Tag: Muslims

Six-year fruitless search for a Muslim burial ground in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The Finnish Islamic Council has been searching without success since 2008 for a burial ground in the southern Finnish region of Uusimaa, according to YLE in English. Up to know, Muslims are buried in the “Muslim section” of Lutheran Church cemeteries.

Pia Jardi, deputy chair of the Finnish Islamic Council, told Migrant Tales that a questionnaire was sent to 16 municipalities about the matter but only four responded: Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa and Tuusula.

She said that she was surprised by the large number of municipalities that didn’t respond.

“Are they worried about voters [if there is a Muslim cemetery in their municipality]?” she said. “Muslims do the same thing in graves as any other people.”

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Read full story here.

Jardi said that cooperation with the Lutheran Church has been good.

“We’ve been sometimes asked why don’t we bury our dead in the Tatar Cemetery of Hietaniemi [in Helsinki],” she continued.  “This isn’t possible since you have to be a member of the Tatar community to be buried there.”

The six-year search is a good example of how some sectors of Finland persist in the belief that very little will change as our society becomes more culturally diverse.  Our laws and values speak of integration, or two-way adaption, but what happens in too many cases is assimilation or expectations of the latter.

“You would certainly think that we would find an area in Uusimaa that could be rezoned for cemetery use,” Jardi was quoted as saying on Yle in English. “Perhaps is has to do with a lack of political will. If you even scan web forums they are extremely anti-Muslim…”

There are some 60,000 Muslims estimated living in Finland.

Helsinki District Court fines clothing store managers for firing Muslim woman

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The managers of Guess, a Helsinki clothing store, have been fined for firing a Muslim woman for wearing a headscarf to work, reports YLE in English. It is the first case ever decided by the Helsinki District Court, according to YLE. 

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Read full story here.

Reports YLE in English: “Helsinki District court has fined managers at a Helsinki clothing retailer for discriminating an employee on the basis of religion. They receive 20 day-fines for sacking a Muslim worker who was told she should not wear a headscarf.”

The new worker was fired on the first day of work.

The Guess store managers denied that their decision to fire the worker was discriminatory. They claimed that the headscarf did not fit the company’s brand.

Man who attacked a Lutheran Church Tuesday “is sorry for what he did and understands his mistake”

Posted on by Migrant Tales

What happened on Tuesday, when a white ethnic Finn dressed like a Muslim that vandalized a Lutheran church in Helsinki, is one of the strangest stories I have written but with a good ending. All of this happened when YLE was airing the A2 Islam debate on television.

Vicar Timo Pekka Kaskinen of the Rouhivuoren Congregation spoke to Migrant Tales about the affair. He said that all of the information he has about the attacker is on the Helsingin Muslimit Facebook wall, which states the following:

“The Helsinki Muslim Congregation is in no way linked to the vandalism that was perpetrated. In question was an individual who acted on his own and whose motive is still unclear. The person [who carried out this act] is sorry for what he did and understands his mistake.”

Kaskinen said that the Rouivuoren Church and the mosque, which is located right across road from it, has held talks in good faith about what happened.

The Rouhivuoren Church’s address is Tulisuontie 2 and the mosque’s, Tulisuontie 1.

“It’s a good matter that we have been able to speak about what hapened,” he said, adding that the incident has brought both congregations closer.  

What happened on Tuesday night was unacceptable but most importantly showed that people of different faiths can come together and solve their differences without giving in to hate.

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Another important lesson to be learned from the incident is the meaning of the term “white ethnic Finn,” or kantasuomalainen, which can presumably include a person who has converted to the Muslim faith.

One of the difficult matters about writing this story was that the suspect was pictured as a “white ethnic white Finn.” Nobody confirmed if he was a Muslim or not.

The Helsingin Muslimit Facebook page doesn’t confirm it either but suggests that the suspect may be a Muslim.

One final point is the fact that why didn’t wake up strong passions among some far-right ant-Muslim Finnish circles? Is it because the alleged perpetrator is white?

The story and the use of the term “white ethnic Finn” reveals as well how cultural diversity has grown in Finland especially in the past twenty years.

A2 Islam debate: “We’re a very tolerant society but…”

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Two matters bothered me the most about the A2 Islam debate Tuesday night: how the cards were deliberately stacked against cultural diversity, and how Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Olli Immonen and PS Espoo city councilman Simon Elo did their utmost to spread fear-mongering of Muslims. 

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You can watch the full debate here until the end of November.

Wille Rydman, former chairman of the Youth League of the National Coalition Party, showed as well that he’s still pretty much in the dark about cultural diversity.

Rydman, who has been christened by some as the Halla-aho of the Naitonal Coalition Party, tried to tell the audience that the best way to adapt to Finland is to become culturally invisible. Who you were and are isn’t important. Therefore, throw away your identity and lets forget all this multicultural nonsense.

Just like far-right anti-immigration politicians in Finland and in Europe, Rydman criticized immigration policy as the culprit.

It there was something positive about the debate, it was Abdirahim Hussein, Mohammad Azizi, Sahra Ali and Seida Sohrabi, who held their own and didn’t allow Immonen and Elo to steal the show.

