Migrant Tales does not usually publish opinion polls. However, the latest one published by Yle warrants a quick response.
White Finnish newspapers headlined the news as, “Support for the Perussuomalaiset* party surpasses 20%.” I and many of my friends see it differently: “Support for the PS shows that Finland has a serious untreated racism problem. Watch out brothers and sisters and get ready for more hostility and violence.”
Politicians like PS Vice-President Riikka Purra may ask how can one insinuate that half a million voters could be racist.
My answer: How many millions of Nazi Germany were indirect or direct complices in the Holocaust? How many millions of white Europeans and USAmericans were involved in slavery and the slave trade?
Yes, the PS is a racist party that exposes Finland’s untreated social ills like racism.
* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. In the last parliamentary election, Blue Reform was wiped off the Finnish political map when they saw their numbers in parliament plummet from 18 MPs to none. 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.
Migrant Tales wrote a story in 2013 on how the City of Vaasa, in cooperation with the Suomen Uimaopetus- ja Hengenpelastusliitto (SUH), the Finnish swimming instruction and lifesaver’s association, deemed the burkini “a security risk and not hygienic.”
Despite the initial eagerness to ban the burkini, the Non-Discrimination Ombudsman now recommends that all swimming halls in Finland permit the use of the burkini. According to the ombudsman, such prohibitions could be discriminatory.
I remember speaking to a representative of the City of Vaasa six years ago about its plan to ban the burkini. The attitude of the municipal official was quite hostile, asking why Muslim women should be given special liberties if men cannot wear shorts at swimming pools.
“We have for as long as I can remember men from wearing shorts [at pools]. There are no exceptions,” said the Vaasa city official, adding that “99.9% of the swimmers are for the ban.”
Even if the City of Vaasa was planning to ban the burkini, no representatives of the Muslim community were contacted.
The SUH representative said that it had got in touch with the Somali Association of Finland and a Somali city councillor, but none of them had commented on the matter.
The critical reporting and credibility of the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle) have suffered in recent times star reporters quitting and parties like the Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* influencing editorial content from the board.
There is no better example of Yle’s partiality and toothless reporting than a recent political human interest article about Riikka Purra, PS first vice-president who spreads white Finnish supremacist ideology.
One of Purra’s pet topics is how white Finns will become a minority in their country due to non-white immigration. She spreads such far-right fear-mongering despite knowing that Finland is one of the whitest countries in Europe.
Articles like the one below by Riikka Uosukainen, which raise Purra to a pedal stool because of her stellar rise in politics and possibly the next leader of the PS, are the partial and toothless stories that Yle writes uncritically today.
Imagine, in Finland today that a politician’s stellar rise hinges on spreading hatred and conspiracy theories about migrants. This is how low our country and Yle have stooped.
If we look at these pictures in the story, it is clear that the reporter likes Purra and wants to give her the best image she can in the story.
That is what serious journalists blame opinionated and toothless journalism for spreading racism and hostility towards migrants and minorities.
In the last picture with the new party secretary, Simo Grönroos, the reporter describes him as “a nationalist” who founded Suomen Sisu, a far-right Nazi-spirited association.
Just like Purra and her white Finnish supremacist conspiracy theories, Suomen Sisu is against Finns marrying foreigners because it would be bad for “racial hygiene.”
The article is one more slippery slope of how Finland is normalizing racism and white supremacy.
* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. In the last parliamentary election, Blue Reform was wiped off the Finnish political map when they saw their numbers in parliament plummet from 18 MPs to none. 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.
Finland is a country that enjoys the greatest amount of press freedom, according to Reporters without Borders.
I suspect that one way that Finland has attained such a high ranking in the press freedom index is because politicians are not directly manipulating what the media should do and write.
A rude example of such abuse, however, is Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Jani Mäkelä, who didn’t agree with what Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s largest daily, wrote about an interview with Hungary’s Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó.
“According to a statement by the [Hungarian] embassy, @hsfi has misrepresented #Unkari the foreign minister’s quotes. The accusation is serious – I demand and require that the newspaper and its editor @KaaiusNiemi answer the embassy and correct publicly those mistakes!”
PM Mäkelä wrote in a tweet that he demands and requires that Helsingin Sanomat corrects what they published about the foreign minister.
In the first place, Finland is not Hungary, where strongman Viktor Orbán has effectively killed press freedom. Mäkelä can bitch and cry all he wants but it is the newsroom that decides what is written in the newspaper.
Let’s hope that our country will never take Hungary’s path to create a country where the state censors and oppresses dissident voices.
With people like Mäkelä and parties like the PS, this would be possible if they held absolute power.
* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. In the last parliamentary election, Blue Reform was wiped off the Finnish political map when they saw their numbers in parliament plummet from 18 MPs to none. 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.
The Finnish police have at the most 10 Internet police officers who monitor hate speech, reports Yle, citing police inspector Måns Enqvist of the National Board of Police of Finland.
