I’m always surprised by the aha moment of the mainstream media when it comes to the hostile and polarizing message of the Perussuomalaiset (PS).* After PS Interior Minister Mari Rantanen was caught with her hand in the cookie jar by attempting to favor Christians over Muslims in the quota-refugee scheme, Finland’s biggest daily reported that between 2015-2022 the PS led all other parties by a long shot by addressing in parliament the term Islam.
Of the 199 times Islam was addressed in a parliamentary session, the PS brought it up 66.3% of the total followed by the Christian Democrats, which mentioned it 7.5% of the total.
Another favorite terms of the PS are “Muslim,” “Africa” and “Somalia,” which were brought up by the party 58.9%, 95.3% and 61.7% of the total, respectively.
Is it surprising that the non-discrimination ombudswoman findings on discrimination of Muslims over Christians in the quota refugees slammed the PS as “openly Islamophobic?”
The Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party is known for its hostility and attacks against migrants and minorities as well as anyone who dares call them what they are: a party that peddles racism. In a statement Thursday, the non-discrimination ombudsman, said that the actions of PS Minister of Interior Mari Rantanen were discriminatory when the ministry attempted to favor Christians over Muslims in the quota-refugee scheme.
Non-Discrimination Ombudswoman Kristina Stenman defended the work of her orgnization in Helsingin Sanomat for not only calling out the discriminatory actions of the interior ministry but calling the PS “openly Islamophobic.”
Defending her use of Islamophobia to describe the PS, she said that the party’s immigration policy program states that the present refugee quota system based on the work of the UNHCR “can be phased out, with persecuted Christians and other groups with [so-called] positive integration prospects being slected for the quota.”
Moreover, the party’s program also says that “many of the problems of integration in Finland are linked to the Islamic cultural influence.”
As a result of the report, the PS leadership has gone into their customery victim mode by stating that the statement by the non-discrimination ombudsman was “a shocking attack,” according to Helsingin Sanomat.
Stenman said that the ombudsman report is not an attack against the PS.
Interior Minister Mari Rantanen’s and the party’s views of Muslims and other racialized migrants is well documented.
In an Interview with the tabloid Iltalehtiin 2023, PS chairperson Riikka Purra acknowledged that she aims for zero asylum seekers, like Denmark, from Muslim countries. Speaker of parliament, Jussi Halla-aho, who was convicted for ethnic agitation in 2012, has repeated the same aim.
European leaders appear shocked about US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in Ukraine. He did so in a call with Vladimir Putin and by echoing Russia’s priorities: no Nato membership, and Ukraine will lose control of the eastern part of the country and Crimea, and reducing its presence in Europe.
Trump, who admires dictators like Putin, made these conditions without notifying the EU never mind Ukraine.
As Europe awakens from its initial shock, Europe has only itself to blame for not shielding itself against the Trump menace spreading globally in the form of turning Canada into the 51st state, taking over Greenland and the Panama Canal, and its infamous Gaza plan to ethnically cleanse million and turn it into a “Riviera.”
While all of these measures are a sign of nationalist exceptionalism, in truth they are a sign of weakness. Trump will end up destroying the US in the same way as he bankrupted almost all of his companies.
His re-election is a sign of the deep-seated corruption in the US and how it has gotten the upper hand through the likes of billionares like Elon Musk. Anti-trust regulators are toothless and it shows!
Dispair is not the way to beat this cancer.
We must fight on and use any means available to stop the destruction of our democracy and way of life.
Prime Minister Petter Orpo’s and Alexander Stubb’s response to what is happening globally ensures that the Trump administration stands a good chance of succeeding.
How does Finland look after all of its tough talk against Russia?
It looks vulnerable. Trump does not care he wants to be on top with everyone looking like a horse’s ass.
With the Örbero mass shooting, the worst in Sweden overtaken now by time and denial, a question remains: Who speaks up for migrants or New Swedes? The sad truth is few if any. What is even sader the silence has grown and is defeaning.
In a brilliant column, Mehdi Hasan writes about how DEI, which stands for diversity, equity and inclusion, and how the concept has been used to replace the n-word. “Today, more than four decades later, DEI has become the new n-word; the new rightwing abstraction deployed by Republicans to conceal their anti-black racism.”
In Finland too, DEI has been used by the likes of the xenophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* to mean anti-immigration and anti-migrant.
Silence is another racial slur that means approval of the existing order and institutions that oppress non-white people.
When a white person kills he is usually seen as a lone wolf. Behold if the killer is a Muslim or a racialized minority.
Apart from labelling racialized people and migrants, we are faced with the same issue: Let’s say as little as possible good things about migrants and minorities. Let’s speak in code and call them “asylum seekers.” You don’t even have to use the n-word anymore since everybody understands what your malicious labelling means.
