Tag: Finland

Jussi Halla-aho reinforced in today’s Yle interview why the Perussuomalaiset is a xenophobic populist far right party

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Thursday evening Yle interviewed Perussuomalaiset (PS)* chairperson Jussi Hallo-aho, a candidate for MP in next month’s elections and who built his political career on racism and Islamophobia. His performance was poor but it proved once  again why the PS is a far-right party. 

Even if Halla-aho didn’t directly admit it, the PS supports and gets followers from its white nationalist message.

One of the main arguments and foundations of white nationalism is demographic replacement, which is a common theme used by many PS politicians like Laura Huhtasaari, Olli Immonen and others.

It explains as well why Halla-aho sees immigration, especially from non-EU countries, as a threat. The PS leader did not have any concrete solutions on how to raise low childbirth rates in Finland but still saw immigration as a threat.

It’s been almost forty years when the first Somalis arrived to Finland. Since then, our media and politicians have fed the public with xenophobia and Islamophobia for a very long time.

In Finland, it is a recurring theme and explains why there is today such a surge in Islamophobia.

Below are some comments about tonight’s interview with Halla-aho.

 

 

Ozan Yanar, who is a Green League MP, questioned Halla-aho’s statement that the PS isn’t an anti-immigration party. He asks in his tweet where such a notion has come from. 

In the following tweet by academic researcher Oula Silvennoinen, who is running for parliament for the same party as Yanar, responded sarcastically that he had no idea why anyone would call the PS an anti-immigration party. 

Continue reading “Jussi Halla-aho reinforced in today’s Yle interview why the Perussuomalaiset is a xenophobic populist far right party”

Finland should put aside its racism, prejudices, hypocrisy and challenge seriously social ills like pedophilia and sexaual abuse

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The lifesaver that was supposed to propel the Perussuomalaiset* (PS) to new heights in the polls, suffered another setback Wednesday when the National Bureau of Investigations arrested five white Finnish suspects implicated in violent child sexual abuse. The other blows that stole the PS of its Islamophobic thunder were the elderly care scadal and the Christchurch atrocity where 50 Muslims were killed. 

Writes Yle News: “A special feature [of the case] has been violence and child harm, which has played a central role [in the material]. Although we are investigating sexual offences, this is a case of violence, its glorification and receiving sexual gratification from it,” said lead investigator Sanna Springare.

In light of the hysteria that the Oulu sexual abuse cases have caused, do you agree with the following tweet below?

When we lose sight of the ball because we are too busy labelling and victimizing certain migrant groups, we lose sight of how to effectively challenge a social disease like pedophilia and sexual abuse.

Yle’s coverage of the Oulu sexual assault cases could be at its best described as overkill, even unethical. It is like using a bazooka to kill an ant. There is little balance never mind fairness in Yle’s reporting of the topic.

During November 27 to February 13, Yle published a whopping 77 stories on the sexual abuse cases of Oulu. This is not counting all the other stories that the tabloids and other print media published during that period. On January 14 alone, Yle published 13 stories about the topic!

The police do not receive high marks either by racializing the sexual abuse cases. Considering that a poll showed that 25.1% and 24.4% of the police surveyed in 2016 voted for the National Coalition Party and Islamophobic PS, respectively, it is a valid question to ask if the police framed the crimes to suit their prejudices and benefit as a result those two parties in the upcoming elections.

Continue reading “Finland should put aside its racism, prejudices, hypocrisy and challenge seriously social ills like pedophilia and sexaual abuse”

Atte Kaleva is a populist who spreads and dwells in Islamophobic soundbites

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Politicians who spread fear and suspicion of migrants are those that will never give power and a voice to migrants. Some good examples of groups that are Islamophobic are parties like the Perussuomalaiset* and leading Islamophobes like Jussi Halla-aho and Atte Kaleva. 

National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) MP candidate Atte Kaleva, who has overtaken Wille Rydman as the Halla-aho of his party, held a talk on March 15 in East Helsinki on “why multiculturalism doesn’t work.”

The timing of the talk was not the most appropriate since on the same day we learned about the atrocities in New Zealand when a far-right Australian extremist killed in cold blood 50 Muslims and wounded others in two mosques of Christchurch.

