Tag: xenophobia

Olli Sademies finally gets sacked from the PS of Finland for being too racist

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Olavi Sademies, a former member of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party and substitute councilman for Helsinki, is a disgrace to the police service, Finns and Finland. His Facebook postings are openly racist and reveal what is wrong with this country and the PS. 

Even if became a substitute councilman in 2012, it was only in 2015 that he was sacked from the PS.

Some of the reasons for getting the boot were his racist fear-mongering, Islamophobic comments like suggesting a pig blood spray repellent for Muslims and forced castration of African males who have more than three children.

For the latter posting on Facebook, the PS decided not to take any action against Sademies but in July the deputy state prosecutor office announced that it would be investigating the retired policeman’s post on forced castration of Africans.

Sademies has about 5,000 “friends” on Facebook. Some of his friends are well-known politicians who are outspoken on anti-racism issues. I wonder if any of these “friends” have ever messaged Sademies and told him that his postings are racist and offensive to migrants in Finland?

If they haven’t they should.

I would “unfriend” such a person. Why feed his racist fantasies with your Facebook “friendship?”

Näyttökuva 2015-11-28 kello 12.30.25

Read full story here.

Continue reading “Olli Sademies finally gets sacked from the PS of Finland for being too racist”

Let’s have a frank talk about rape and xenophobia in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

All criticism that surrounds immigration policy in this country is easily labelled as hate speech and racism. 

James Hirvisaari

I don’t usually begin an opinion piece with a quote by an Islamophobe like Hirvisaari that was sentenced for ethnic agitation. This will be an exception because I’d like to answer the claim that the former Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP made in parliament on November 11, 2014: Islamophobes like you usually dress up hate speech and racism with so-called criticism of immigration policy. 

We all know that “criticism of immigration policy” is code for the worst kind of bigotry and hate speech in our society.

The other misconception used by Islamophobes is that their free speech is being undermined since they aren’t allowed to spread freely their hate speech and racism, which they are doing right under our noses constantly.

The fact that Islamophobes criticize some sectors of society that openly challenge and condemn their hate speech and racism is a positive matter. We got a shocking taste of anti-Semitism in the 1930s to understand what can happen when we allow a social ill like racism to spread freely like wildfire.

In the same way that anti-Semitism was allowed to plant its poisonous seeds in society over eighty years ago we get a frightening glimpse of how Islamophobia and xenophobia fuel the worst in us. The media, politicians and society in general are all culprits.

The latest example of this vengeful hatred was seen this week when two suspected asylum seekers, who are minors aged 15 and 17, were lynched by social media and politicians like Prime Minister Juha Sipilä for raping a 14-year-old minor in Kempele.

In one shot the hatred and racism of our society towards Others was shamefully exposed once again.

What did we forget when we pointed the accusing mob finger at these asylum seekers? We forget one of the most important human rights of our country:

We are innocent till proven guilty by an independent and impartial tribunal.

Continue reading “Let’s have a frank talk about rape and xenophobia in Finland”

Kempele, Finland, suspected rape case: Is the social media lynching party over?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

If you read stories Tuesday about a fourteen-year-old girl who was raped in Kempele by two  suspects aged 15 and 17 years, who are Afghani asylum seekers, today’s news offers a totally different twist, reports YLE News.

According to a police statement, one of the suspects has been released from police custody because he didn’t have anything to do with the alleged crime.

The 17-year-old being held by the police denies that he had raped the victim.

The police stated that comments made especially in social media “have been brisk and mostly inappropriate” and that “people cannot write whatever they wish in social media.”

Näyttökuva 2015-11-25 kello 23.02.26

Read full story here.

Continue reading “Kempele, Finland, suspected rape case: Is the social media lynching party over?”

A cartoon by Ville Ranta that exposes the real face of anti-immigration groups and parties

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The cartoon below, “After the attack,” shows a member of an anti-immigration group drinking the blood of a victim of the Paris terrorist attack on Friday the 13th of November. 