Migrant Tales insight:I stumbled upon this posting published over twelve years ago. I reposted it because it shows the fuel that I have used to push the blog ahead. Finland is a very different country than it was in 2012. We are slowly but surely awakening to the fact that racism is a dangerous social ill that robs us of our potential.
I write about racism and social exclusion in Finland because it affects me and those I care about. I should know because I used to live marginalized from this society for decades.
I didn’t live marginalized because I was maladapted. I was marginalized because I was well-adapted.
Too many didn’t consider me a “real” Finn for a number of reasons. Was it because I wasn’t white enough or was it because the name I carried made me stick out ethnically like a sore thumb?
But what could I have done in 1978, when I moved back permanently to this country? There were so few immigrants never mind people of my ethnic background that you were culturally and ethnically unimportant and out of the loop.
It is a paradox, but the very matters that I loved and admired the most about this country back then were the very things that marginalized and excluded me from this society.
The prototype Finn is a case in point. This social construct of the so-called model Finn that was taught and reinforced in the last century is being challenged as our society becomes more culturally diverse.
Finnish society’s lack of inclusiveness was and still is the main obstacle to equal integration and acceptance.
If you want to find where racism grows its roots in this society, you will find it in the arguments that some white Finns use to exclude you from society. If you want to challenge Finnish racism, the best place to begin is to contest the arguments and actions that reinforce white Finnish exclusiveness.
I write a lot about racism and social exclusion on Migrant Tales. I write about this topic because Finland is my home and because I want a better future for visible and invisible minorities. In cultural diversity we will find strength.
I am grateful that I have found such a platform and opportunity to be a part of an ever-growing national debate and social movement that aims to make our society inclusive to all groups.
Watching political events in the United States and the Donald Trump’s inauguration as the US’ 47th president, brought despair and forced me to dig deep for hopeand consolation. One of the matters that I will never forget is the last military dictatorship (1976-83) of Rafael Videla in Argentina.
His stranglehold over the country was near-complete. But then the years revealed his weakness: the first indication of his decline and loss of power when he believed he was invincible.
You don’t need an army are weapons of mass destruction to defeat your foe. There are many, many example below of people that ignited a spike at the right place and right time to begin a social movement. Trump, therefore, looks like a president in decline.
The list below is not complete of some who challenged a system and won with their bravery and suffering.
On the first of December 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give her seat on a bus to a white passenger. That moment of defiance was one of the sparks of the Civil Rights Movement.
Dedication and a love for freedom turned Harriet Tubman into ray of hope for many black slaves.
The Cuban Revolution is one of the best examples of being at the right place at the right time. It proved that you don’t need an army to defeat a large organized and corrupt army.
Even if Sacco and Vanzetti were falsely executed by the electric chair in 1927, they are still fondly rememberd. Their only crime was that they were anarchists. Their death led to protests around the world.
The October 17, 1945 demonstration, which freed Juan Domingo Perón from detention, showed a remarkable event where his charistmatic wife, Evita Perón, rallied the masses and changed history.
Twenty-eight years ago I wrote in a Finland Bridge column about the greying of Finland. Even if Finland has the third-oldest population in the world after Japan and Italy. Has anything changed since 1997 and what are the solutions to our demographic woes?
Some far-fetched solutions I suggested back then was to raise the retirement age to over seventy and to cut pension benefits to near-starvation levels.
Isn’t that were we are heading?
The fact that Finland has opposed migration and cultural diversity tooth and nail, means that today we have one of the smallest migrant populations in the world, according to MoveHub. It’s clear that we are paying a high price economically and socially for doing nothing, or very little, to invite migrants to the country.
I wrote in the column that “turning Finland into a gerontrocracy will not benefit anyone. It will signify the demise of this nation.”
Setting aside our propensity to scapegoat migrants, especially Muslims and those from outside the EU, we have to rethink who we are and foster a new sense of citizenship and inclusion.
Here are my suggestions for an about-turn in citizenship and inclusion:
“Being” Finnish means being from a multitude of ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
Since all ethnic groups in Finland have a history, we must remove the whitewash they have undergone.
Teach anti-racism from comprehensive school.
Teach children not to hate and that difference is normal.
Draft new laws recommended by the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) to tackle social ills like racism and hate speech.
More studies are needed on racism and Islamophobia in particular.
Mainstream media should use minorities in stories about them.
Promote cultural and ethnic diversity in civil servant jobs, like the police, in a concerted effort to dismantle institutional racism.
Racism is a crime that and is punishabe by law. It is a shameful act.
Parties that promote racism, like the Perussuomalaiset,* and whose members have ethnic agitation convictions should be prohibited from holding office.
Do you like to sare some suggestions to the above?
