Islamophobia Archives - Page 59 of 72

PS Substitute Councilman Olli Sademies to be investigated for hate speech

Posted on July 9, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Helsinki substitute councilman, Olli Sademies, will be investigated by the police for hate speech, reports the Swedish-language service of YLE.

Migrant Tales first reported the story in the end of May. A few weeks later Sademies resurfaced launching a new attack against Muslims by suggesting a “business idea” to create a pig’s blood spray that would be used against people of that faith.

In our opinion, using such violent and hostile language against any minority by a politician belonging to a party in government is unacceptable. His suggestion on Facebook is, in our opinion, tantamount to inciting ethnic agitation and violence against black people in this country.

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UPDATE (July 4): Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism

Posted on July 4, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism will be updated separately. To see other examples of opinionated journalism in Finland about cultural diversity, please go to this link.

July 4

Bloggaja väittää: Huhtasaari liittyi rasistiseen Facebook-ryhmään itse (Satakunnan Kansa)

What’s wrong with this story? This story by Pori-based daily Satakunnan Kansa is a good example of lazy journalism at its best.It is also an example of how some newspapers are reluctant to challenge politicians with xenophobic agendas. Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Laura Huhtasaari got her fingers burned this week when Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s biggest daily, scooped that she was a member of a racist Facebook site that has pictures of black children in pales eating watermelon with the following text, “A bucketful of shit.” Huhtasaari accused without any evidence that Sakari Timonen, one of Finland’s best anti-racism bloggers, had tipped off Helsingin Sanomat and even hacked her profile on the racist Facebook page. Instead of stating that the blogger claims that Huhtasaari joined the Facebook site herself, why didn’t Satakannun Kansa ask an IT expert to resolve the matter? Under her profile picture on the Facebook site it read that Huhtasaari joined and was not joined by some person. Huhtasaari claims that her profile ended up on the Facebook site by somebody without her permission. Sounds fishy, especially coming from a declared anti-immigration politician like herself.

UPDATE: It appears that our efforts to get in touch with Satakunnan Kansa paid off. In a new story published on the same day the daily asks an Internet authority about Huhtasaari’s defense. The Internet authority claims that Huhtasaari could have been joined to the racist Facebook community if somebody had access to her password.

* The Finnish name of the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English-language names adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We therefore prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings.

PS MP Huhtasaari gets fingers burned after Helsingin Sanomat uncovers her membership in a racist Facebook site

Posted on July 2, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Laura Huhtasaari of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party found herself in hot water Thursday after Finland’s largest daily Helsingin Sanomat did some investigative journalism about the MP’s membership in a racist Facebook site that has pictures of black children eating watermelon in a pail that read another “bucketful of shit.”

Huhtasaari is well known to Migrant Tales. Yes, right, she’s the Islamophobe blonde with the kindergarten teacher smile who got a hand from MEP Jussi Halla-aho in her campaign.

Halla-aho was sentenced for ethnic agitation and is the leader of the PS’ far right anti-immigration wing.

Read full story here.

Certainly the revelation by Helsingin Sanomat that she belonged to the racist Facebook site “Puskaraikaajien rasistinen tausta,” or “The racist background of rapists [hiding] in bushes,” didn’t make her very happy.

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Finland’s deputy state prosecutor to investigate Sademies’ Facebook post on sterilizing Africans

Posted on July 2, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Helsinki substitute councilman Olli Sademies’ post on Facebook at the end of May, where he wrote that Africans should be sterilized after three children, is going to be investigated by the deputy state prosecutor, according to Tampere-based daily Aamulehti, citing Finnish News Agency (STT).

Using such violent language against any minority by anyone never mind a politician belonging to Finland’s second-largest party is unacceptable. Sadmies’ claim on Facebook is, in our opinion, tantamount to inciting ethnic agitation and violence against black people in this country.

Apart from his political credentials, Sademies is a retired policeman. I wonder what that says about the Finnish police service.

No action was taken by the PS against what Sademies posted about African men.

