Tag: Islamophobia

Finland has been challenged by an anti-EU, anti-immigration and anti-Islam party

Posted on by Migrant Tales

If I were the head of Finland’s secret police, Supo, I would have sent a long time ago my best agents to investigate whether there is a connection and well-orchestrated plan by far-right groups in Europe and Suomen Sisu to the Perussuomalaiset’s (PS) election victory in April.

If  Supo decided to leave many stones unturned on this front or keep such information to itself, I would as head of a large Finnish daily send my best investigative reporters to find the tensions and links between Timo Soini’s SMP wing of PS and the MPs that belong to the Suomen Sisu association.

Here are some of the matters I’d ask my reporters to investigate: (1) Is there a greater-than-known link between Suomen Sisu/PS and other right-wing populist parties in Europe like the Danish People’s Party (DPP)? What level of consultancy work have the DPP given to Suomen Sisu/PS to spread more effectively the Islamophobic message in Finland? (2) Is one of the attack strategies of such a sinister plan overwhelming the net with Islamophobist websites like Hommaforum, which have close links to Suomen Sisu?

Apart from Migrant Tales, groups like Hommaforum have inhibited researchers, common Finns and bloggers to speak out against their xenophobic and nationalist message. Our blog was attacked by over 800 Hommaforum supporters in September 2008.

As head of Supo or of a major daily, I would look at the reaction of the politicians and society towards rising xenophobia in Finland. Did politicians cave in to the Islamophobia and reacted too late and with too little firepower? Or did the message of people like PS MP Jussi Halla-aho appeal and serve the interests of some like Kokoomus and the Social Democratic Party?

The biggest loser of the election was the Center Party. That party under the leadership of former Prime Minister Mari Kiviniemi lost the most votes due to her pro-EU and outspoken stance against the PS.

Sometimes you need to cash in defeat in order to become stronger in the future. President Barak Obama is a good example by being one of the few senators that opposed the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Thanks to his leadership, he was able to reap lots of advantages against his Republican rival John McCain in the 2008 presidential election.

Nothing happens by chance never mind getting 19.1% of the votes from 4.05% four years earlier. Certainly outside factors like the global financial meltdown of September 2008 and the EU bailouts of Greece, Ireland and Portugal played crucial roles that benefited the PS. Even so, living in denial and playing down such a threat and lack of leadership by political parties probaby played an even bigger role in boosting the PS.

Despite the good fortunes of the Soini’s party, there is one lesson that can be learned: If you don’t stand up to right-wing populism it will end up challenging your power base. Why? Because it is a message of hatred that divides our societies and impoverishes us in the end economically and socially.

That is why we need today more than ever leadership concerning the menace that has challenged our society with its anti-EU, anti-immigration and anti-Islam message.

Post-April 17 Finland: A protest vote against whom?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Enrique Tessieri

One reads and hears less these days about the reasons why the Perussuomalaiset (PS) scored such a big election victory in April. While casting a protest vote is a positive signs that our democracy functions, what did the voters actually contend? Political corruption? Immigration? Refugees? Mandatory Swedish? Ever-growing income gaps and social inequality?  

Since politicians and political parties have the most to gain from an election and the voters the least, some campaigns are carried out like aggressive used-car salesmen. The newer the party the more exaggerated its promises, while the more traditional ones give different sales pitches.

The PS, which is the new kid on the big party block, did a good job because it instilled fear and awoke passions so you’d buy its used car.

What the PS salesman won’t tell you are the real problems of the vehicle you purchased. Some of these are that the car has had ten owners, the mileage meter has been tampered, sawdust has been mixed with the oil and that he is charging you 80% more than the real price of the car.

Apart from the anti-EU, anti-immigration and anti-Islam sales pitch of many PS MP candidates, some voters are already noticing that they purchased a lemon.

One does not have to be a political scientist to understand that Finland will never find effective solutions to its challenges in Timo Soini’s simplistic sound bites and by polarizing our society between “true Finns” and “untrue Finns.”

