In 2015, when a record number of asylum seekers came to Finland, a number of attacks were carried out against asylum reception centers. One of these was in Niinisalo, located a stone’s throw from Kankaanpää, where over two weeks ago a group of white Finnish terrorist suspects was detained by the police. While a lot…
Tag: far-right violence
Far-right terrorism in Finland has many direct and indirect supporters
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. Mihai Varga Five white Finns were detained Tuesday and remanded by a Satakunta District Court Friday, at the request of the…
Case Pekka Kataja of the PS: I’m surprised that you are surprised
THIS STORY WAS UPDATED It is revealing to read comments from the Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party about Friday’s bombshell news: the police detained a former PS politician and a far-right Nazi-spirited activist on suspected attempted murder charges against Pakka Kataja. Starting from PS chairperson Jussi Halla-aho, who was convicted in 2012 for ethnic agitation and…
Pekka Kataja’s attackers are two far-right activists. Have the Finnish authorities awoken to the threat of such groups?
THIS STORY WAS UPDATED In April, I had the opportunity to interview Yaron Nadbornik, the president of the Jewish Community of Helsinki. One of the matters that struck me of the interview was that in 2018-2019 the authorities started to recognize anti-Semitism as a problem. Today the police took into custody two far-right activists charged…
MP Ano Turtiainen: A shovelful of PS violence and rage
I doubt that anyone of us wants to see a [civil] war in our country. PS MP Ano Turtiainen The Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP with a curious first name, “Ano,” [1] Turtiainen is another dangerous example of how the Islamophobic party fuels the hostile environment against migrants and minorities like Muslims. Recently we saw a deadly…
A warning from Germany: Far-right and populist rhetoric can turn into bullets
THIS STORY WAS UPDATED An analysis piece in the Guardian looked at the international and local links that lead to the deadly incidents that led to the deaths Tof nine people in Hanau, Germany at the hands of a far-right killer. Patrik Hermansson of Hope Not Hate, a UK-based far-right monitoring group, correctly warns us…
Finland should stop capitulating to racist far-right groups like Finland First and others
The police service informed the #RighttoLive camp, which has been demonstrating against the Finnish Immigration Service’s unfair asylum policies and deportations since February, to disband from the Central Railway Square by 7 pm Friday. The order was given five days after the far-right Suomi ensin (Finland First) demonstration was obliged to leave the Central Railway Square on Monday.
Where should we go after Saturday’s Stop this Game! demonstration?
I really would have wanted to join you in the Stop this Game! demonstration Saturday but I was attending a European Network Against Racism (ENAR) board meeting in Brussels that looked at the very challenges that were raised at yesterday’s event.
Some thoughts about Jimi Joonas Karttunen’s death and the hostility against our ever-growing culturally diverse society
While we hope that the perpetrators of Jimi Joonas Karttunen’s death will be speedily brought to justice, there is one worrisome question we should ask in light of what took place: What kind of a country have we turned into?
Finnish Neo-Nazi thugs suspected of assaulting a man in broad daylight
How is it possible that a man is beaten up in broad daylight next to the Helsinki Railway Station next to a gathering of Neo-Nazis? How is it possible that this far-right group, which calls itself Kansallinen vastarintaliike (SVL), allegedly beat up the person, who is sent unconscious to the hospital to die six days later from cerebral hemorrhages?