Finland’s largest daily Helsingin Sanomat asked twenty-three racism researchers if they had been harassed and received death threats. Sixteen researchers answered the questionnaire of which 14 responded affirmatively that they had received hate mail.
The first time I received death threats (two in one day) was in surprisingly in Finland in the early 1990s, when I wrote about the treatment that Somalis received at a refugee center in Mikkeli.
The death threats and harassment haven’t stopped since then but neither have I been intimidated by them to stop writing.
Some of anonymous mail I have received is quite amusing. One older man gave me a lesson on Finnish history and claimed that he would end his subscription to Savon Sanomat, where my column appeared.
The headline of the column was Maahanmuutto ei ole uhka, or Immigration isn’t a threat.
The letter sent to me had no signature or return address.
If a person has such strong feelings about a topic like immigration, why doesn’t he defend them publicly with his name?
Migrant Tales published earlier this month Mamukriit-Looks: The who’s who of anti-immigration Finland, which was a continuation of Per-Looks, a blog entry than caused outrage among some Perussuomalaiset (PS) candidates running for city council. Even if both blog entries were published with a dose of satire, the election of many PS anti-immigration candidates to city council is no joke.
If the Mamukriit-Looks blog entry is anything to go by, successful anti-immigration candidates running for city council cannot expose their racism too crudely since too much hate turns people off. One of these candidates was Anna-Maija Ahl from Sastamala, who got only 18 votes. The other one is Reija Hirn-Brazhevsky of Savonlinna, who got 14 votes.
Hirn-Brazhevsky’s knee-jerk comments are like an explosion of hate that leaves you stupefied. Her comments give the impression that nobody ever told her – except for now – that white people aren’t the only group living in Finland.
What is shocking is that despite the electoral setback that the PS suffered on Sunday, the majority of Mamukriit-Looks anti-immigration candidates got elected. Of the the 40 PS candidates in the blog entry, 23 got elected while 16 did not.
In the Mamukriit-Looks blog entry you will find Counterjihadists, ultra-nationalists, politicians slapped with fines for inciting ethnic hatred, candidates that admit liking fascism, some even applied for membership in a neo-Nazi association when they were drunk.
Remember Risto Helin of Vaasa, the PS candidate who wore a neo-Nazi shirt to attract votes? Well, he got elected with 234 votes.
Surprised? Check out Amon Rautianen, the PS candidate running for Kotka city council, who wrote on Facebook that it would be “patriotic” to kill government members and that Muslims should be boiled alive. Rautiainen got elected with 152 votes.
This group has some of the top ten anti-immigration candidates of Finland. From top row left to right: Olli Immonen (elected with 1,270 votes/Oulu), James Hirvisaari (elected with 191 votes/Asikkala), Matias Turkkila (not elected 276 votes/Helsinki), Jussi Halla-aho (elected with 6,026 votes/Helsinki), (second row) Juho Eerola (elected with 1,053 votes/Kotka), Freddy Van Wonterghem (elected with 189 votes/Kotka), Simon Elo (elected with 352 votes/Espoo), and Kai Haavisto (not elected 62 votes/Espoo).
Four of the eight candidates got elected to city council in this group. From top row left to right: Teemu Lahtinen (elected with 530 votes/Espoo), Petri Pulkkanen (not elected 189 votes/Espoo), Cristian Tudose (not elected 26 votes/Espoo), Amon Rautiainen (elected with 152 votes/Kotka), (second row) Mika Kujanpää (not elected 20 votes/Hanko), Kimmo Vehviläinen (not elected 96 votes/Helsinki), Reijo Tossavainen (elected with 114 votes/Savitaipale), and Johannes Nieminen (elected with 340 votes/Vantaa).
All of these candidates except for one got elected. From left to right: Mka Nikko (elected with 793 votes/Vantaa), Pasi Salonen (elected with 323 votes/Vihti), name unknown, and Teuvo Hakkarainen (elected with 197 votes/Viitasaari).
In this bunch, five of the eight candidates didn’t get elected. Top row left to right: Anna-Maija Ahl (not elected 18 votes/Sastamala), Reija Hirn-Brazhevsky (not elected 14 votes/Savonlinna), Tuomas Okkonen (elected with 37 votes/Lumijoki), Ulla Pyysalo (elected with 102 votes/Taipalsaari), (second row) Heidi Kuittinen (not elected 76 votes/Kirkonnummi), Jani Salomaa (not elected 85 votes/Salo), Sari Karlström (not elected 104 votes/Pietarsaari), and Jani Viinikainen (elected with 131 votes/Kangasala).