Like a person that attracts bad company, the most unfortunate and questionable side of Soini’s PS has been its far-right wing led by MPs who are members of Suomen Sisu. Almost every week there is a worrisome revelation by the media about Jussi Halla-aho, who we now know disliked human rights in 2001 because they encouraged tolerance between black and white people.

The worst lemons of the PS are Halla-aho and his PS MP followers like James Hirvisaari, Olli Immonen, Juho Erola and others. They are selling you a car that runs on the ideology of Nazi war criminal Alfred Rosenberg, David Duke, former head of the Klu Klux Klan, and Michael Levin. All this, of course, in an early twenty-first century Finnish context.

If Soini’s party was incapable of capitalizing on such a big election victory by entering government it is doubtful that they’ll be given a second chance by the voters.

Voters do protest but they want results as well.

Spiegel Online International: Strict Immigration Laws ‘Save Denmark Billions’

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: This story below, published by German news magazine Der Spiegel, shows the never-ending arguments and excuses that the Islamophobic Danish People’s Party (DPP) will use to justify its hardline immigration stance. The DPP is of special interest to us because Perussuomalaiset anti-immigration hardliners like Jussi Halla-aho believe that Finland should follow Denmark’s path.

Denmark, which has the most restrictive immigration laws in Europe, now tries to tell us that such a policy is justified because it has brought savings in the last years to the tune of 6.7 billion euros. I wonder if they will ever put out a report on how much the country has lost due to draconian immigration policies.

Would you invest in a country that is especially hostile to non-Western immigrants?

The report was published by the integration ministry under anti-immigration hardliner, Søren Pind.

DPP leader Pia Kjærsgaard, who is known for her provocative statements, said that the report showed that Somalians are “no good for anything” and “that is simply not acceptable.”

The saddest matter in Denmark is that there is presently a stalemate due to the anti-immigration policies of the DPP. Even if they plan to tighten even more immigration policy because the country will hold elections this year, it appears that building a high wall around Denmark is the DPP’s only answer on how deal with immigrants.

Here is another interesting story on the DPP in Copenhagen-based daily Politiken in which the Social Liberals have refused any further tightening of immigration laws.  Read “No to Circus Kjærsgaard.”

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By Anna Reimann

Denmark’s strict immigration laws have saved the country 6.7 billion euros, a government report has claimed. Even though Denmark already has some of the toughest immigration laws in Europe, right-wing populist politicians are now trying to make them even more restrictive.

Read whole story.

CNN: Burqa ban turns a right into a crime

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: Below is a well-balanced opinion-piece on the Burqa ban in France that some True Finns’ Islamophobists should take the time to read before they decide to go on a similar path in Finland. 

The following statement summarizes well the “problem” in France:  “The full force of the state is coming down on fewer than 2,000 Muslim women out of a population of 6.5 million French Muslim citizens. For what purpose? We are told it is for security, the preservation of “French values” and to alleviate the oppression of women.”

I personally believe in a secular society but I respect those that may disagree with that view. Our liberal, democratic and Western society permits us to make lifestyle choices that are exclusively our own. 

Banning dress or other forms of cultural expression should never be the role of the state except for in exceptional circumstances.  

Moreover, undermining civil liberties is an attack on our own values and usually ends up becoming a Pyrrhic argument.

Do you agree?

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Sarah Joseph*

London, England (CNN) — The ban imposed by French President Sarkozy on wearing a face-covering veil, or niqab, is simply dangerous gesture politics, representing little more than pandering to the far right in France.

Read whole story.

*Sarah Joseph OBE is the CEO and editor of emel Media. She is a regular contributor to public and governmental discussions pertaining to Islam and was listed by Washington’s Georgetown University as one of the world’s 500 most influential Muslims.

Iltalehti: Intialaistaustaista ehdokasta syrjittiin vaalikentällä Persukahakka!

