Tag: Perussuomalaiset

Abde Hussein shows there is more than one way to put racism on the defensive

Posted on by Migrant Tales

There’s more than one way to put intolerance on the defensive. Abde Hussein wrote on Thursday an encounter he had with a young unemployed white Finn, who said in public that he was a “monkey” and “living off welfare.” A discussion ensued but to make a long story short, the young white Finn turned out to be the monkey (no insult intended to these primates).  

Without getting hot under the collar, Hussein turned the insults hurled at him against the young man, who was ignorant of Finnish grammar, unemployed and living off welfare.

The encounter, published on Abde Hussein’s Facebook wall, has attracted over 9,440 “likes” and 1,565 votes.

Just like Ricky Ghansah’s encounter with a racist, who insulted him at a bus stop but forced him to apologize in public after paying his bus ticket, Hussein’s posting shows that we can beat the crude racists at their own game.

If there were a school to learn how a social ill like intolerance happens in our society, Ghansah’s and Hussein’s cases would be discussed in the elementary course.

Exposing intolerance in the intermediate and advanced levels of the course, however, would be more complicated.

At the advanced level, you’d study institutional racism, politicians, public officials and common people expressing their intolerance but in such a way that it is difficult to make out. At this level you learn that intolerance exists because there is a system that is maintained by our prejudices and fear of losing power and privilege.

Kuvankaappaus 2013-9-29 kello 9.02.38

 

This post on Abde Hussein’s Facebook wall had over 9,440 “likes” on Sunday.

Just like social media brought some Perussuomalaiset (PS) politicians  to the attention of the media and public before the 2011 parliamentary elections, we can beat intolerance with the same tools.

While there may be many ways  to beat a social ill at its own game, silence is one method we should avoid at all costs.

If financial market suffer from bursting bubbles, like we saw with the Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy of 2008, so do political bubbles fed by xenophobia, anti-immigration and populism.

Political bubbles burst when we discover they are based on the opportunistic hype of politicians.

Hussein’s posting encourages us to believe that Finland’s darkest period in modern times isn’t invincible.

Thank you Amir Hassan for the heads-up.

Why doesn’t Timo Soini make a clear split with its PS racists? Answer: political hara-kiri

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Columnist Yrjö Rautio of Apu magazine writes that if Perussuomalaiset (PS) chairman Timo Soini doesn’t make a clear split with PS MP racists like Jussi Halla-aho and his followers, the party should make official that it supports the following values: “paranoia, hatred and human evil.” 

Kuvankaappaus 2013-9-28 kello 12.06.43

Read full story (in Finnish) here.

Rautio makes a valid point. The real question, I believe, is why Soini hasn’t rid its party of its racists, especially those that have been sentenced for ethnic agitation.

The answer to the latter question is self-evident and clear: The PS would commit political hara-kiri if it rid its party of its racists.

We all know that intolerance is learned and based on ignorance, lies and prejudice.

Another PS MP, James Hirvisaari, who was convicted for ethnic agitation like Halla-aho, posts a story written by Aalto University lecturer Kyösti Tarvainen. He’s the person, who using a pocket calculator, predicted that the Muslims would become a majority in Finland due to their high birth rates.

Since many of these type of arguments are exaggerated lies whose aim is to fuel hatred against certain groups like Muslims, it’s not clear when Tarvainen posted the blog entry. Hirvisaari doesn’t give us a clue either because his aim may be to show something that was written last year is still topical and new.

Tarvainen expressed concern in February 2011 by sending an email to prominent Green Party politicians protesting Hussein Muhammed’s candidacy. He said that the Greens have made a mistake by allowing Muslims to stand as candidates in the Green Party.

Just because a person has a PhD or is a lecturer at a university doesn’t mean that he doesn’t house racist ideas.

If you disagree, check out the academics that were member of the Nazi party and SS.

 

 

Saving one life, one refugee from Syria, IS important

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Arguing that accepting a few hundred refugees from Syria is not important because it is a drop in the bucket, is an outrageous statement made by Jussi Halla-aho, Vesa-Matti Saarakkala and others. The other point they are trying to drive home, that these people will be a burden on Finland, exposes their loathing and ignorance.

How many refugees can you name in history that fled to other countries and became model members of their new home countries? One of these was Albert Einstein, who fled Nazi Germany, a racist regime that rose to power by scapegoating minorities like Jews.