When confronted last month by YLE’s Swedish language service, Seppo Kanerva, who is head of the Helsinki PS city council group, said that they hadn’t had time to discuss what Sademies wrote on Facebook. “We had so much to talk about that we didn’t have time for such nonsense,” he said.

Kanerva did say, however, that if Sademies continues to write similar posts he could be sacked from the party.

Sadmies’ Facebook page was taken down Tuesday after he posted a “business idea” about an aerosol that would spray pig’s blood on Muslims.

The substitute councilman claims that he was taken down because of an identity check but we know that Migrant Tales’ associate editor Marshall Niles filed a complaint to Facebook about his racist and disgraceful posting.

Read full story here.

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Danish People’s Party Pia Kjærsgaard: Inte min talman, or not my speaker of parliament [1]

Posted on July 1, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS) [2] Speaker of Parliament Maria Lohela no longer is alone in the Nordic region after Denmark’s new center-right government elected the founder of the xenophobic Danish People’s Party (DPP), Pia Kjærsgaard, as the new speaker of parliament, according to the Copenhagen Post. Like her counterpart in Finland, Kjærsgaard has built her political career on Islamophbobic fear-mongering.

The new Danish speaker of parliament was named a few years ago by Swedish magazine Gringo as the “racist of the year,”

Read full story here.

Bashy Quraishy, an anti-racism activist in Denmark, writes: “This sad Danish political development [election of Kjærsgaard] is an indication of the things to come and against which progressive activists have been warning for years…In a way it is good because it can activate the ethnic minorities, leftwing forces and humanists in Denmark. It is my hope!”

Just like the PS, which are close political and ideological allies of the DPP, the impact of last month’s Danish elections is being felt by migrants, refugees and minorities.

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Olli Sademies tweets: “I was taken down from Facebook due to an identity check”

Posted on July 1, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS)* substitute councilman for Helsinki, Olli Sademies, tweets that he was taken down from Facebook due to an identity check. If this is true, we should see Sademies back on Facebook soon with his racist comments about Muslims and Africans.

A warning: Facebook and Twitter are hostile places for migrants and minorities because a lot of the racism we see in society originates from these two places. Marshall Niles complained to Facebook about Sademies’ recent post about a pig’s blood spray for Muslims.

Were there others who sent similar complaints? We don’t know. But we do know that Sademies has a lot of people who dislike what he posts.

Why would Facebook want to verify Sademies’ identity now if they do that shortly after the person begins using the social networking service?

Writes Marshall Niles, who reported Sademies: “Ironically, for a man who is so blatant and outspoken towards his pig blood sterilization erotica, he seems to be embarrassed to tell his minions that his Facebook was deactivated for violating its community standards, which clearly state “No Racism/ No attacks against a group of people based on caste, color, creed, sex etc”…

We hope that Facebook understands that posts by a politician like Sademies should not be tolerated because they fuel hatred and prejudice. A new James Hirvisaari has resurfaced from the PS and his name is Olli Sademies.

Sademies has been on the warpath against Muslims and Africans. In May he wrote on Facebook that those Africans who have three children should be sterilized. On Monday he resurfaced attacking Muslims by suggesting a “business idea” to create a pig’s blood spray that would be used against Muslims.

Sademies tweets that his Facebook page has been taken down due to an identity check.

Migrant Tales tweets back: What’s the [real] reason why you were taken down from Facebook?

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Marshall Niles’ example shows that racists can be taken down from Facebook

Posted on June 30, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Marshall Niles, who is an associate editor of Migrant Tales, did what any sensible person would do when confronted with a heavy load of racism and Islamophobia: Find a way to challenge it. And that’s what he did. Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Helsinki substitute councilman for the city of Helsinki, Olli Sademies, got taken down from Facebook thanks to Niles’ leadership.

Apart from the shameful silence of the PS and that of other political parties against these type of racist comments, Niles showed leadership by reporting Sademies to Facebook.

What Niles did is exemplary and what we should do when anyone spreads the same type of racism and hate speech.

Well done Marshall! We’re all very proud of you for ridding such a disgraceful politician from Facebook.

I hope many others will follow your example.

Marshall Niles reported Olli Sademies to Facebook for his racist rants.