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: Here is a worrying story that is the tip of the iceberg.  For many foreigners it is a common story.

What did Iltalehti report? A True Finn allegedly tried to pick a fight with a naturalized Finn for offering him work. One matter is a group of True Finns supporters acting in a hostile fashion but a more serious matter is their contentious message towards the immigrant population.

The major parties in Finland made a big mistake by not giving the True Finns the cold shoulder like what happened with the Sweden Democrats. OK, the True Finns are not all following Jussi Halla-aho, but the party’s leadership opportunistically approves Islamophobic behavior by not condemning it.

The attacks and rancor towards immigrants and minorities in Finland will continue to pick up as long as parties like the True Finns continue to peddle their populism, which is deeply rooted in ignorance and bigotry.

Do you agree?

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Olli Waris

SDP:n ehdokkaan Ranbir Sodhin vaalitilaisuus Vantaan Myyrmäessä sai ikävän päätöksen viime lauantaina, kun perussuomalaisehdokkaan taustajoukot heittivät ilmoille syrjiviä kommentteja.

To keep on reading click here.

The True Finns and their “True Finland”

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

With about a month to go for the April 17 election, the biggest question still refues to reveal itself: by how many times will the True Finns multiply their MPs from eight now? Some reliable estimates place the number between 15 and 35.

For me as a Finn with a multicultural background, there is a lot riding in these elections if we consider that Finland’s demographic challenges will begin to accentuate especially in the next two decades. We are heading to become a society where the number of over-sixty-five-year-olds in the population will jump to 27% by 2040 from 17% in 2007, according to Statistics Finland.

If you want to see today what Finland will look like demographically in the next three decades, one has only to visit some rural towns where over 30% of the population is over 65 years.

There is nothing wrong with pensioners. The problem, however, is who is going to pay for all the expensive health care and social welfare costs to service this ever-growing age group?

Should we be worried that the True Finns are heading for a victory in the April election?

Yes because instead of Finland looking for effective answers to its demographic as well as a number of other challenges facing our country and society, a large number of Finns have chosen instead to be spooked by the rhetoric and populism of the True Finns.

We have only ourselves to blame for the rise of the True Finns in the polls. We have never really addressed racism and discrimination forcefully enough in this country since we have had so few immigrants among our ranks in the past. Instead of questioning our hatred for the Russians, some of us still feel the same way about our eastern neighbor as on the same day they unjustly  attacked us in the 1939-40 Winter War.

Instead of trying to rid our society of ills like racism, some politicians have used it for their own opportunistic political aims by instilling fear and claiming that our country will be overrun by Russians and foreigners.

On the positive side of things, it is good matter that many Finns who should know better than to peddle nineteenth-century racial “theories” are now in the public light. I personally believe that they have given us a good opportunity to challenge for good their distorted ideas that date back to the 1930s and to the writings of Rolf Nordenstreng and Eugen Fischer.

I refuse to believe that Finland, the country that is our dear home and which sacrificed so much to build a world-class educational system and society, will throw it all away for a few cheap populist soundbites from groups like the True Finns and politicians like Social Democrat Kari Rajamäki and Wille Rydman of Kokoomus.

The “True Finland” that the True Finns want to build is nothing more than a “False Finland” glued by populism and low self-esteem. We must all stand up against them, especially on April 17.

BBC: Danish immigration minister Hornbech fired over scandal

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: Here is an interesting story from Denmark reporting that Immigration Minister Birthe Roenn Hornbech had been fired from her job for not only illegally refusing citizenship to a group of Palestinians born there, but not informing parliament immediately of such a mistake, reports the BBC.

Writes Yahoo News: “Hornbech’s refugees, immigration and integration portfolio was handed over to Development Cooperation Minister Soeren Pind, who is considered a hardliner on the immigration issue.  In one of his first statements after his nomination, Pind described the UN convention that sent his predecessor packing as ‘stupid.'”

