Racism Archives - Page 29 of 208

Do we want an openly Islamophobic prime minister that aims to exclude foreigners? I hope not!

Posted on January 26, 2022 by Migrant Tales

After the disastrous showing of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* in Sunday’s regional election, the far-right party aims to win next year’s parliamentary election and have its chairperson, Riikka Purra, as prime minister.

Good luck with that, especially after the big election setback.

Even if the regional election will turn out to be a watershed for the PS, why would Finland want to have a prime minister from a party that openly promotes and spreads racism?

In one of the debates, Purra went as far as to say that Finland should exclude foreigners from getting social welfare. While most people know this would be unconstitutional, none of the media reported the comment by Purra.

PS Chairperson states in a nutshell: “Shouldn’t we little by little start to believe that mixing people, religions and cultures in the West is SINGULARLY A GOOD MATTER? Mass migration from developing countries and hostile cultures IS A PROBLEM. Beheading is only one expression.”

The regional election result must have sent shivers up the PS’ spine. Near-fool proof campaign Islamohpbic and xenophobic themes did not help the party.

The National Coalition Party wins Finland’s first regional elections

Posted on January 24, 2022 by Migrant Tales

The National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) won Finland’s first regional elections after capturing 21.6% of the votes, according to Yle. Apart from the low 47.5% voter turnout, there were two big surprises: the good showing of the Center Party and the abysmal result by the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*.

During the past decade, much of the PS’ success hinges on Islamophobia and racist soundbites.

Even if the regional election was supposed to be about health care and emergency services, the PS campaigned on high petrol prices at the pumps and anti-Muslim racism.

The party’s poor showing is a big blow to Riikka Purra, her first as chairperson, and raises an important question of whterther the hostile racism of the party has finally lost its appeal among voters.

SDP leader Sanna Marin said that the good result of the Kokoomus, her party, and the Center Party marked a return to the ‘big three’ in Finnish politics after the PS’ good showing during the last decade.

“In my opinion the forecast shows that this election was a return of the big three and the return of traditional politics,” Marin was quoted as saying in Yle News.

Another factor contributing to the PS’s poor showing was Purra’s lack of charisma and racist talking points.

The National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) got 21.6% of the votes with the Social Democrats and Center Party getting 19.3% apiece, respectively. If the good showing of the Center Party was a surprise, so was the poor showing of the Perussuomalaiset, which captured a disappointing 11.1%. The second table is of the seats that each party won. Source: *Yle*

Mayday! Mayday! The Perussuomalaiset are sinking

Posted on January 20, 2022 by Migrant Tales

The recent poll on the regional elections shows eveals and exposes the far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, who suffered a 3.3 percentage point fall, as a one-issue party. The regional elections, which will be held on Sunday, will transfer power from municipalities to regional councils, which will manage health care and emergency services.

Sunday’s election appears to turn out as a disaster to the PS and a stinging blow to Rikka Purra, who is leading the party for the first time as chairperson.

The PS’ campaign has been deceptive by bringing up issues like gas prices at the pumps, immigration, development aid, or issues that regional councils do not have the power to change.

Moreover, Purra’s performance at debates has been disappointing, to say the least.

The PS campaign has been hit from all sides. Two firms, ST1 and Finnair, which the party used in its commercials are asking to refrain from using their logos or products.

When everything starts to fail and the popularity of the PS heads south, it’s clear that the party reverts to its old lifesaver: Muslim and migrant bashing with a strong odor of toxic nationalism.

In the PS mindset, it is time to turn on the racist ads like the one below.

**The claims that money is a value issue. “Three Somali migrants already cost the public sector annually more than hiring a nurse. How do you want your tax revenues spent?” Source: Twitter**

A stomach-churning ad, no?

Should the PS be charged for ethnic agitation again?

I think so.

The party with the most criminal charges: Perussuomalaiset candidates, who else?

Posted on January 12, 2022 by Migrant Tales

THE STORY WAS UPDATED

Guess which party has the highest number of candidates charged with a crime? Correct, the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*. According to Helsingin Sanomat, 6.3% (8.2% in the 2021 municipal elections) of PS candidates in January’s regional election have been charged for crimes during 2017-2021.