The argument, that refugees are a burden, is an insult to all the refugees of the world. Only an extreme egoist, who lacks feelings for the suffering of others, can make such a point.

These types of intolerant arguments are the same as those made constantly by anti-immigration and far-right politicians to drive home their point.

If you dissect their arguments, they are nothing more than typical anti-immigration sound bites spread with the help of the Finnish media, which gives them inflated respectability and importance.

Using such arguments to influence refugee and immigration policy, we could similarly ask why did Raoul Wallenberg or Oscar Schindler save tens of thousands of Jews if millions were murdered in Nazi concentration camps?

Stating that saving lives is futile because there are so many and makes no difference is similar to a racist trying to convince you that it is useless to oppose intolerance because nothing can be done.

If you accept that ludicrous argument, you have lost the war.

Saving one person is valuable and important.

If you disagree, why not ask the victims fleeing war and death.

PS MP Jussi Halla-aho put on the hot chair after his ridiculous arguments against Syrian refugees are exposed

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Jussi Halla-aho was put on the hot chair on A-Studio, when he was asked about his and PS MP Vesa-Matti Saarakkala’s written question to parliament opposing government plans to give asylum to 500 refugees from Syria. 

A good question to ask is why accepting 500 refugees from Syria is in the national spotlight? Sweden plans to accept around 16,000 Syrian refugees. Moreover, why do we give airtime to an MP who has been convicted for ethnic agitation? Why are Halla-aho’s anti-immigration views important?

If we had answers to these questions, we’d understand the nature of the xenophobic beast that has inflicted Finland.

Kuvankaappaus 2013-9-26 kello 1.06.47

Halla-aho and his band of PS anti-immigration followers have gotten this far in their political careers thanks to journalists and officials who have done little to nothing to question their inflated exaggerations and outright xenophobia.

Finnish Red Cross manager Kalle Löövi showed that we don’t need to sit back in silence and can question and expose Halla-aho’s ideas.  He calmly but firmly told Halla-aho that his stance was wrong and said that Finland was accepting 500 needy refugees that are in danger of dying.

And  what’s wrong with helping people fleeing war? We should be proud that our country has the opportunity to help others who may repay us one day in kind.

Arguing that accepting a few hundred refugees doesn’t mean anything is probably the most outrageous statement made by Halla-aho and Saarakkala. Saving one person from a terrible conflict like in Syria is valuable and important.

Why then does Halla-aho oppose bringing Syrian refugees to Finland?

If we uncover the red herrings, the real reason lies in the fact that Halla-aho loathes Muslims, is vehemently against cultural diversity and is running for Euro MP.

 

How Syrian refugees fleeing war show how the Finnish media gives (again) racists inflated respectability and importance

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales published a while back a story about how the media gives racists and radical anti-immigration groups inflated respectability and importance. Why should we care what a Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP like Jussi Halla-aho, who was on top of it convicted for ethnic agitation, thinks about giving asylum to Syrian refugees? 

Kuvankaappaus 2013-9-19 kello 20.41.58

Verkkouutiset is run by the National Coalition Party. Read full story here.

Why should the media care if another PS MP like James Hirvisaari, who was convicted for ethnic agitation as well, is “forced” to resigns from an extremist association like Suomen Sisu but supports a far right and racist group like the Finnish Defense League?

And what would you say about PS MP Vesa-Matti Saarakkala, who has sent a written question to parliament about the government’s plan to give asylum to a few hundred refugees from Syria?

Certainly all of the above have some newsworthiness. The PS is an anti-immigration, anti-Islam and anti-gay party. MPs like Halla-aho, Hirvisaari and Saarakkala, who are the most vociferous opponents of cultural diversity, are expressing their opposition to government policy, which is already pretty thin to begin with when it comes to Syrian refugees.

Here’s the question we should probably ponder: How is it possible that a country like Finland, which knows too well what the suffering of war and refugees are, is doing so little to help refugees fleeing a country that is suffering one of the worst sectarian bloodbaths in modern history?

Folks, we’re talking about granting a few hundred Syrian refugees asylum to our country, while our neighbor Sweden, has already given permanent residency to half of the Syrian refugees and announced it will give 8,000 more residency. 

Is the “news” Halla-aho’s or Saarakkala’s lowly opinions of refugees, or that Sweden is giving thousands resident permits to Syrians while we’re having a philosophical discussion about why we should even let in a few hundred?