The news was published after the far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party claimed that too many police resources are being wasted to monitor the Internet for hate speech.
At most, ten officers working on monitoring the Internet is too little, and Finland should allocate more police resources.
Moreover, we should not forget that crimes like ethnic agitation and hae speech and hate crime exist because they protect vulnerable groups like migrants and minorities. Scrapping such laws, like the PS is demanding, is to leave migrants and minorities open to hostility and aggression.
Despite the small number of police officers monitoring the Internet, one of the problems in tackling hate speech in Finland is that too few are charged and brought to justice.
Is this because there are too few police resources?
* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. In the last parliamentary election, Blue Reform was wiped off the Finnish political map when they saw their numbers in parliament plummet from 18 MPs to none. 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.
Abrirahim Husu Hussein tweeted that 27 members of the far-right Perusuomalaiset (PS)* party filed charges against the Helsinki city councilperson for tweeting in July that all the PS, its voters, and supporters are racists.
Abdirahim Husu Hussein states the 27 Perussuomalaise members charged the Helsinki city councilperson of defamation. The police decided no to press charges against Hussein.
Of all the Finnish political parties, the PS is the most racist. Under Jussi Halla-aho’s leadership, the party has steered to the far right.
The PS is also disingenuous. Halla-aho and the leadership of the PS want to do away with legislation on ethnic agitation. The PS leader believes that police resources are poorly allocated when they monitor the Internet for hate speech.
Halla-aho claims that people in Finland should be able to speak openly about immigration without the fear of being charged for hate speech and ethnic agitation.
Even if this is what Halla-aho and his ilk do all the time, they sure didn’t give Hussein the chance to speak openly in the same way that the PS speaks of Muslims.
* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. In the last parliamentary election, Blue Reform was wiped off the Finnish political map when they saw their numbers in parliament plummet from 18 MPs to none. 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.
Tiina Wiik is the wife or girlfriend of Junes Lokka, a Moroccan native and Oulu city councilperson who has been convicted of ethnic agitation among other things. She claims in the tweet below that the death threat sent to Abdirahim Husu Hussein could not be written by a native Finn but by a Somali due to the grammatical errors.
So? Migrants can have racist prejudices in the same way as white Finns. She should know.
It doesn’t matter if the person who wrote the death threat is a white Finns or not. What matters is our reaction to such hate.
Helsinki city councilperson Abdirahim Husu Hussein received a letter Wednesday with a death threat and a piece of rope tied as a noose. While it is clear why this happens, we should ask why it continues to happen and with such impunity.
Having lived in Finland for many years, one matter I learned at an early stage is that there is a strong racist undercurrent in Finnish society. This ever-toxic murmur of that undercurrent has turned today into a mix of blind rage and a sense of impunity.
Another death threat was sent to Helsinki city councilperson Abdirahim Husu Hussen Wednesday. The note reads: ““N-word. Don’t mix in what Finnish politicians do. You heard of Martin Luther King. He was an n-word and look what happened to him. Greetings from the Ku Klux Klan.” Source: Facebook.
Do you need more hard proof? The sources of such hatred are more than clear since words have consequences.
The challenge is if we want to open ou eyes to such threats and actually do something about them.
One Finnish party that bases 90% of its political message on catering to the anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam vote bursted into the political scene with a vengeance in the 2011 parliamentary election. In a matter of four years, it saw the number of MPs rise from 5 to 39.
While there are many factors fo the rise of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* in 2011 and during this decade, one matter is for certain: its anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam message has struck voter gold.
Too many of us, not Migrant Tales, played down the PS victory of 2011 and what it meant for the country. “The Perussuomalaiset* will implode soon,” was a common excuse you heard for not doing anything.
Even if it is clear that there is a connection between the rise of the PS and hostility towards migrants and minorities, the police, politicians, the media, and policy-makers share equal responsibility.
Finland has some of the best laws that promote social equality and ensure that everyone, irrespective of his or her background, is equal before the law. The problem, however, is that such laws are not enforced as they should.
If we are all equal before the law, why is it that in 2019 white Finnish women make 0.80 euros compared with a white Finnish male’s euro? Why do migrants make on average 0.50 euros, according to researcher Pekka Myrskylä?
The answer to that question is clear: The police, like society, don’t consider racism and discrimination a high priority. Moreover, convictions for racism and hate speech are too lenient, even a joke in some cases. A perpetrator can be slapped with symbolic fines totalling 60 euros.
Such fines, as PS MP Ano Tutiainen said earlier this year, are “a feather in one’s cap.”
Hussein’s death threat is just another example of how ineffective our society is in combating racism and hatred. If Finland does not wake up to the social ill, matters may speed out of control like they have in the United States and recently in neighboring Norway.
Racism and hate are like a rabid dog that some politicians walk to impress and lure their voters. They forget, however, that that dog knows no master and can bite back hard, very hard.
* The far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. In the last parliamentary election, Blue Reform has wiped off the Finnish political map when they saw their numbers in parliament plummet from 18 MPs to none. 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.
Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Mauri Peltokangas is on a roll Tuesday. First, he demands the Swedish-Finnish border should be closed, and now he tweets and insults history researcher Oula Silvennoinen.
Folks, this hothead Islamophobe represents the second-biggest party in parliament. Imagine, is people like him would call the shots in Finland?
PS MP Mauri Peltokangas giving the thumbs up. Source: Facebook.
I wonder where MP Peltokangas got educated and what his parents taught him at home.
The PS MP tweets to Silvennoinen: “Thank you for your replay Oula. When I watched your last program, where you appeared as an expert, I could not tell whether you spoke from the head or the ass.”
* The far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. In the last parliamentary election, Blue Reform has wiped off the Finnish political map when they saw their numbers in parliament plummet from 18 MPs to none. 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.
After the Oulu sexual assault cases came to light at the end of November and rapidly spiralled out of control in the media, is one sad example of Finland’s Islamophobia problem. Not only are politicians from parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* trying to reap the political benefits, but the media, and police, too.
All of those groups that participated in the social media lynch mob got something out of it like the PS, which almost won the parliamentary elections of April,
With the Oulu sexual assault cases behind us and with eight people of color sentenced to prison, a question arises: What role did the media, politicians, and Oulu police have in fueling the hysteria?
Yle alone reported 77 stories on the topic, 13 on one day, about the sexual assault cases during November 27-February 13. During that period under review, the Oulu police published 13 statements on the topic.
Writes Päivi Happonen of Yle who took the unprecedented step of questioning in a blog the Oulu police’s over-enthusiastic communications policy of the sexual assault cases.
She writes: “So what bad did [Oulu police’s communication] inflict? A lot. Many have the impression that Oulu became the crime capital of Finland, where asylum seekers rape all the children they can.”
Happonen, whom the Oulu police attacked in a tweet for her brave words was proven right by her employer despite police objections.
One may rightfully ask if all the hysteria was worth it considering that out of an estimated 20 suspects eight ended up with prison terms. Is this how the Finnish media and public reacts when white Finns sexually abuse children?
Apparently not. A story about a pedophile ring accused of sexually abusing 6-15-year-old boys lasted only a week in the news with seven stories published by Yle.
One important rule that journalists learn is that words are a powerful weapon. Since that is the case, it means that we have to be fair in our reporting. No need to kill an ant with a bazooka.
Imagine as well the harm that the Oulu police, the media and especially politicians of the PS and National Coalition Party inflicted on Finland’s migrant and especially the Muslim community.
According to Imam Abdul Mannan of Oulu, Muslims in that city did not feel safe and tried to avoid going to the city center due to the hostile environment.
When I asked a reporter of the Oulu-based Kaleva if unbalanced reporting was an issue, he shrugged off my comment by stating that this is what always happens.
Always happens? Did the reporter read Happonen’s column? Was he too scared to question the lynch-mob mode of many of his colleagues and the media they worked for?
Tabloids like Iltalehti and Ilta-Sanomat, have a long history of publishing racist stories that label and question other people’s right to be treated fairly and with dignity. A recent example of this type of reporting is Mika Koskinen, who not only editorializes his stories but shows his Islamophobic worldview and hatred of asylum seekers.
Koskinen was one of the most enthusiastic journalists in January to label wholesale all Muslims and asylum seekers as a danger to society.
In a video interview, he claimed in mid-January that Finland was naive in allowing over 30,000 asylum seekers in 2015 because there is evidence that suggests that such people are prone to commit rape crimes.
Iltalehti’s Mika Koskinen giving offering Islamophobic and unsubstantiated facts about asylum seekers in Finland. Koskinen is a poor example of opinionated and racist journalism. See the video interview here.
Despite Koskinen’s claim, he never cited any reliable evidence that backed his claims.
In the latest tirade against Muslims and people of color in Finland, Koskinen took on board the PS conspiracy theories about the two suspects involved this weekend two suspects that shot at police and which led to their arrest on Monday.
In the first story, Koskinen misleads readers by putting words in Interior Minister Maria Ohisalo’s mouth and then interviews Islamophobe PS MP Riikka Purra, who attacks Ohisalo’s refugee policy as “ultra-liberal” and “detached from reality.”
The only problem with Koskinen’s two stories is that Ohisalo’s words were his personal interpretation of what the minister said . The only thing that Ohisalo said was that it is a human right to seek asylum backed by international agreements signed by Finland.
Koskinen’s wanted to show in the stories as well that Ohisalo was not up to the job to guarantee people’s safety in the face of the two suspects who were then on the run and speculated by PS conspiracy theorists to be Muslims or asylum seekers.
Both of the suspects were Swedish nationals who spoke Finnish.
Saku Timonen writes (in Finnish) about Koskinen’s opinionated reporting in this column.
* The far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. In the last parliamentary election, Blue Reform has wiped off the Finnish political map when they saw their numbers in parliament plummet from 18 MPs to none. 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.