That was followed by the Left Alliance (3.0%/4.1%), Christian Democrats (2.2%/2.4%), National Coalition Party (2.1%/3.2%), Center Party (2.0%/2.5%), Social Democrats (1.2%/2.7%), Green League (0.8%/2.0%), and Swedish People’s Party (0.7%/2.1%).

Two one-MP parties, Power Belongs to the People (VKK) and Movement Now, had 6.1% and 7.4%, respectively, of their candidates in the regional election charged with a crime.

Apart from demonizing migrants, especially Muslims, the PS always finds ways to exclude Others.

Their latest prank is “Finns first.”

The Perussuomaliset campaigns for public services for everyone but claims that Finns should come first. When Pentti Karhunen, a candidate in Etelä-Savo was asked what he meant by “Finns,” he said anyone who has a Finnish citizenship. He was against offering services to unemployed foreigners. Source: Facebook

What the PS means by who is a Finn is a question for interpretation. Some PS politicians claim that even if a person becomes a naturalized Finn, he will never be a Finn.

The dehumanization and fear-mongering of people like Muslims explain the PS’ close ideological ties with a Nazi-spirited association called Suomen Sisu. At least five PS MPs are members of Suomen Sisu, which openly campaign for PS candidates.

A victory for free speech against the far-right and “racist clowns”

Posted on January 11, 2022 by Migrant Tales

Due process takes a long time in Finland as the landmark Johanna Vehkoo against far-right agitator Junnes Lokka, whom she called in a Facebook “a Nazi clown” and “a racist.” Surprisingly, a Rovaniemi appeal court upheld a prior Oulu district court ruling that Vehkoo had defamed Lokka.

Today’s ruling by the supreme court dismissed the prior ruling by the appeal and district courts.

“The supreme court ruling is important because members of Finland’s far-right and Islamophobic groups can also be criticized and fall under scrutiny. Moreover, the ruling reveals that some courts are not up to speed on racism and the threat of the far-right.”

Lokka’s case, if the supreme court had upheld the prior rulings, would have made it difficult to criticize politicians who use racism to advance their political aims.

While the Oulu appeal court ruled against Vehkoo because her comments were against Lokka’s person, the supreme court took a different view.

“In view of the derogatory and hostile statements made by Lokka in public, the terms used in the [Facebook post] text are not considered to have gone beyond what could be considered acceptable,” reported Yle News, citing the KKO stated in its judgment.

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The first anniversary of 1/6: A hammer blow to democracy, our democracy as well

Posted on January 6, 2022 by Migrant Tales

As we return to that horrible day of January 6, when former President Donald Trump supporters invaded the Capitol and whacked the foundations of US democracy, we should ask how much of a blow that infamous day was for our democracy in the EU and Finland.

The bad news is that matters in the US will get much worse before they improve. As everyone should know, racism, fear, and political greed by autocrats to the US’ growing diversity is at the heart of the January 6 violence.

**Insurrection? Coup attempt? Tour guide? Source: Washington Post**

Apart from racism, capitalism and the smell of money have enticed the country to flirt with a right-wing dictatorship.

Certainly, exceptionalism and the blindspot to enforce adequate checks and balances is one of the main culprits. It comes in the form of denial and burying your head deep in your colon.

Can the same happen in Europe, in Finland?

All we have to do is turn the clock back 89 years to the rise of Adolf Hitler and his vehemently anti-Semitic and racist government that led to a global war that killed tens of millions of people.

Like Hitler, Trump was also considered a joke. Few, during the 2016 presidential primaries, thought he could win the election.

Hitler’s fuel was the unfair Versaille Treaty, anti-Semitism, and racism. Scapegoating the blame on minorities paved the way to Nazi power.

The PS and its enablers are the wrecking balls of Finland’s social welfare democracy

Posted on January 3, 2022 by Migrant Tales

I can’t believe what you say, because I see what you do.

James Baldwin

If some scholars sound the alarm bells that democracy in the United States could turn into a right-wing dictatorship that has the potential of sparking a civil war. How should Finland prepare for such an eventuality?

Writes Thomas Homer-Dixon, a Canadian political scientist, in an Op-Ed: “By 2025, American democracy could collapse, causing extreme domestic political instability, including widespread civil violence. By 2030, if not sooner, the country could be governed by a right-wing dictatorship.”

The European think tank, among others, label the United States as a “backsliding democracy” in a new report.

While former US President Donald Trump has spread the big lie about the 2020 election that has turned the Republican Party into a personality cult, it is a different story in Finland even if the threat is the same.