Some Finnish politicians from the True Finns are hoping that they will hold the same power as the populist and xenophobic Danish People’s Party (DPP) led by Pia Kjaersgaard. Denmark’s Liberal-Conservative coalition government has relied on the support of the DPP to stay in power in exchange for tightened immigration and citizenship laws.

Even though the majority of Danes do not back the DPP, Denmark is a sad case how Islamophobia can grip a small nation. Denmark is the biggest loser of such a mistaken policy because it creates an inclusive and unequal society.

Do you agree?

___________

Denmark’s Immigration Minister Birthe Roenn Hornbech has been sacked after 36 stateless Palestinians were wrongly refused citizenship.

To continue reading click here.

Tunisia and Egypt are a blow to Islamophobia

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

The joy and the historic day celebrated this evening in Egypt after the resignation of Hosni Mubarak can be felt everywhere.  The emancipation of the Egyptians, after thirty years of rule by an autocratic and corrupt regime supported by the West, is contagious and will certainly spread to other parts of the region. People power in the Arab world will also be a long-term blow to the pet topic of far-right parties: Islam.

Building a country from the rubbles of a corrupt and autocratic regime will not be easy. But if the Egyptians, Tunisians and other countries succeed in the region it will not only bolster their national self-esteem but win further admiration of the Europeans and people throughout the world.

Like Latin America in the Cold War, the US and the West has had the same goal in the Arab world: Have a key say in the internal affairs and control vital resources.

The biggest losers to democracy in the region will be the Islamophobic far-right parties of Europe and radical Islam.  It will also force Israelis to rethink their relationship with their neighbors.

Ny Tid: Islamofobins idéhistoria

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: Here a very long story about the origins of Islamophobia in Europe reported in Ny Tid.  The article states that throughout the centuries Europeans have looked for scapegoats to lash out against a common enemy. The Jews, Roma and Islam are recent tragic examples.

The Migrant Tales blog is a mirror of what some people think in Finland and Europe. Some prefer to stress over and over again how “incompatible” some groups are to our culture. That supposedly gives them an automatic carte blanche to hate others.  It is odd that none of these bloggers who have such strong opinions comment with their real names.

Even though people have the right in Western society to make fun of any religious group, Denmark appears to have gone over the brink.  A Somali man was convicted of “terrorism” for breaking into the home of Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, who had made fun of the Prophet Muhammad. The man was sentenced to nine years in prison, according to AOLNews.

Probably this is the type of country that the True Finns want for Finland: tough laws founded on hatred of other cultures. In sum, living in denial to the world.

Do you agree?

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Om man alls vill begripa den hets mot muslimer som likt vinterns isvindar för närvarande sveper över Europa bör man läsa Mattias Gardells bok Islamofobi – det slår Lars Sund fast

To keep on reading click here.

Helsingin Sanomat: Perussuomalaisehdokkaan vaalimainos huijaa moskeijatyömaalla

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: Here is an example of how the True Finns fuel xenophobia and resort to hit-below-the-belt tacticts to give their racist views legitimacy.They placed a large sign in front of a construction site stating that mosques will be built, according to Helsingin Sanomat. The daily reports that if you follow the link on the poster it will take you to the True Finns candidate Juhani Mönkkönen’s website.

The poster shows how the True Finns try to blow more hot air into their election bubble. Do you think that if a new poll showed the True Finns’ following fell by two percentage points we’d see a Titanic-type stampede for the lifeboats?

Do you agree?

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Skanskan työmaalle Herttoniemenrantaan on ilmestynyt kyltti, jonka mukaan alueelle tulee moskeija. Oikeasti alueelle rakennetaan asuintaloja.

Helsingissä ohikulkijoiden huomiota ovat kiinnittäneet rakennustyömaakyltit, jotka väittävät, että paikalle rakennetaan moskeija. Todellisuudessa kyse ei ole moskeijatyömaasta.