Why isn’t there anything written by Ilkka or Verkkouutiset that compares our response to the Syrian refugees question with Sweden’s?Aren’t we always competing against our eternal rival in the west in almost everything?

True, Finland’s worst rivals are Sweden. But we don’t compete in some areas that really count and are important, like giving shelter to those fleeing war.

In that match, Finland gets romped every time 6-0 against Sweden.

 

 

 

 

 

Government talks in Norway are a preview of what may happen in Finland in 2015 with the PS

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Take a close look at Norway if you want to see what may happen in Finland after the 2015 parliamentary elections, when the right-wing populist Perussuomalaiset (PS) may be in government.The populist anti-immigration Progress party (FrP) of Norway will form part of a coalition government with the Conservative Party (Høyre), Christian Democrats and Liberals.

If the Conservative Party can accept to govern with a party that used to have mass killer Anders Breivik as a member, certainly the Center Party of Finland, if it wins the next parliamentary elections, won’t have any problems governing with the PS, even if some of its members have been sentenced for ethnic agitation.

Kuvankaappaus 2013-9-17 kello 12.03.41

Read full story here.

Parties like the FrP, PS, Danish People’s Party, Sweden Democrats and other of the Nordic region, which are anti-EU, anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam, are a good example of the intolerance and racism that has creeped into Nordic politics.

How do these parties work and what is their role in strengthening intolerance and institutional racism in their respective countries? They function as watchdogs gaining our attention, even our sympathies, with the help of fear-mongering and spreading intolerance thanks to our prejudices.

Their strategy is simple: The best way of maintaing things as they are is not to challenge or question anything. If in doubt, blame the immigrant or minority x.

Eyeing power, it’s natural that parties like the FrP want to sound sensible just before the formation of a new government.

A good way of finding out the real issues and cut through the snow job is to watch closely what politicians deny and, most importantly, what they don’t say.

The new incoming Norwegian prime minister, Erna Solberg, claims in an interview with The Local that the FrP ”is not a xenophobic party.”

She continues: ”…Parts of the immigration policy they [FrP] are pushing for have already been implemented elsewhere in the Nordic region.”

Solberg doesn’t elaborate but let’s get it straight from the FrP party leader’s mouth, Siv Jensen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWkIL41HQ40&feature=player_embedded#t=0

Apart from playing down the FrP’s anti-immigration and anti-Islam stances, one of the most incredible things I hears Jensen say in another interview with The Local  was that she was against Norwegian immigration policy, not immigrants.

According to political editor Martine Aurdal of the daily Dagbldet, who is Jensen’s biographer, claimed that after 22/7, when Breivik killed   77 people, the leader of the FrP has left out more extreme rhetoric from her speech.

Why?

Because it sounds awkward especially after what Breivik did and certainly doesn’t win you over votes.

So what’s the lesson we can learn from all this?

Attitudes and xenophobia remain intact. The only matter that changes is the message.

Former Perussuomalaiset councilman convicted for ethnic agitation shows no remorse

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Who can forget Black February 2012, when three Muslims lost their lives in a span of about three weeks in January-February? The last one, which was horrific, ended with the cold-blooded killing of a Muslim at a pizzeria in Oulu. A former Perussuomlaiset (PS) councilman wrote on Facebook that a medal should be awarded to a Finn called Janne for shooting and killing one of the victims. 

The former PS councilman from Köyliö, Tommi Rautio, was sentenced in December and fined 120 euros by a Satakunta regional court for ethnic agitation.

He was sacked from the party in March and not reelected in October to city council. He got nine votes.

National Coalition Party Helsinki politician Ossi Mäntylähti was responsible for bringing Rautio’s comments to national media attention. Migrant Tales was also present in informing the immigrant community and foreign media, of which Boris Peltonen of Germany daily Die Welt got in touch with Mäntylahti and Migrant Tales.

Read Die Welt story (in German) here.

Rautio resurfaces Sunday on Mäntylahti’s Facebook thread. He explains all of the things he lost after his conviction but nowhere does he express any remorse for what he wrote.

Kuvankaappaus 2013-9-15 kello 12.20.33

Go to Ossi Mäntylahti’s Facebook page here.