In my opinion, the cartoon below by Ville Ranta shows to a tee how members of anti-immigration groups and parties reacted to the Paris terrorist attacks.

What’s your opinion?

Näyttökuva 2015-11-20 kello 22.32.01

The first group that was present after the terrorist attacks of Paris were members of anti-immigration groups.

UPDATE: An asylum reception center map we should all be ashamed of in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

As long as we have politicians and other community leaders who support hate speech overtly or with their silence, and as long as parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* base their support on racism against people who are different from them, Finland will not be a safe country for everyone. 

The map below is shameful considering that we’re one of the most affluent and apparently safest countries in the world.

Politicians, the media and the public are ignorant of the sheer hardships and destruction that the war, which we’ve been accomplices in, have brought on the people of the Middle East and Africa. We’re only outsiders looking in and what our eyes reveal is enough for some of us to turn our backs.

But what about if I told you about the horrors of war and gave you a ringside view of the raw violence and utter despair of people who are commonly blown to shreds by bombs and hate? Would you want to know? Would what you’d see change your life forever?

Näyttökuva 2015-11-22 kello 9.50.13

Municipalities where asylum reception centers have been attacked and where there have been problems. Source: Yle.

There are probably more attacks against asylum reception centers in Finland than the YLE map above suggests. Migrant Tales wrote in early November a suspected arson attack against the Pitäjänmäki reception center that was not reported by the media.

Continue reading “UPDATE: An asylum reception center map we should all be ashamed of in Finland”

Defining white Finnish privilege #25: This land is my land, this land isn’t your land

Posted on by Migrant Tales

It’s disturbing to watch in Finland journalists who maintain and promote urban tales and racism. One of these is Tuomas Enbuske who invited Lenita Airisto to his television talk show to speak about Muslims. When Aristo opens her mouth and gives her opinions about cultural diversity, it’s evident that she still lives is a provincial and stuffy time warp of pre-1990s Finland.

One of the many things she said that exposed her bigotry in a recent talk show with Enbuske was that Muslim women should show more flexible in Finland and take off their veils if they live here.

Airisto, who shamelessly patronizes the Muslim host, Maryam Askar, continuously pats her on the shoulder as if she had such a right.

The patting on the shoulder is a good example of how Airisto sees minorities like Askar as if they were children.

But then she states something that exposes her white privilege to a tee:

“You have come to my country, Finland is my country, and has taken you in with open arms…”

This affirmation, which is highly offensive because Airisto still believes that Finland and the Finns are only white.

What Airisto is doing is denying Askar the right to be different, which is the basis of racism in Finland. Racists and racism is nothing more in Finland than people who have serious issues with people who are different from them.

Näyttökuva 2015-11-19 kello 18.27.18

Host Tuomas Enbuske is no rocket scientist when it comes to debating matters like immigration and Muslims. He shows more ignorance and conservative opinionated views than sound judgement. In one of his talk shows he advertised “why Somalis rape?” His show got a warning  as a result from The Council for Mass Media for making such a racist statement.

Continue reading “Defining white Finnish privilege #25: This land is my land, this land isn’t your land”

Terrorism ironically exposes the lies of Islamophobic politicians and parties

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The closer terrorist acts hit us like the one that befell Paris on Friday, the fewer the arguments nationalist-populist politicians have to defend their Islamophobia. While this may not apply to all of Europe, especially to Eastern European countries like Hungary and Slovakia, it has come as a political blow to anti-immigration politicians in Finland.

What can you say and how would you interpret what Perussuomalaiset (PS)* head, Timo Soini, said after the Paris attacks?

“There is a danger that innocent people, who are escaping terror and terrorism would be related to [the Paris attacks],” he was quoted as saying in the national media.

President Sauli Niinistö and Minister of the Interior Petteri Orpo confirmed what Soini said. 