In this group only three candidates got elected. Top row from left to right: Jukka Wallin (not elected 64 votes/Helsinki), Risto Jääskeläinen (not elected 58 votes/Järvenpää), Jouko Vuorinen (not elected 48 votes/Tampere), Heikki Tala (elected with 206 votes/Järvenpää), (second row) Olli Sademies (not elected 334 votes/Helsinki), Petri Luumi (not elected 89 votes/Kouvola), Risto Helin (elected with 234 votes/Vaasa), and Erkki Havansi (elected with 435 votes/Kerava).
The Amon Rautiainen* scandal, the Perussuomalaiset (PS) municipal council candidate in Kotka who suggested on Facebook that Muslims should be boiled alive, reveals the Finnish anti-immigration party’s short and selective memory.
Freddy Van Wanterghem, the PS chair of the local association in Kotka, is a good example of the party’s double talk, or first I will say something vague to the media and then erase it vaguely and offer you a snow job instead.
The PS city councilor is quoted as saying on YLE in English:
“He [Rautiainen] is a candidate, and voters can make up their minds who they want to vote for.”
He first hints in the quote above that it is sort of ok to write that kind of hate speech on Facebook, but then disassociates the party form Rautiainen’s controversial posts.
For those who might have forgotten, Van Wonterghem was sentenced for inciting ethnic hatred in March for suggesting that it was good matter that a Muslim woman would be killed because ”it would be one less Muslim giving birth.”
Sorry Van Wanterghem but you’ve been caught with your hand in the double-talk cookie jar.
*Does anyone know if Amon is Rautiainen’s original first name?
Migrant Tales was named as one of seven anti-racist web site in Finland, according to a thread by “Tutkija” on Vaasa Forum. While Counterjihadist and anti-immigration websites have sprung up like mushrooms in Finland, anti-racist forums are one answer to the message of hate of these latter sites.
The Perussuomalaiset party openly and indirectly supports a number of Countejihadist and anti-immigration web sites in Finland like Hommaforum and Scripta.
“Tutkija” describes Migrant Tales as ”a quality [anti-racism] online publication in Finland written in English.”
Other anti-racist sites cited by Vaasa Forum include:
The biggest supporters of immigrants and visible minorities in Finland aren’t groups lobbying for their rights per se, but their enemies. Instead of tapping ourselves on the back for challenging a social ill like racism, we should thank Perussuomalaiset (PS) chairman Timo Soini for exposing in this country bigotry and isolationism in the raw.
Instead of bringing out the worst in our society, these politicians and aides have empowered and brought the best in some of us. Migrant Tales is one of many examples of groups that have been energized by the present situation.
Our reaction as a society to racism, isolationism, hate speech and far-right extremism has been slow but encouraging.
When some spread with their extremist ideology their message of hate, they do a great service to our cause. Taking into account how racism and isolationism boosted the PS to victory in April 2011, it’s clear that things have changed considerably since then.
How can you fumble a golden political opportunity that the PS had after the election and see it disintegrate before your eyes? For this we must thank the PS and MPs like Teuvo Hakkarainen from day one.
The real threat to Finland are those politicians and groups that want to divide our society with the help of racism, prejudice and hate speech.
We are not being attacked and overrun by immigrants and refugees, the real threat comes from our backyard in the form of Soini, Hirvisari, Niinistö, Pyysalo, Ratio and many others.
You know there is something fishy whenever any person starts to use percentages to drive home the point that immigrants are rapists. If anything, rape statistics do reveal a problem: racism and prejudice.
One blogger on Uusi Suomi writes: ”In April, Finns were told that men from xxxx are guilty of committing rape alarmingly often.” Using a tabloid story as a source, he states that in 2006-09 34% of all convicted rapes were by foreigners.
There are some serious problems with the conclusions of the tabloid never mind the writer:
How many foreigners were convicted of rape?
Are we speaking of an ”alarmingly high” amount?
In the Uusi Suomi blog entry, Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari, who was fined in December for inciting ethnic hatred, believes that 25 rape convictions during the first five months of the year is enough proof to close our borders.
Hirvisaari writes: “We don’t need ‘free movement’ since it only brings too many problems and forms part of the left-wing agenda to undermine the nation-state. ’Let’s do away with borders and mix different nationalities.’ Border control and immigration policy should be contrarily tightened.”
Here is some of Hirvisaari’s latest double-talk on his latest blog entry: “Multiculturalism is a destroying politicial ideology, which does not fit in a [culturally] diverse society.”*
Yes, that’s right, such a comment was made by a Finnish MP based on 25 rape convictions during the first five months of the year!
If anything, rape statistics reveal a serious problem: a society’s racism and prejudice.
…hate groups have used conflicts over immigration to advance their White Supremacy, their hate, their stereotypes…Anti-Defamation League
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in the United States was founded in 1913 to address anti-Semitism and ”to secure justice and fair treatment of all.” ADL’s Stacy Burdett reveals in an interview below the code words of hate used in the U.S. to dehumanize and victimize immigrants and visible minorities. The same speech is rampant today in Finland and Europe.