Esimerkiksi Niittaajankatu 12:ssa Herttoniemenrannassa Skanska rakentaa asuintaloja, vaikka työmaakyltin mukaan tontille nousee Herttoniemen moskeija. Kylttejä on ilmestynyt viikonlopun aikana eri puolille Helsinkiä. HS:n tietojen mukaan vastaavat kyltit on pystytetty ainakin Kamppiin ja Lauttasaareen.

Kylttien pystyttämiselle ei ole pyydetty maanomistajan lupaa.

Kyltit näyttävät aidoilta työmaatauluilta, sillä niissä kerrotaan muun muassa arkkitehtitoimiston nimi ja sähköurakoitsija. Esimerkiksi moskeijan rakennesuunnittelun tekijäksi mainitaan LCC Engineering Ltd. Rakennuttajan kohdalla on arabiankielistä tekstiä.

Urakkakohteesta luvataan lisätietoa verkko-osoitteessa Helsinki2020.fi, joka vie perussuomalaisten eduskuntavaaliehdokkaan, diplomi-insinööri Juhani Mönkkösen, 30, vaalisivulle. Sivulla Mönkkönen muun muassa kertoo, että maahanmuuttoa ei voi perua, siksi seurauksia pitää miettiä etukäteen.

Sivuilla on myös Helsingin metrokartta, jossa pysäkinnimet on kirjoitettu arabiaksi. Samaa tyyliä edustaa kuva kerrostalorapun nimitaulusta, jossa Korhosten ja Johanssonien sijaan on arabialaisia nimiä. Nimitaulusta tehtyjä julisteita on levitetty ainakin Vuosaaressa, muun muassa kerrostalojen ulko-oviin.

Mönkkönen on ehdolla Helsingistä.

Mönkkönen arvioi kylttejä olevan eri puolilla Helsinkiä noin kymmenkunta.

“Tällä ollaan haluttu herättää keskustelua, että jos tehdään päätöksiä maahanmuutosta, se muuttaa yhteiskuntaa pysyvästi. Minulla ei ole mitään islamin uskoa vastaan. Haluan vain herättää keskustelua, mikä suomalaisille on hyväksi”, Mönkkönen kertoo puhelimitse.

Mönkkönen ei suoraan vastaa, kuuluvatko kyltit hänen kampanjaansa, vaikka hän niistä tietoinen onkin.

“Mikä nyt on kampanjaa ja mikä ei. Hyvä kysymys. Sitä voi ostaa virallista kampanjaa tai muilla keinoin herättää huomioita. Kaikki, mikä ohjaa ihmisiä mun vaalisivuille, on hyväksi. Olen rohkaissut tähän.”

Hän ei myöskään kerro, kuka kyltit on pysyttänyt.

Lupaa mainosten pystyttämiselle ei ole. Esimerkiksi Skanska aikoo tänään poistaa Niittaajankadulla olevan kyltin työmaansa kupeesta.

“Se on sinne laitettu ilman asianmukaista lupaa. Ja vaikka olisikin lupaa kysytty, sitä ei olisi tullut”, kertoo johtaja Markus Heino Skanska Kodeista.

Myös perussuomalaisten Helsingin piirin puheenjohtaja Arto Välikangas oudoksuu mainoksia.

“Vaikea vielä sanoa mitään, kun en ole kylttejä nähnyt. Tämä oli minulle uusi asia. Mutta en hyväksy, että mainoksia pystytetään toisen maalle ilman lupaa. Enkä sitä, että mainos väärennetään näyttämään viralliselta kyltiltä”, Välikangas linjaa.

Hän aikoo kysyä asiasta Mönkköseltä.

Mönkkönen itse ei koe luvattomia mainoksia ongelmana.

“Kaikki mikä tukee keskustelua on hyväksi. Ja kieltämättä tämä tukee keskustelua. Tuen kaikkea aktiivisuutta.”