Tag: Islamophobia

Suspected hate crimes in Finland near flat in 2019 versus 2018. Only the tip of the iceberg.

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Suspected hate crimes reported in 2019 totaled 899 cases, which is 1.21% less from 910 cases in the previous year, according to the Police University College of Finland.

As in previous years, the lion’s share (72.3%) of suspected hate crimes was due to ethnic or national background, which rose by 2.52% fro 650 from 634 cases. Religion was the second-biggest group (14.8%) of hate crimes totaling 133 cases, down by 14.2% from 155 cases in the previous year and down 43.4% from 2017.

Reports the Police University College of Finland: “In 63 percent of the cases, the victims of the crimes based on ethnic or national origin were males and in 37 percent of the cases, victims were females. Most common crimes targeted against the males were assaults whereas majority of the crimes
targeted against females were defamation.”

And adds: “In relation to the number of people with foreign citizenship and living in Finland, those holding a citizenship of Somalia experienced the highest frequency of crimes motived by ethnic or national origin in 2019. From all the reports of offenses based on ethnic or national origin, nine percent of offenses were against a member of a Roma minority. Of these, the most common suspected crimes were defamation.”

Some NGOs like the European Network Against Racism (ENAR), state that Muslim women are the most vulnerable to Islamophobia. In France, 81.5% were women, and over 90% in the Netherlands suffered attacks due to Islamophobia.

Seventy-nine percent of Muslims do not report their most experience of discrimination to any competent organization, according to ENAR.

If this is true elsewhere, then it suggests that hate crime reported in Finland is the tip of the iceberg and hate crime against Muslim women underreported.

Why is due justice taking so long in the suspected Teuva hate crime case of Finland?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

One case in particular that took place in Teuva on June 6 is still under investigation, and there is no indication when those guilty will face charges. The case involves a Muslim insulted and chased by some townspeople forcing his car off the road into a ditch and assaulted.

If you speak to the victim, whose name is Fares A-O, there is an abundance of evidence that shows that one clear bias motive was his ethnic background.

Here is a simple forumula to determine a hate crime:

Bias motivators.

Tejuka, a Teuva newspaper, published in June a spread and an editorial about what happened to Fares.

Writes Tejuka: “…soon [the attackers] forced [Fares] on the ground and started to rough him up by hitting and kicking him. Someone held Fares in a chokehold while others continued to hit him. Fares could no longer breathe. Somebody yelled: ‘Kill that mamu (a derogatory term for migrant)!”

Fares ended up taken to the Seinjäjoki and later to the hospital in Vaasa where they conducted tests and treated his wounds.

The police state: “For now there is no information that points to a hate crime but we are not ruling out such a possibility.” No evidence of a hate crime? For one, check out the victim’s car. Source: Poliisi

While what happened in Teuva is a hate crime case, it is also one of the worse to come to public light this year.

Indeed, the police can give a million excuses why this particular case is taking such a long time to investigate. One of these could even be the Covid pandemic, but the police officer in charge of the investigation did not mention it as a reason.

It is clear that a person that goes through such a traumatic event wants justice to move swiftly as opposed to slowly. The incident happened in June, or five months ago.

Apart from dealing with one’s trauma of what happened, Fares said that one of the most challenging matters was the slow pace of the investigation.

Bedfellows Perussuomalaiset and the far-right: I’m surprised that you are still surprised

Posted on by Migrant Tales

THIS STORY WAS UPDATED

Playing dumb or dead to the threat of far-right groups is a political statement or reveals you are either lazy, naive, or white..

While it is a positive matter that the Finnish media is shedding light on two long-time bedfellows: the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and far-right groups, even so, the question we should ask is why now if this was common knowledge for a long time?

One reason could be our propensity to play dumb or silent to the growing threat of far-right groups.

Isn’t it shameful and a slap in the face to all of our noble social welfare advancements that the biggest opposition party, the PS, is a xenophobic radical-right party?

Who cares?

A lot of people in Finland who don’t want this country to be driven by xenophobia to the lap of a Finnish Viktor Orbán are rightfully worried.

Tero Ala-Tuuhonen, the attempted murder suspect who tried to kill Pekka Kataja, is posing with some far-right Kansallismielisten liitouma activists. The circled persons all have ties to the PS. Source: Twitter

Kansallismielisten liitouma was originally founded by the Soldiers of Odin, a far-right vigilante groups that the police and many politicians supported in the face of a record number of asylum seekers to Finland in 2015.

Yes, I am surprised that you may be surprised by this fact that the PS and far-right groups are bedfellows.

Those who claim that we should ignore the racist narrative of parties like the PS and their far-right buddies are leaving our country’s future to chance.

We cannot allow this to happen.

With your help we’ll stop it and nip it off the bud.

PS MP Petri Huru and his ties with a far-right attempted murder suspect

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Petri Huru states in his Twitter account that his goal is to keep Finns safe. He is a chief fireman and a practical nurse. Noble professions but can trust Huru’s judgement?

A question: What are you, MP Huru, doing smiling in a picture below with far-right activist Tero Ala-Tuuhonden? Isn’t he the person who was arrested by the police on Friday for attempted murder?