Instead of seeing a reversal in Islamophobia in the European Union, we see the opposite. The European Islamophobia Report 2023 states “how anti-Muslim racism manifests through systemic discrimination, political rhetoric, media narratives, and societal attitudes, exacerbated by geopolitical events such as the Gaza conflict.”
One of the key findings of the report are the denial, recognition and solution to the rise of Islamophobia.
In Finland, the new government of Prime Miister Petteri Orpo with the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* has normalized racism in general and anti-Muslim racism in particular. I wrote: “…because of the 180-degree turn in immigration policy. The government’s policies and assurances have failed to reduce the climate of hostility towards migrants and minorities, which is likely to continue to grow.”
White fragility is a defensive action, whereby white people react violently and defensively whenever racism is brought up. The aim of such hostility is to make the person bringing up the topic so attacked that he or she will not dare bring up the subject ever again.
Finance Minister Riikka Purra and Jussi Halla-aho of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, an anti-immigration party, often write and speak in a demeaning manner about migrants and minorities. Do their postings ever get old? They don’t. They are always there ready to release their toxicity.
THE POSTING WAS UPDATED
White fragility is a kneejerk reaction to instill fear and shut the mouths of racialized people. As an antiracist activit, one must be strong and not be intimidated by such hostility. Even if the concept of white fragility was coined by Robin Diangelo to expose racism in the US, it applies to Finland as well.
In a 2008 poting, Finance Minister and head of the PS Riikka Purra wrote with the pseudonym “riikka,” wrote: “If you gave me a weapon, [youth with migrant background] corpses would appear on a commuter train, you see.” Source: European Islamophobic Report 2023.
Engaging in conversations about racism may trigger a range of defensive reactions, feelings, and behaviors, such as hostile anger, fear, and silence. Finland is no different.
UPDATE: After I had mentioned to councilperson Tanja Hartonen that her past writings revealed how she voted to give money to the Crisis Center as opposed to multicultural association Mimosa, she exploded and started yelling at me stating a number of times what I wrote about her was “outrageous.” She said at the time she could have pressed charges for defamation.
Was her reaction appropriate and becoming of a member of a city council committee?
She was so riled up that I couldn’t utter a word, never mind falsely accusing me of of calling her a racist.
Note: I did not mention her problematic blog post on Uusi Suomi, she did, and it would have been a travesty if she could press charges successfully for writing such trash that was taken down by the moderators.
Below, is a post by Tanja Hartonen, today a Mikkeli Center Party councilperson who was originally a member of the Social Democratic Party and then became a member of the PS.
Below is a blog post that Hartonen wrote in 2014 that resurfaced by her in December at a Mikkeli city committee meeting. Hartonen’s posting back then was so toxic that it was taken down by the Uusi Suomi moderators.
Even if she attempted to playdown the posting by stating it was written a long time ago and that she was planning back then to charge me with defamation, does such a post ever get old?
At the time of her posting, Hartonen was eyeing the 2015 general election and certainly wanted more fuel for her campaign by spreading anti-immigration rhetoric. At the time I was also worried for four Muslim teenagers who moved at the time to Mäntyharju as quota refugees.
Below is the original 2014 posting by Hartonen that was picked up by Migrant Tales.
Writes Hartonen: “Soon Finland won’t look like Finland anymore, or Finns at this rate. At this rate, we’ll become a minority in our own country.Cultural enrichment (what a term!) is in some people’s opinion a good thing? Oh in order to make Finns more sociable? What’s wrong with our culture anyway? If somebody doesn’t speak or kiss you, that’s how things are.“
Racism is like a Cadillac, they bring out a new model every year.
Malcolm X
Few these days deny that Finland has a racism problem against Muslims, people of color and Third Worlders, the Romany and Russian-speaking minority, the third largest after Finnish and Swedish speakers. The serious student of society does not only look at the surface of news but what is behind it.
The denial of racism by some sectors of Finnish society are one salient issue we can look behind the news. If racism and prejudice are ever-present, how does the media, politicians and society play down and deny the social ill?
When speaking of Muslims in Finland, the media rarely speaks up or defends the group since stereotypes about their “primitive culture” and our exceptiionalism permit us to look the other way.
Even if the above examples of racist journalism happened over thirty years ago, it still continues today.
MTV is the biggest private television company in Finland. It’s portrail of brown migrants had the same hateful narrative: migrant youths and non-white migrants are a threat to society because they are violent. The picture on the right was used to give a heads up that MTV was going to interview the Interior Minister Mari Rantanen about the government’s tightened migration policy. Why is there a threatenig picture of a person with a knife?
Finland’s Russian-speaking community, the third largest after Finnish and Swedish speakers. They are a category of their own how they are treated by the media and politicians.
