US President Joe Biden warned in a recent speech that his country’s democracy is in peril. He pointed the finger at former President Donald Trump’s MAGA (Make America Great Again or Make Attorneys Get Attorneys) followers.
We asked in a recent posting if Biden labeled MAGA Republicans “semi-fascists,” why couldn’t we call the far-right Perussuonalaiset (PS)* the same?
Even if the PS’ and other radical-right followers have not yet stormed Parliament like on January 6 at the Capitol, the party’s far-right brand of rhetoric has caused a lot of harm to our democratic institutions. The hate speech they spread against migrants and minorities is one of many examples.
True, the PS wants to sanitize its hateful rhetoric because they want to form part of a next government after the April parliamentary election.
Source: Yle
Who is Mäenpää? He’s the PS MP who called asylum seekers “invasive species” and did not face an ethnic agitation charges since his parliamentary immunity was not lifted.
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 regionof Finland.
Seven months after the incident with the Muslim women, Migrant Talespublished 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.
A group of Muslim asylum seekers in May 2017 charged seven police and security guards with assault and misconduct in the line of duty when they forced the women to take off their hijabs, according to Yle.
Apart from the questionable action of the police, it is interesting to note that the court case is happening today, or over five years ago when the incident took place. Moreover, the incident occurred shortly after over 30,000 asylum seekers came to Finland in 2015.
Migrant Tales has documented numerous cases of the poor treatment of asylum seekers by the police and staffers at asylum reception centers.
Even if the women objected, citing their religion, the police forced them to take their hijabs off.
“According to the prosecutor, the women were shouting and screaming, and the accused, among other things, pushed them chest first against the wall,” writes Yle. “Finally, the defendants took off the women’s scarves and took the pictures without them.”
The actions of the police caused injuries to the women. These included headaches, scarring, and redness all over their bodies.
Source: Google
The defendants claim they are innocent of any wrongdoing.
I have often wondered why racism some people in Finland are not moved by racism. Racism is a traumatic experience that remains inside of you. Some don’t react or care because they have never been a victim of such a social ill.
When racism jabs or throws a violent punch and your colleague or friend doesn’t react, it is the worst insult. Even worse is if the person denies completely racism or claims that you are overreacting.
Racism is such a profitable disorder that politicians use it to gain power and attention. Even so, the worst racists are the ones who do nothing, remain silent, and keep the structures of institutional racism intact.
An excellent book worth reading.
Racism is a monster that you learn to live with but constantly plan on slaying it.
Institutional racism is a social ill that Finland has done too little to challenge. One of the areas where it happens mainly uncontested is in the labor market. IYou face many challenges ahead if you are lucky enough to get a job interview with your so-called foreign-sounding name.
Once you get through the door, the question is if you will be treated equally like the white Finnish employees.
Hamiid Hussein is a Finnish citizen who has lived in the country for a long time. He approached Migrant Tales as well as other representatives of the media about a far-right Perussuomalaiset* candidate running for office in the municipal elections who wanted a picture of his family.
The state prosecutor plans to make public the charges against the perpetratorswho attacked Fares Al-Obaidi over two-and-a-half years ago in June 2020 in Teuva, a town in Western Finland. The big question is whether the prosecutor sees what happened as a hate crime.
The Finnish penal code does not recognize the term “hate crime.” Section 5 of the Finnish criminal code, however, gives grounds for increasing punishment if the crime’s motive was “based on race, skin colour, birth status, national or ethnic origin, religion or belief, sexual orientation or disability or another corresponding grounds.”
I spoke to the victim, Al-Obaidi, about his thoughts before the prosecutor makes public, probably next week, the charges against the suspects.
Here are some factors that I hope the prospecutor has taken into account:
The victim is a Muslim; The victim is a Muslim;
The perception of the victim is that he would have probably never have suffered such a violent attack if he were a white Finn;
Racist insults like mamu (a derogatory term for migrant) and the n-word were hurled at him by the attackers;
Some attackers knew Al-Abaidi’s religion and asked him to seek help from his God, Allah, while they attacked him;
Even if mamu was spray painted on his car, the vehicle was also vandalized. The police claim that their investigation did not find the suspect(s) who spraypainted the victim’s car;
The victim says that the incident changed his life, forcing him to suffer several disorders like from sleeping and concentration, among others;
Al-Albaidi’s mother, sister, and foreign community members were shaken by what happened. His sister fears going outdoors;
Not only was the victim attacked, but his friend’s wife, whom they insulted in a demeaning manner by trolling and calling her a “whore” to foreigners (suvakkihuora) on Facebook.
Denying that racism was not a factor is playing down what happened. What happened to Al-Abaidi was allegedly made worse due to his ethnic background.
The victims car was vandalized and spraypainted. Source: Migrant Tales
Helsingin Sanomat published (paywall) Sunday an interview with Riikka Purra, the chairperson of the anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party. Helsingin Sanomat‘s veteran reporter, Marko Junkkari, did the interview.