Below are four ways to recognize the code words of hate:
Immigrants are an army of invaders
Dehumanization
Immigrants bring crime and disease
Conspiracy theory
While Hispanics are singled out as a danger to the United States, anti-immigration groups in Europe point their finger at Muslims.
Let’s look at Burdett’s points and see if they apply to Europe and Finland.
Immigrants are an army of invaders. With this claim, anti-immigration groups drive home the point that immigrants, or Muslims in the case of Europe, are an ”army” or “horde” invading our values and way of life.
There are many examples of people and groups using this argument. One of them is Aalto University senior lecturer Kyösti Tarvainen, who claimed, using a pocket calculator, that Muslims would outnumber Finns this century due to their high birthrates.
Pet adjectives used by these groups to describe immigration are “uncontrolled” and/or “mass.”
Dehumanization. Immigrants are talked about as swarms, hordes or in worse terms. Burdett says: “…when you teach children at school to think a person is animal-like, less than human, you teach them that this group is less-deserving of their basic civil rights.”
Former Interior Minister Kari Rajamäki (Social Democrat) once labelled refugees as “welfare shoppers” that come in groups to this country to live off our generous social welfare system. The claim implies that since they come here as “welfare shoppers,” they should be treated as second-class members of our community.
The Nuiva Manifesto, an immigration policy endorsed by the anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS) party, points out what basic civil rights should be taken away from immigrants.
Immigrants bring crime and disease. This is a common argument used by anti-immigration groups with the help of inaccurate statistics.
PS MPs like James Hirvisaari have used rape statistics and social welfare payments to single out and attack certain immigrant groups and minorities in Finland. One of his most incredible claims was that Norwegian mass killer, Anders Breivik, carried out his massacre because of “uncontrolled immigration” and because 100% of all rapes committed in the country were by foreigners.
Conspiracy theory. In the United States, anti-immigration groups claim that Mexicans that come to the U.S. do so to reconquer the Southwest and take back land that once belonged to Mexico.
In the same way, these groups in Finland and Europe claim that ”multiculturalism” is a conspiracy to permit Muslims and blacks to take over Europe ethnically and culturally.
Concludes Burdett: “When people all over the country are trained to think of immigrants as invading our way of life, trying to rip apart our civilization and undermining our values, when we are trained to think that they are a little less than, less-deserving of rights, less human, animal-like, almost…good people will be inculcated to hate.”
…”words have consequences. There is a direct connection between the policies we have in our societies, the words of leaders, daily lives of minority communities and immigrants and unfortunately we have seen hate crimes against Latinos, Asians and other immigrants on the rise.”
Sounds eerily familiar, even if Burdett is speaking about the United States.
The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party’s parliamentary group chose Tuesday Pirkko Mattila to be the new chairwoman of the administration committee after PS MP Jussi Halla-aho was forced to resign last week. The PS MP from the northern Finnish town of Muhos got 25 votes, clearly beating challengers Juho Eerola and Ismo Soukola, who got 5 votes apiece, according to Helsingin Sanomat.
Political observers see Mattila’s appointment as a clear defeat for Halla-aho’s anti-immigration Suomen Sisu faction. Halla-aho had handpicked Eerola to be his successor.
The former chairman will continue to be a member of the committee.
PS MP Pirkko Mattila.
Mattila’s victory reveals as well that the PS is losing patience with its anti-immigration wing, which has received widespread negative coverage by the media and caused the party’s poll ratings to plummet.
The former chairman of the administration committee was forced to resign last week after he was fined by the Finnish Supreme Court fined for defaming a religion and for inciting ethnic hatred.
The administration committee oversees immigration policy.
The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will not grant Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari permission to appeal a conviction for hate speech handed down in December by the Kouvola Court of Appeal, reports Helsingin Sanomat.
Last week, the PS suffered another blow when its MP Jussi Halla-aho was forced to resign as chairman of the administration committee after the Supreme Court had fined him for defaming a religion and for inciting ethnic hatred.
The PS chairman Timo Soini said in December that he would decide if Hirvisaari could continue being a member of the party after a higher court had decided to take the PS MP’s appeal or reject it.
Soini said in 2009 that any person would get sacked from the party if that person were charged for a racist crime. He claimed soon after last year’s election that there wasn’t one racist among the PS and that if Halla-aho got criminally charged he’d get sacked from the party.
Writes YLE in English: “Last December Hirvisaari was sentenced to a fine when the Kouvola Appeal Court reversed a decision of the Päijät-Hame district court, which found him not guilty of the charge.
Hirvisaari was sentenced for a blog article about immigration in the Uusi Suomi (New Finland) online paper back in February 2010.”