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Is the Danish People’s Party advising the PS on how to become the biggest party in Finland?

Posted on June 29, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Helsinki substitute councilman, Olli Sademies, is creating Islamophobic waves again. Right, he’s the substitute councilman who suggested in the end of May that Africans should be sterilized after having three children. Now he wrote on his Facebook wall a “business idea” to create a pig’s blood spray that would be used against Muslims.

What should we think about Sademies’ latest outburst? Since his comment about sterilizing Africans wasn’t serious enough for the PS to sack him on the spot, it’s doubtful that he’ll get the boot for his latest racist comment.

Sademies appears to be a good old Finnish redneck who probably couldn’t find Djibouti never mind Somalia on the African map. But there’s one thing his dead sure of: His racist comments about Muslims.

Is Sademies the new James Hirvisaari of the PS? While there are many Hirvisaaris in the party, Sademies is getting as much publicity as the former MP who was sacked from the PS after he took a picture and posted it on Facebook of a friend making a Nazi salute in parliament.

One of the best comments on Sademies’ Faceook thread is by a Naima M:

Brigitta, Sademies in an expert in these things. He can apparently tell us if garlic helps to repel vampires as well as to scare off Muslims or if only pig’s blood works. At the same time we could ask him if krypton could be of any help.

But where does he get his ideas from? Is it from parties like the Islamophobic Danish People’s Party (DPP) with which the PS is a close but not too public ideological ally?

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A letter from a Finn to a Swede

Posted on June 21, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Dear friend, you probably read about the elections in Denmark and how xenophobia raised its head yet again in another Nordic country. The elections in Denmark didn’t surprise me. Two months earlier we had elections in Finland. Here too the right-wing populist Perussuomalaiset (PS)* became the second-biggest party in parliament and are now in government.

With the right-wing populist Progress Party (FrP) in government for the first time in Norway since it was founded in 1973, and with the Danish People’s Party (DPP) likely forming part of Denmark’s next government, Sweden is the only country in this part of Europe where populists haven’t clutched power.

The Swedish government of Stefan Löfven has succeeded, thanks to the support of other parties, given the far right Sweden Democrats the political cold shoulder.

After elections in Denmark, your example is even more important in light of the anti-immigration and right-wing populist shift being witnessed today in the Nordic region.

Thank you Sweden for being resolute and not caving in to populism and xenophobia.

I am grateful to Sweden for having the courage to stand up to the vicious us-and-them language being spread by parties like the FrP, DPP and PS.

Our problem in Finland with anti-immigration populists started in the last decade, when parties like the Social Democrats and National Coalition Party (NCP), which should know better, started to flirt with the PS.

The NCP, together with the Center Party, is sharing power in government with the PS.

Continue reading “A letter from a Finn to a Swede”

Timo Soini overjoyed by Danish election result and good showing of the Islamophobic DPP

Posted on June 19, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Chairman and Foreign Minister Timo Soini wrote in his blog today that he was elated that the xenophobic Danish People’s Party emerged in the Danish elections as the second-biggest party after the Social Democrats.

Soini is happy about the DPP victory? Certainly he is because he likes their xenophobic and nativist nationalistic message because it’s the same message of the PS when the DPP was starting out in Denmark.

And he continues: “I sent to my good friend Morten Messerschmidt my warmest regards. Morten is coming again to our annual congress where he’s a liked guest.”

DPP MEP Messerschmidt was charged in 2007 for singing Nazi marching songs and giving the Hitler salute in a bar in Tivoli, the major tourist attraction in central Copenhagen.

He was cleared of such charges in 2009 by a court, which forced the daily BT to compensate Messerschmidt for libel. Together with two other DPP members in 2001, Messerschmidt was sentenced by a court for 14 days for ethnic agitation. A DPP ad in Studiomagazinet claimed that Denmark would face mass rapes, violence, insecurity, forced marriages, women would be oppressed, and gang crime if the country became a multiethnic society.

Politiken is one of Denmark’s biggest dailies. A tweet below lists some of the xenophobic stands of the DPP below. Is this the type of country Soini wants for Finland?

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