He claims that what happened to him was Mäntylahti’s fault because he was provoked. After his conviction, Rautio claims he lost all of his friends, relationships, job and source of livelihood.

Rautio claimed in court that what he wrote about giving a medal to Janne was done ironically.

This is what he wrote after the killing in February:

”If Janne is the one [who shot the foreigners at the pizzeria] then we should give Janne a medal…if not Ossi [Mäntylahti] there is already a war going on and in every war [soldiers] are decorated.”

If you visit Rautio’s Facebook page, you’ll find Islamophobic postings and groups.

This week, the Youth League of the National Coalition Party published its 2014 program, where it suggests, among other things, scrapping ethnic agitation laws in Finland.

If ethnic agitation laws were scrapped, Rautio would not have been convicted for hate speech.

The Finnish and European media still have a lot to learn about racism and intolerance

Posted on by Migrant Tales

One matter that is interesting to note when looking at the media before the historic victory of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party in April 2011, is the present controversy surrounding the Youth League of the National Coalition Party’s program. Is the media giving racists, radical anti-immigration groups and voices inflated respectability and importance?

The whole Susanna Koski affair is a case and point. Like poking an angry beehive, there is initial shock that soon subsides after the stings don’t hurt because we’re wearing protective clothing. Our protective clothing to the far right and anti-immigration message of the National Coalition Party’s youth wing program appeared like a knee-jerk reaction, which subsided thanks in part to our prejudice.

In other words, the program of the National Coalition Party’s youth league started to sink in.

Why is the Finnish media swept off its feet and dazzled so often by intolerance, racism and nationalism? Our media has been so generous in the past to these social ills that it was in part responsible for the rise of the PS and the election of a number of far right MPs like Jussi Halla-aho and James Hirvisaari, both sentenced for ethnic agitation.

Migrant Tales published recently a story where it looked at how the Finnish media gave inflated respectability and importance to racists in this country. This is nothing new in Europe. It happened in Britain about thirty years ago and is happening here in Finland right now before our eyes.

Below are some of  obvious symptoms when the media writes about cultural diversity:

  • White sources are always used as authorities when immigrants and minorities are concerned
  • Editors of Finland’s main dailies are white
  • Immigrant and visible minority voices are rarely if ever permitted to make their case
  • Rarely if ever do editors ask if whites are the source of the”immigrant problem”
  • We give inflated respectability and importance to racists because they mirror our attitudes
  • In Finland, the stronger racism became, the more airtime it gets
  • The rise of racism in our society and our coverage of it reveals how unbalanced and uncritical our media is
  • When it comes to fighting racism, the media are part of the problem

Another important point I would like to add to the list above is conflict of interest. People who are card-carrying members of a political party write and promote their views in the national media.

A good example is columnist Tuomas Enbuske, who is a Helsingin Sanomat columnist and hosts a popular television talk show. He interviewed this week Koski, and gave the youth leader of the National Coalition Party a platform to spread her neoliberal and racist points of view.

Embuske had advertised on Uusi Suomi that he is a member of the National Coalition Party.

No, the show hosted by Enbuske was not outraged by what Koski suggested, that the Ombudsman for Minorities office and laws that govern ethnic agitation should be scrapped.  Why? Because all of them are white.

In my opinion, the Youth League of the National Coalition Party’s program to scrap ethnic agitation laws have the potential to unleash the same hate as the Nuremberg Laws did in 1935 against the Jews.

If the Finnish media wants to bolster its credibility, it should look at dailies like The Guardian. Possibly then our embattled media, which is the victim of Finland’s growing nationalism and intolerance, can start to gain more credibility in the eyes of the public.

It’s odd but those that want to change radically our country, like the Youth League of the National Coalition Party and others, believe that we can “debate” matters like more intolerance. To put it in a white Finnish perspective, can we “debate” watering down women’s rights, lower pay and further sexism?

Can we “debate” greater approval of human rights violations?

I doubt it.

Our Nordic social welfare state has made remarkable gains in the areas of social equality. We should defend these rights instead of “debate” how to further and make social inequality more acceptable.

A media that is critical and independent has a very important role to play in Finland and the rest of Europe today as far right and ultra nationalistic voices gain momentum.

Those voices of intolerance, which never give you any effective solutions except for scapegoating, are the real threat to Europe together with rising social inequality and poverty.

The media plays a crucial role in being the critical watchdog of our democratic system.