While it’s a positive matter that we can debate about religions like Islam on a television program, it revealed our deep-rooted prejudices of Muslims and of other minorities living in this country.

The program was heavily into underscoring problems instead of finding solutions and ways to further acceptance and respect in our ever-growing culturally diverse society.

The A2 Islam debate revealed:

  • That we still don’t understand Muslims never mind cultural diversity
  • We still see immigrants, especially Muslims, as a threat
  • We expect Muslims to pretty much assimilate (one-way adaption)
  • The program used maassa maan tavalla, or in Rome do as the Romans do saying, which could be summed up in the cartoon below:
  • 220px-svvalues_narrowweb_300x3080

Racism charges dropped against Danish teacher

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Charges have been dropped against an Odense, Denmark, head teacher who had reportedly abused a group of Muslim students in class, reports The Copenhagen Post. Far-right anti-Islam Danish People’s Party former head, Pia Kjaersgaard, described the whole affair as ”ridiculous.”

“It’s crazy that the police have to get involved in such a case,” Danish People’s Party former chairwoman Pia Kjærsgaard told Fyens Stiftstidende. “I am so affronted on the head teacher’s behalf that she has to meet at the council, and whatever else might happen, because of this nonsense apologised already. Anyone can say something wrong without thinking sometimes.”

One matter that always surprises me about anti-immigration white politicians like Kjaersgaard is how they play down  racism and discrimination. According to them, these types of social ills are “insignificant” never mind “ridiculous.”

Even so, their constant attacks and labeling of immigrants and Muslims in a negative light is always ”important” and ”sensible.”

So what happened at the Ejerslykkeskolen School in Odense and what did the teacher, Birgitte Sonsby, say? According to The Copenhagen Post, the head teacher of the school burst out saying to a group of students in class: ”I’m so bloody tired of you Muslims running the teaching lessons.”

The teacher later apologized for her outburst.

”A situation arose in the classroom and some children needed to be reprimanded,” said Sonsby. They started laughing at me and I lost control. I said some things that I deeply regret and I apologize.”

Shaib Mansoor, the father of one of the children racially reproached by Sonsby and who reported the head teacher to the police, dropped the charges after the media picked up the story and reported what happened at the school.

”I wanted to establish a debate and make people realize that there is a problem,” he said. ”It is the only way to get the attention of the politicians.”

Despite having dropped the charges, Mansoor expects Sonsby to get sacked from her job.

Book review: “The Myth of the Muslim Tide”

Posted on by Migrant Tales

One of Migrant Tales’ aims has been to bust urban myths about immigrants and minorities. A book published last week by Alfred Knopf Canada, The Myth of the Muslim Tide, aims to do just that concerning Muslims. 

Writes Doug Saunders, the author of the book: “In the U.S., anti-Muslim bigotry has reached such alarming levels that four of the leading Republican presidential candidates went mostly unchallenged as they spread patently false notions about Muslims and Islam, often at the behest of their rich Islamophobic funders.”

Saunders tackles a number of myths like: Islamization and high birth rates; the majority of immigrants are and will be Muslims; Muslims want to live in ghettoes; Muslims are not loyal to their host countries; as well as others.

Read original book review by Haroon Siddiqui here.

 

Speigel Online International: Study (on Muslims in Germany) Hints that Mutual Suspicion Is Slowing Integration

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: Here is an interesting story on Speigel Online International that highlights the problem between white Germans and Muslims and one that we should try to avoid in Finland. When looking at immigrants in Germany, we should point out that that country never had the intention of keeping the millions of Turkish workers that migrated there in greater numbers from the 1960s. The expectation was that they’d work for a few years and return back with their children to their home country.

It is pretty clear that with such a widespread attitude very little can happen on the integration front. Chancellor Angela Merkel highlighted the problem by placing the blame squarely on immigrants by stating that Germany’s multicultural society has “utterly failed.” 

A new study by the interior ministry appears to reinforce what Merkel said in October. One of the result of the survey shows that 20% of Muslims in the country are skeptical when it comes to integration.

Fine. But the question should be what has Germany done to make Muslims feel a part of German society. Even the interior ministry survey is one-sided and places blame on Muslims for not wanting to integrate, it fails to look at the host society. 

While Hans-Peter Uhl, the parliamentary spokesman on domestic policy for Mekel’s conservatives, called the study “horrifying,” others take a different view. “I find it surprising that the interior ministry has once again used taxpayer money to finance a study that creates headlines but no insights,” said Serkan Tören, an integration expert for the business-friendly Free Democrats, Merkel’s junior coalition partner.

Volker Beck of the Green Party went further. She said that those that see Muslims solely as a threat should stop telling them that they aren’t a part of our society. “They shouldn’t be surprised when that leads to defensiveness,” she said. 

____________

By Charles Hawley

A new integration study released on Thursday has triggered yet another debate about the role of Islam in Germany. The report found that a surprising number of non-German Muslims are skeptical about integrating into society. But the country’s own doubts about immigration may have muddied the data.

Read whole story.