For anyone familiar with the topic of multiculturalism, Kaleva’s topic choice exposes who he is: a populist giving soundbites to the media and followers at the cost of minorities and groups like Muslims.

Some of Kaleva’s acquaintances include Jussi Halla-aho, convicted in 2012 for ethnic agitation and breaching the sanctity of religion. Kaleva appears proud of this picture. I think it is shameful. Thank you Christin Bergström for helping me find this Instagram posting with Kaleva and Halla-aho.

When the National Coalition Party candidate claims that multiculturalism does not work, we have no idea what he actually means.

Is he implying that cultural diversity is not possible because it always fails? Does he mean that white Finnish society is “perfect” while culturally diverse societies are flawed? Is he saying that countries like Canada, Australia, Argentina, the United States, and others are good examples where multiculturalism has failed?

Is he denying European history, which is and was historically always culturally and ethnically diverse?

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Asylum seekers are mismanaged and at the mercy of the Finnish Immigration Service

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The mismanagement of asylum seekers by reception centers is a non-stop affair in Finland. The latest matter affecting asylum seekers by the Finnish immigration Service is transferring them from one reception to another one. 

One Afghan asylum seeker, who was staying at the reception center in Vantaa, was fortunate enough to find work. Even so, he ended up transferred to to Kajaani, which is located 548 km north.

Despite the transfer to Kajaani, the Afghan asylum seeker had signed a work contract.

“I told the employees [of the reception center] and social worker at the Vantaa reception center about my job,” he continued, “but they still decided to transfer me to another city.”

The asylum seeker said that it was difficult to find employment in Finland, but when he did it was taken away from him.

“I told a staff worker at the Kajaani reception center to transfer me to another city that is closest to my [former] work,” he said. “But they fooled me and told me that they would resolve the matter but never did!”

The asylum seeker made enough money at his former employment that he did not need any social welfare for a month.

“It’s a problem if we do not have a job,” he concluded. “If we have a job and a contract, they transfer you to another city. What should I do?!”

Attacks against Soini, Ahmed and the Muslim community of Finland are symptoms of our silence

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What do the attacks against Blue Reform Foreign Minister Timo Soini in Vantaa Sunday and today against Left Alliance MP candidate Suldaan Said Ahmed tell us about today’s Finland? For one, they tell us of a troubled country that has been asleep to the threat of far-right extremism,  Islamophobia and other forms of racism. 

While we should denounce formally all forms of violence, it is ironic that Soini, who gave xenophobic extremists a political platform, saw a member allegedly of the far-right vigilante gang, Soldiers of Odin, try to attack him.

It is pretty disheartening to see the monster that Soini help created trying to attack him after he had relinquished the PS’ leadership in June 2017 to his foe Jussi Halla-aho.

Ahmed states that the attack against him was by a man in the Itäkeskus metro station.

Ahmed tweets: “I was just attacked at the metro station and the aggressor scolded me for being, among other things, an infidel and pedophile. Don’t dream that you will go to parliament.”

Apart from the far-right violence that has a strong dose of Islamophobia, graffiti was painted on a mosque in Helsinki with the same words that the New Zealand killer wrote on his weapon that took 50 lives: “Remove kebab.”

See original Facebook post here.

The Imam of the Helsinki mosque or prayer room, Abbas Bahmanpour, said that it was the third time the building was recently attacked.

“These types of graffiti show sympathy for terrorists and far-right ideology,” he said.

In Oulu, where another mosque that has been vandalized nine times since September 2017, has now voluntary guards outside the premises after one of the suspects in the sexual assault cases of Oulu was convicted last week.

“Every Friday during prayer time we want to make sure that we are safe,” said Islamic Society of Northern Finland Iman Dr Abul Mannan. “We asked the police to patrol between noon and 1:30 pm when a lot of people at the mosque but they didn’t come. We then decided to take matters in our hands and use our people to guard the mosque.”

See the MTV news story here.

Migrant Tales published a story on Saturday about how Muslims in the northern city of Kemi are especially afraid to walk outdoors alone at night after the Oulu sexual assault cases became public in December.

Continue reading “Attacks against Soini, Ahmed and the Muslim community of Finland are symptoms of our silence”

A racist harassing a young Muslim woman at the bus terminal of Mikkeli, Finland

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On taking the 8:30 pm bus today to Helsinki from Mikkeli, a white-middle-aged redneck (WhiMAR) started to get too close to a young young woman, possibly from Afghanistan, with an older woman and a young man. It wasn’t clear what the man said to the young woman, but he told his fat WhiMAR friend that, “She’s a good-looking woman even if she wears a rag [hijab].”