Without it we’re doomed.

Susanna Koski and the National Coalition Party’s youth wing: The language of barbarians

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The more I think about the proposals put forth by the president of the Youth League of the National Coalition Party, Susanna Koski, the more I wonder where this country is heading. Would her suggestion to scrap the Ombudsman for Minorities and laws that govern ethnic agitation constitute barbarism?

Even if barbarians are considered “uncivilized,” in this day of age a person can be simultaneously so-called civilized and barbaric.

The Center Party newspaper Suomenmaa quoted the party’s youth league president, Jirka Hakala, as saying that “the fascist world view [of the Youth League of the National Coalition Party] shouldn’t get a foothold in Finnish politics.”

Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Jussi Halla-aho, who was convicted for ethnic agitation, says he will draft a law to scrap Finland’s hate speech laws, according to MTV3.

Green Party Helsinki politician Husein Muhammed makes it clear to Koski on his Facebook page that ethnic agitation in Finland is permitted.

Because Koski’s and the National Coalition Party’s youth league suggestions lack refinement, education and are based on ignorant greed with a heavy drop of narcism, could we claim that some of their proposals are barbaric?

What would happen if Finland did away with the Ombudsman for Minorities and ethnic agitation laws? Would it unleash a tide of racist hostility, awaken the primitive barbaric spirit of hate and survival, against all those that are different from Koski and members of the Youth League of the National Coalition Party?

Some of the proposals put forth by the National Coalition Party’s youth wing are barbaric because they would bolster and reinforce our prejudice, discrimination and outright hostility to people who are different from us.

Isn’t that type of behavior barbaric?

 

 

 

Youth League of the National Coalition Party sees no evil in hate speech

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The president of the Youth League of the National Coalition Party, Susanna Koski, surprised even members of her party Monday by proposing, among a long list of other things, that the Ombudsman for Minorities office should be scrapped together with the quota refugee program and ethnic agitation law. 

The proposals for 2014 by the National Coalition Party’s youth wing have been strongly condemned by the party’s secretary, Taru Tujunen, who considered them “absurd.”

“I don’t understand at all why Finland should accept for example racism,” she was quoted as saying on YLE. “I’m strongly against this and the National Coalition Party denounces in full these types of proposals [by the Youth League of the National Coalition Party].”

National Coalition Party veteran MP Ilkka Kanerva said on A-studio that proposals to do away with the ethnic agitation law made far right anti-immigration PS MP Jussi Halla-aho look like “an amateur.”

“These views by the Youth League of the National Coalition Party are from another planet,” he said.

Kuvankaappaus 2013-9-10 kello 0.21.39

Read full story (in Finnish) here.

When asked by Nelonen why Koski wanted to scrap the ethnic agitation law, her answer took on the surreal. She defended the youth wing’s position by claiming that “people should be seen as individuals” and therefore there shouldn’t be laws against ethnic agitation.

Right, Koski, Finns are a group but other ethnic groups aren’t in this country.

What the head of the Youth League of the National Coalition Party is saying is that we don’t want to deal with our ever-growing cultural diversity.

Using the same arguments commonly used by far right PS MP James Hirvisaari, Koski asked why it’s ok to make fun of some religions but not of others.

While the 150 proposals put forth by the National Coalition Party’s youth wing would rapidly turn Finland into a U.S. American dog-eat-dog society where money is king, some of the proposals made by the group are racist and xenophobic and in line with what the most far right representatives of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party.

The youth wings of the PS and National Coalition Party have lobbied to demote the Swedish language to elective status at schools.

PS MP Olli Immonen, who is the chairman of the far right Suomen Sisu association that aims to keep Finland white, has suggested as well scrapping the Ombudsman for Minorities office, do away with foreign aid, the quota refugee system and ethnic agitation law.

The question we should ask is if the opinions of the Youth League of the National Coalition Party stray from what other mainstream parties think about racism and cultural diversity. Does it imply that xenophobia and racism are becoming more acceptable in this country?

This is not the first time that the National Coalition Party’s youth wing has created waves within and outside of the party.

It’s former chairman Wille Rydman was forced to resign as chairman last year for his strong anti-immigration stance.

Saul Schubak, the former vice chairman of the National Coalition Party’s youth wing, was forced to resign last year when he wrote on Facebook that people who aren’t fit to parent should not receive child allowances.