Certainly one reason why Finland’s head of state and its ministers said what they did is because they are not only concerned about Isis-inspired terrorism in Europe but the homegrown kind that could spring from careless Islamophobic statements that could lead to deaths.

Words have consequences and can be easily turned into bullets and bombs. 

But should we take Soini’s warning in earnest or does his statement reveal the power struggle in his party between politicians like MEP Jussi Halla-aho and himself? 

We mustn’t forget that it was Soini who gave a political voice to xenophobes in his party. 

If there is an apology that should be given to migrants and minorities in Finland, it should come from the PS and Soini.

It is ironic but as terrorism gets closer to us the clearer we some of us are able to distinguish between fact and anti-immigration fiction.

* The Finnish name of the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English-language names adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We therefore prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings.

France’s and Isis’ spiral of one-way terror and destruction

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The Paris attacks of Friday 13 came as a windfall to hardliners who still believe that the solution in the Middle East is military. We are now seeing the impact of such a mistaken policy in the way of hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers coming to Europe this year and the terror attacks of Friday. 

Zoe Samudzi offers us poignant analysis of the terror that struck Paris:

“It is important to honor the individuals who were killed in these acts of violence, and central to honoring their deaths is ensuring that we understand why these attacks may have happened in an effort to prevent further human suffering.”

The big question, and a very effective one, is if we want to honor these individuals by understanding why such attacks took place in the first place.

It would be interesting to find out what percentage of Europeans, who are not driven by fear or feelings of blind revenge, believe what President Barack Obama said about the attacks and that they were against “all of humanity and the universal values we all share.”

Are those “universal values” that President Obama states include invading and sledgehammering other countries?

France, which has been one of the most bellicose countries against Syria, responded with a new wave of bombings shortly after the attacks in Paris. You don’t have to be an expert on the Middle East to understand that those bombings won’t solve anything except increase the number of deaths and amount of destruction.

Näyttökuva 2015-11-16 kello 11.13.31

We need more sustainable solutions in the Middle East. Bombing is not one of them. Thank you Michael McEachrane for the heads-up.

Continue reading “France’s and Isis’ spiral of one-way terror and destruction”

How Timo Soini and the PS hope that the terrorist attacks of Paris will give them a picker-upper in the polls

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Below are two quotes. One is by the present foreign minister, Timo Soini, and the other below is by former Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja. Soini is a member of a party that made its mark in politics thanks to its anti-immigration and isolationist rhetoric. 

Since Soini and his party, the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, base their rhetoric on false promises that have been broken after becoming a member of government, their popularity has taken a nosedive in the polls.

What they say and promise have nothing to do with present-day Finland because they are based on lies and if they had free reign they’d legally turn migrants and minorities to third-class citizens.

Everything they propose to demote migrants and minorities in Finland is unconstitutional.

But the show must go on before the PS ship sinks for good as the Titanic did in 1912.

Let’s check out two very different quotes by Soini and Tuomioja about the carnage that took place in Paris Friday.

Näyttökuva 2015-11-14 kello 10.47.18

Soini was quoted above as saying on Uusi Suomi the following about the Paris attacks: “We have to take what happened [in Paris] seriously. The simple message shouldn’t leave any doubt that democracy will be defended. We will neither give these forces the upper hand nor bow to them but we’ll attack and challenge them.”

Continue reading “How Timo Soini and the PS hope that the terrorist attacks of Paris will give them a picker-upper in the polls”

How will the far right and anti-immigration parties in Europe try to exploit what happened in Paris today?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Terrorism is a sign of how dysfunctional our society an countries are at dealing with global conflicts. I’m so saddened by the violence and watch with manifest unease how the far right and anti-immigration populist party will exploit what happened for their own benefit. We still haven’t got confirmation on which group is behind the attacks. My condolences go to the victims and their families.

 

Näyttökuva 2015-11-14 kello 1.10.05

Read full story here.