I told the WhiMAR  to “behave” and stop harassing the woman. He stopped and appeared a little stunned that somebody cared.

The EU holds elecions on May 23-26 and Finland parliamentary elections on April 14. Source: European Network Against Racism.

On he bus, I told the driver to check with the surveillance camera if the harassment by the man persisted.

Let’s hope that nothing happens.

Asylum seeker hiding in Kemi, Finland: “Why do they [Finnish Immigration Service] make our lives so difficult?”

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales reported Thursday about how a deportation had broken and separated a family of three (or four) in the northern Finnish city of Kemi. The family’s father, 58, and son deported on Thursday at around noon to Lebanon while the mother, 56, escaped from the hospital and is now in hiding. 

When detained, the woman fell ill and was hospitalized but managed to escape.

Is it correct to say that it is a family of three or four? One of the parents’ sons died of cancer when they came to Finland in 2015 and moved to Kemi.

The woman dreads the prospect of returning to the Middle East because she would never be able to visit her son’s grave again.

The husband is a native of Lebanon and his wife was born in Syria. Both of them lived in Syria for about 15 years.

A friend, who got in touch with us and who knows the woman, alerted us about the woman’s situation.

“Why do they [Finnish Immigration Service] make our lives so difficult?” she asked the source. “Why don’t they let us stay [in Finland]?”

“She is in limbo fighting against time,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “The father and son are ok in Lebanon and the authorities [in that country] pomised them that they would revoke their Lebanese citizenship.”

According to the source, revoking the Syrian-born woman’s citizenship would take three months. It can only happen if a judge of the high court or president of Lebanon approve it.

“It would take [at least three-month] time,” the source continued. “It would mean that she would have to return to Syria, which is very difficult.”

The source said that the woman needs medication but did not know if it was for the heart or blood.

The woman was in better spirits after speaking to her husband and son.

THIS STORY WILL BE UPDATED

 

Kemi is a good example of Finland’s hostile environment against asylum seekers and migrants

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The small 50-70 strong Iraqi community of the northern Finnish city of Kemi (pop. 21,256 in 2017) is feeling the brunt of the Islamophobic reaction of the highly publicized sexual assault cases of Oulu, located just 106 km from the city. 

Even before the sexual assault cases became public at the end of last year, the situation of the small Iraqi community of Kemi was problematic.

One Iraqi resident of Kemi alleged in 2017 that the Red Cross advised Muslim asylum seekers not leave their homes after eight pm on Saturdays because it was too dangerous.

Apart from the hostile environment against asylum seekers and presence of far-right vigilante groups like the Soldiers of Odin, one asylum seeker was shot at in 2016 and another one had his middle finger broken by a member of the vigilante group.

And let’s not forget Islamophobic Kemi city counsellors like Harri Tauriainen of the Perussuomalaiset* party.

“Matters are now worse [in Kemi] than before because of what happened in Oulu,” said a former asylum seeker, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Kemi is a city located 106 km from Oulu and 711 km north from Helsinki. Source: MTV.

According to the Kemi resident,  Iraqis fear going out of their homes at night. One asylum seeker who went to Lidl, called the source at 8.30 pm because he feared walking back home at night.

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A deportation that broke a family of three (or four) in Kemi, Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales understands that the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) ordered on Wednesday the detention of three asylum seekers living in the northern Finnish city of Kemi. Two of them, the father and son, were deported Thursday at 12:30 from Helsinki to Lebanon. The wife, who experienced the loss of her son in 2015 due to cancer, has gone into hiding after she escaped from the hospital. 

The woman was interned after she fainted and fell ill when the authorities came to detain her, the husband and son in Kemi.

The Red Cross identification cards of the Lebanese-Syrian asylum seekers.

 

“The son is buried in Kemi and even if Migri wants to deport the women, she refuses to leave the country because she does not want to be far from her deceased son,” said a source who spoke on condition of anonymity. “The family is from Lebanon but they have lived many years in Syria and are naturalized citizens of that country.”

THIS STORY WILL BE UPDATED.