While it should be clear that a party like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, which is eager to strip minorities of their human rights and relegate them to second- or third-class citizens, the party is the best example of Trumpism in Finland.

The PS has not made its admiration for Trump a secret. Former PS leader Jussi Halla-aho – like other PS politicians – do not hold back their admiration for Trump and his racist and autocratic political message.

**Jussi Halla-aho has backtracked on his 2019 claim that he digs Trump and is the best thing that has happened to the United States and to the West in a long time**. **Source: Twitter**

Like the United States, Finland has seen its society become ever-polarized thanks to the politics of the PS and its enablers, which undermine our Nordic political institutions. If Trump’s big lie is the “stolen” election, which Joe Biden won hands down, in Finland, it is immigration and other populist soundbites.

Bye-bye Inger Støjberg, something is not always rotten in Denmark

Posted on December 14, 2021 by Migrant Tales

Former Danish immigration and integration minister, Inger Støjberg, was convicted to 60 days in prison for illegally separating asylum-seeking couples if the partner was under 18, reports Euronews. An uncompromising Islamophobic hardliner who served as minister during 2005-2019 was also responsible for passing a law that required asylum seekers to hand over valuables like jewelry to pay for their stays in Denmark.

The impeachment court, which had not convened for 26 years, found Inger Støjberg guilty of providing parliament with “incorrect and misleading information and that she had neglected her ministerial duties >”intentionally or through gross negligence.”

Apart from her conviction, parliament will decide whether she can continue to serve as an MP.

Maintaining her innocence and thanking her supporters, Støjberg was quoted as saying on Facebook that the ruling was a blow to Danish values.

**Inger Støjberg. Source: Bashy Quraishy’s Facebook.**

Apart from other harsh laws against asylum seekers, Støjberg ended up in legal hot water when she initiated a policy of separating under-eighteen-year-olds from their partners on suspicion of forced marriages.

A trail of xenophobic and far-right violence in Finland and yet no suspects

Posted on December 6, 2021 by Migrant Tales

The detention of five far-right terrorist suspects in the western Finnish city of Kankaanpää Friday raises many questions. One of these is the collaboration of this group and others in the burning down of an asylum reception center in December 2015.

The asylum reception center in Kankaanpää wasn’t the only one that suffered arson attacks.

Former Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP, Ano Turtiainen, was convicted in 2018 for inciting violence against the Finnish Red Cross, which manages many asylum reception centers. The conviction has its roots in a 2015 Facebook post “liked” by PS MEP Laura Huhtasaari.

If we connect the dots and start asking the right questions about what happened from 2015, the answers we may get can be revealing exposing strange and not-so-strange bedfellows.

Moreover, it would be wishful and careless thinking to believe that the terrorist suspects in Kankaanpää acted alone and were totally detached from society.

Mihai Varga hit it right on the dot: “The main agents of ideological violence are not isolated ‘lone wolves’ but are usually interconnected with communities, non-violent agents and legal entities, at times even including connections to law enforcement personnel.”

For those who don’t remember, a building going to house asylum seekers was set alight was burned down in December 2015 in Niinisalo, located a stone’s throw from Kankaanpää. Perussuomalaiset MP Juho Mäenpää, elected to parliament in 2019 but a member of the Nazi-spirited Suomen Sisu association, claimed jubilantly back then after the arson attack: “Great. There is a god. My prayers have been answered.”

Five white Finns arrested on suspected terrorism charges

Posted on December 3, 2021 by Migrant Tales

Five white Finns born between 1995 and 1998 were arrested Tuesday by the police on suspected terrorism charges, according to Pori-based daily Satakunnan Kansa. The five suspects are from the Western Finnish region of Kankaanpää.

The police did not call the suspects white Finns but stated that they had “ethnic Finnish names.”

The police and the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service (Supo) will hold a press conference at 6 pm to release more details like the detention of the suspects and the danger they posed to the public.

Tweet #1: “Police of southwestern Finland arrest five people suspected of terrorist offenses. The Satakunta District Court will decide on the matter today.” Tweet #2: “The police suspects that the individuals planned a terrorist act. There is no acute danger. The suspects live in the Kankaanpää region of Satakunta. Police arrested the suspects on Tuesday. Police will comment further at the media conference tonight.”