PS MP Huru: You have poor judgment and I would never trust you with my life. You are also a big fan of PS MEP Laura Huhtasaari. Source: Twitter

Even if you want to forget, Ala-Tuuhonen is the far-right Kansallismielisten liittouma chairperson who hangs around with neo-Nazis and people of your party, like you. He even recently wrote that a culture war has begun in Finland.

Remember, who is Pekka Kataja? Of course, you do. He is the PS campaign manager whom Ala-Tuuhonen and Teemu Torssonen, a far-right politician that your party sacked 2019, brutally attacked.

Continue reading “PS MP Petri Huru and his ties with a far-right attempted murder suspect”

Finland is too white to solve its issues with racism. There must be change.

Posted on by Migrant Tales

After the bombshell news that one of the suspects arrested Friday who brutally attacked Pekka Kataja of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) in July, the new chairperson of the Center Party, Annika Saarikko, said on Ykkösaamu Saturday that she could form a government with the PS.

In light of the PS’ links with far-right groups, Saarikko’s response was inopportune and ill-timed.

Center Party chairperson Annika Saarikko on Yle’s Ykkösaamu.

In a very white country like Finland, where few minorities wield power, her affirmation is not surprising. It reinforced how white power structures are that there is little political will to challenge them.

Nothing or very little will change as long as people of color and other minorities are kept powerless on short leashes.

Politicians like Saarikko may feel it is ok for several reasons to form a government with a party that is openly hostile to Muslims and ultraconservative. She can see matters this way because she is white. The PS is not a threat to her whiteness per se.

If we look at the rise of the PS since the 2011 parliamentary election, disgrunted and racist white Finns have found in the PS a voice that is anti-immigration, anti-EU and anti-establishment. Even if racism, sexism, and fascism have risen their heads, do politicians like Saarikko naively believe that consensus will work matters out?

As a person who grew up in the United States and who has, as a native Argentinean, followed and lived through the recent history of Latin America marred by violence, injustice, and poverty, it is not difficult to understand why racism and the PS live another day.

This is the wrong approach. Defend your institutions tooth and nail. Source: Reddit.

I worte in January that those who believe in Hollywood endings to racism are white people who don’t experience racism and speak on behalf of those that do.

There will not be a Hollywood ending to the racism problem in this country but one that will lead to a Hungarian ending.

As the Kataja case proves that violence and fascism are already here and taking root. It is our call to put an end to them.

Going to bed with the PS will not do it.

Case Pekka Kataja of the PS: I’m surprised that you are surprised

Posted on by Migrant Tales

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 breaching the sanctity of religion, was quoted as saying in tabloid Ilta-Sanomat: “It’s difficult even to believe one’s own eyes when reading this news [about the arrest of the suspects].”

Read the full story (in Finnish) here.

And the amazement continues. PS Central Finland region head Jyrki Niittymaa also expresses dismay.

“It is surprising if these [suspects] are guilty [for brutally attacking Kataja], he said.

Citing tabloid Iltalehti, PS-run Suomen Uutiset publishes the name of one of the suspects, Teemu Torssonen, who was sacked by the party in 2019.

Continue reading “Case Pekka Kataja of the PS: I’m surprised that you are surprised”

MP Veikko Vallin and the Islamophobic PS pull another “fast one” on the media

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset MP Veikko Vallin tweeted an apology for the “mistake” of publishing pictures of children and workers at a nursery school. Even if he is sorry, he stated that his “critical opinion” of women using a chador at nursery schools has not changed.

Vallin’s action of taking pictures of children and workers at a nursing home was unbecoming of an MP. The images not only exposed his racist side, but it also showed how much some politicians, especially from the PS, do to crave their need for media attention.

The PS MP states in the original tweet that the black chador used by a Muslim woman scares him because it reminds him of Isis, which have been pictured in refugee camps in Syria wearing the niqab.

Source: eurodebates.tv

A grown man who is afraid of women wearing a chador?

Give me a break! This Trmp-imitating politician must be even afraid of mosquitos.

Vallin and the PS pulled one of the oldest tricks used by racist politicians:

  • Make a racist statement or claim;
  • Say you are sorry or remain quiet if a reporter proves what you said was a lie;
  • Despite all the commotion, your base will love you for what you said;
  • The aim is to get media attention and communicate with your base, who does not care if what you said was racist or immoral.

One of the most surprising matters about the story is not what Vallin did, but the deafening silence of other politicians and the media.

Only the tabloids, MTV and a handful of others covered the story.

Continue reading “MP Veikko Vallin and the Islamophobic PS pull another “fast one” on the media”

Was the stabbing of an eighteen-year-old Somali Finn a hate crime?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales asked in April after the tragic death of an eighteen-year-old Somali Finn in Helsinki on April 26 is treated by the police as a hate crime.

What is equally surprising is the total news blackout on social media by the police as if communities affected by what happened don’t have the right to express their mourning and outrage.

The young Somali who was stabbed and died in April was Keyse Abdifatah Macalesh.

