racism and groups like the Soldiers of Odin.
In plain English, our lack of resolve on this front is our failure as a society to defend our Nordic values from hate groups like the Soldiers of Odin.
When we speak of Nordic ideals of social equality we must, however, ask a further key question: Which group is entitled to these privileges?
When reporting about extremist groups like the Soldiers of Odin, the media and politicians should keep in mind the following matters that the ADL points out in a statement below about the vigilante group. They spell it out pretty clearly. The Soldiers of Odin is an anti-Muslim, white (Finnish) supremacist neo-Nazi extremist group.
Writes ADL:
FROM FINLAND WITH HATE
The Soldiers of Odin originated in the tiny Scandinavian country of Finland in late 2015, but the group’s formation and rise are tied to the larger refugee problem that countries across Europe have experienced in recent years. Conflicts in places such as Libya, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan have created large numbers of asylum-seekers fearing persecution in their home countries, as well as refugees seeking better economic conditions than the ones in their war-torn nations.
The fact that we now “export” bigotry on such a scale should set alarm bells ringing.
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Read full ADL statement here.
In the United States, Finland or elsehwere, the Soldiers of Odin are a hate group.
More.