In general, Junkkari did a good job in handling Purra’s comments with facts and in no place in the interview did the PS chairperson dominate the interview with her answers, which did not convince.
The story’s headline, “Always the same topic,” sits well with the story. Like her predecessor Jussi Halla-aho, migration is the PS’ pet topic.
In the story, it becomes clear that Junkkari dominates the topic and is not afraid to ask Purra some uncomfortable questions. However, one matter that bothered me about the story was the use of the term “migrant.” It was used too generally, and Junkkari could have asked the PS chairperson to specify what types of migrants she refers to.
I doubt that Purra refers to white German migrants in Finland when speaking of migrants.
It is such an important topic for the party that it grew from a minor to a major party in parliament. The PS is the first party in modern Finnish history to use migration as a rallying cry for voters.
Even if Purra promised the party would expand to other topics, nothing has happened on this front.
Politicians and parties expel a lot of blah blah. Ask this question: Will matters improve for Finland’s racialized communities if the PS and Kokoomus partner in a government? There’s your answer with no blah blah.
A recent story by MTV, a private television channel with a streak of Fox News, published a story about what some National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) leaders thought about forming a government with the anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS)*.
Finland will hold parliamentary elections in April, and considering that Kokoomus and the PS are the biggest opposition parties, with the former leading in opinion polls, future cooperation in a Kokoomus-led government is naturally a topic of speculation.
For some, a government led by Kokoomus and the PS would bring a lot of social hardship, especially to migrants and minorities. Read the full story (in Finnish) here.
Even so, the MTV story reveals many ugly truths about how the Finnish media treats its ever-growing culturally diverse communities with disregard. It is an example of whitewash journalism that avoids asking essential questions.
Even if MTV did not care to bring up what a partnership between Kokoomus and the PS would have on our racialized communities in Finland, Migrant Tales is obliged to do so. Moreover, the television station did not even attempt to answer what extreme cost-saving measures would affect people’s lives.
While the story only mentions labor migrants twice, it sidelines the topic effectively and brushes it under the rug.
Although without the same obsessive zeal, Kokoomus is also inflicted by racism. In its black-and-white world, there are “undesirable” migrants, asylum seekers, Muslims, people of color, and “desirable” ones like cheap, obedient, easily exploitable labor.
Let’s look at some of Purra’s quotes and ask after reading them why MTV did not even bother to bring them up:
“If it were up to me, the Perussuomalaiset will never form part of a government that does not successfully [and] significantly tighten Finnish immigration policy;”
Aims to scrap dual citizenship rights and raise citizenship requirements from five to 10 years;
Total rejection of Muslim asylum seekers to Finland even at the cost of ditching international agreements and human rights obligations;
Constant attacks against cultural diversity by labeling Others as incompatible, irreparable, and hopeless problems;
Much whing about “multiculturalism” but little on solutions.
A short editorial by Helsingin Sanomat Thursday warns that the 1.3 percentage point rise in the recent opinion poll of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party may force other parties to latch on to Islamophobic rhetoric. The PS’ pet themes today are high electricity and gas prices at the pumps and others, which it did not specify.
Even if the daily did not specify the other topic, anyone following the populist party would note that migration is the likely candidate.
While the latter should be clear to the editorial board of Helsingin Sanomat, the daily leaves out another important fact: the national media and public servants like the police spread the PS’ hateful rhetoric.
The 2011 parliamentary election, when the PS won 39 seats from 5 previously, was propelled and helped by uncritical reporting that was more amazed at the new racist kid on the political block. Even parties like the Social Democrats started copying the PS’ anti-immigration rhetoric.
PS rising political “stars” like Jussi Halla-aho, James Hirvisaari, Juho Erola, Timo Soini, and others got their place in the sun. Things were so bad back then that Islamophobes were invited to give their opinions on talk shows.
If you didn’t speak out against racism, who would?
Sweden is a pet topic of the far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party. They constantly and obnoxiously remind us what a horrible place Sweden is because there live Muslims and other migrants.
PS chairperson, Riikka Purra, continues to push her ethnonationalist and ethnic replacement theory at almost every opportunity. She constantly attacks people who are vieraskielisiä, people who do not speak Finnish or Swedish as their mother tongue.
Purra tweets below:
In the [September] Swedish [parliamentary] elections, there is a general debate to discuss how many “non-Nordics” can live in each area and what problems too many will cause.
So times are changing, even in Sweden. Unfortunately, it is too late [for them].
If only Finland would understand [to act] before such a matter happens.”
Source: Twitter
Purra forgets to mention how much migrants have contributed to building Sweden’s economy and well-being. She doesn’t, for obvious reasons, mention how our ever-growing elderly population will impoverish us.
Moreover, Purra, like her PS lapdogs and followers, are constantly whining about how bad Sweden is and how immigration is bad for society.