Even if there is some indication that the motive of the fatal stabbing may have had a bias motivators like ethnicity, the Finnish media is more interested in reporting about the suspect’s criminal background instead of how ethnicity may have played a role.

One Somali Finn that I contacted after the fatal stabbing stated:

“The death first made me angry, but then I told myself that this was going to happen since I live in such a racist country.

The roots of this tragedy go back to when the mayor of Helsinki [Jan Vapaavuori] labeled the Somalis [on April 14] as those spreading coronavirus. What he did was label us as part of the coronavirus problem of Finland. Anybody could see what was going to happen next. People get scared, and the racists get more aggressive and start targeting you.”

A hate crime comprises of two factors: the crime + bias motivation. Thus a hate crime is determined by bias, which includes: victim perception, organized hate groups, crime pattern, intense violence and specific targetting, timing, the difference between the victim and perpetrator, and by no other obvious motive.

The latter category, no obvious motive, is also relevant because it suggests that the crime was motivated by bias.

Indeed, people who commit a hate crime will do their best to play down or claim amnesia when it comes to determining their bias motivation.

One of the most critical questions about the death of the young Keyse Abdifatah Macalesh is why the police service mustn’t play down or overlook hate crime.

One of the most obvious reasons is so that they will not encourage the spread of similar crimes from happening.

My question to the police: Are there any bias motivators taken into account in Macalesh’s case?

We will soon find the answer to that question.

The toothless response of the police and society to human trafficking is similar to other social ills like racism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

A column by Helsingin Sanomat gave a realistic view of human trafficking and why there it continues unhinged. One problem that the column cites, and which is a problem concerning other racist crimes committed against migrants and minorities, is fear of the police.

The column, which exposed some of the shortcomings of protecting victims of human trafficking and exploitation at work, sheds light on a more significant problem: Indifference fed by prejudice and racism.

The Finnish police have a questionable history when dealing with racism. Migrant Tales wrote some of these issues in 2018 that persist to this date:

  • The police’s suspicion without proof that asylum seekers are rapists and criminals;
  •  A poll showed that close to 80% of the police in a survey considered the asylum seeker crisis as the most severe threat to Finnish security;
  • The same poll revealed that 25.1% of those polled voted for the National Coalition Party (NCP) and 24.4% for the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*. The PS and NCP parties are the most anti-immigration parties in parliament;
  • Ethnic profiling continues to be a serious issue among the Finnish police service;
  • The Council of Europe has expressed concern about ethnic profiling in Finland;
  • A study by the European Agency of Fundamental Rights (FRA) claims that a third of people of African descent (PAD) surveyed have experienced racial harassment in the last five years. The highest harassment took place in Finland.

Paavo Teittinen’s column hits it right on the nail: “The source of human trafficking and similar type of exploitation in Finland is not inevitable. It has been allowed to happen. Criminals can run their [businesses] fairly freely due to the lack of information, resources, and [police] interest.”

Read the full story (in Finnish) here.

Some of the main points of Teittinen’s column:

  • Employers are not worried about being reported to the police because of lack of interest;
  • An employer can commit human trafficking with few to no consequences;
  • Few human trafficking victims turn to the police because they fear deportation. They continue to fear the police like in their former home country;
  • The police and authorities don’t actively seek to curtail human trafficking;
  • The powers granted to the Regional State Administrative Agencies (AVI) is negligibly coupled with a shortage of staff;
  • Interior ministry has shown little interest in the problem;
  • Few police resources allocated to fighting human trafficking;
  • Some police play down the problem because they are suspicion of asylum seekers and their motives;
  • The police justify their inaction by stating that even if a person was underpaid, it is more money than he ever made in his home country;
  • Victim Support (Riku) said in a statement that laws to protect human trafficking victims are inadequate in Finland. The victim usually ends up holding the short end of the stick.

So what does the inadequate tratement of human trafficking expose?

It tells us that the police are not only ill-equipped to serve Finland’s ever-growing culturally diverse community, but many continue to allow prejudice, racist attitudes, and structural racism to continue.

A synonym for fake news is the Perussuomalaiset and other racist groups

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Finland has been praised for its school program to teach children about fake news. Media literacy is important if we do not want to be led by the noses towards an autocratic state.

Commonly, when reading the comments by Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MPs and other politicians, fact-checking is an exception and not the rule.

Some of the most significant sources of fake news that the PS spread is about migrants and asylum seekers, which is code for Muslims. The cost of migration, living off social welfare, crime, not interested in integration, and so forth.

The basis of the above claims is fake news, and the media should do much more to check their integrity.

Top Five Fake Migration News in Finland

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Näyttökuva-2020-7-31-kello-10.24.59.png
  1. These are not real asylum seekers. They come fo Finland and Europe for economic reasons; they want to take advantage of our social welfare system;
  2. Migration costs Finland billions of wasted euros that we’ll never get back;
  3. Migrants don’t want to integrate. They want to live in “ghettos;”
  4. Migrants mainly cause sexual assault crime to spike;
  5. Migrants, especially Muslims, want to take over Europe and force us to live under Sharia law.

All of the above are examples of fake news promoted by the PS and other xenophobic groups. Treat them with tweezers and throw them in the trash.