Tag: xenophobia

Is PS MP Laura Huhtasaari an Islamophobe?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Jay Smooth offers some valuable advice when dealing with racism. He divides the plan of action into two strategies: the what they did conversation and what they are conversation. 

As some are well aware,Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Laura Huhtasaari, who is no stranger to our readers, got her fingers burned last week by Helsingin Sanomat when they found her profile picture on a racist Facebook page.

Even the name of that Facebook community, Puskaraiskaajien rasistinen tausta ! or “The racist background of rapists [hiding] in bushes,” would set alarm bells ringing.

Anti-immigration, or particularly anti-cultural diversity politicians, leave a lot of smoking guns about their ideology. They commonly hide behind red herrings to cover up their real intentions. Huhtasaari is no different.

In a Facebook thread there’s an Afro Finn who claims on a video clip to not have read Jussi Halla-aho’s writings but considers the PS MEP, who was sentenced for ethnic agitation, a “nice guy.” He even wishes him “the best of luck in his political career.” 

Fine, but isn’t that falling into the what they are conversation as opposed to the what they did conversation?

Let’s give the Afro Finn a helping hand. He claims to not have read Halla-aho’s Islamophobic and xenophobic writings. We’ll help him out. Is he joking or not? No, folks, he messaged me and said that it wasn’t a joke.

Below are some quotes to challenge Halla-aho on the what they did conversation:

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Jussi Halla-aho, published in Gates of Vienna Inter Arma, November 30, 2007.

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Jussi Halla-aho, Scripta guest book, May 19, 2006.

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Jussi Halla-aho, Scripta Lisää rikollisuudesta, September 30, 2005.

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Jussi Halla-aho, Scripta Mietteitä kansainvaelluksesta, April 20, 2005.

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Jussi Halla-aho, Scripta Mietteitä kansainvaelluksesta, April 20, 2005.

Continue reading “Is PS MP Laura Huhtasaari an Islamophobe?”

PS MP Laura Huhtasaari’s problems deepen concerning her alleged membership in a racist Facebook community

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales understands that a complaint had been made to Facebook about a racist community called  Puskaraiskaajien rasistinen tausta ! or “The racist background of rapists [hiding] in bushes.” Facebook concluded that it did not breach community standards.  

Does this mean that the Facebook site doesn’t insult and degrade minorities like blacks and Muslims? Not at all!

Social platforms like Facebook and Twitter are responsible for much of the racism and bigotry that you’ll find on social media today.

But at least Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Laura Huhtasaari considers the Puskaraiskaajien rasistinen tausta ! Facebook community to be so racist that she doesn’t want to have anything to do with it. 

Huhtasaari is in hot water this week after  Helsingin Sanomat exposed her belonging to that racist Facebook community.

Posting a picture on that Facebook site of a black child in a pail eating a watermelon that reads “a bucketful of shit” does not apparently breach Facebooks’ community standards. Fine.

But at least Huhtasaari has more sense than Facebook since she considers her membership in that community could either hurt or boost her political career.

Racism and xenophobia are crowd pleasers in today’s Finland and can do wonders for your political career.

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Continue reading “PS MP Laura Huhtasaari’s problems deepen concerning her alleged membership in a racist Facebook community”

UPDATE (July 4): Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism will be updated separately. To see other examples of opinionated journalism in Finland about cultural diversity, please go to this link.

July 4

Bloggaja väittää: Huhtasaari liittyi rasistiseen Facebook-ryhmään itse (Satakunnan Kansa)

What’s wrong with this story? This story by Pori-based daily Satakunnan Kansa is a good example of lazy journalism at its best.It is also an example of how some newspapers are reluctant to challenge politicians with xenophobic agendas. Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Laura Huhtasaari got her fingers burned this week when Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s biggest daily, scooped that she was a member of a racist Facebook site that has pictures of black children in pales eating watermelon with the following text, “A bucketful of shit.” Huhtasaari accused without any evidence that Sakari Timonen, one of Finland’s best anti-racism bloggers, had tipped off Helsingin Sanomat and even hacked her profile on the racist Facebook page. Instead of stating that the blogger claims that Huhtasaari joined the Facebook site herself, why didn’t Satakannun Kansa ask an IT expert to resolve the matter? Under her profile picture on the Facebook site it read that Huhtasaari joined and was not joined by some person. Huhtasaari claims that her profile ended up on the Facebook site by somebody without her permission. Sounds fishy, especially coming from a declared anti-immigration politician like herself.

UPDATE: It appears that our efforts to get in touch with Satakunnan Kansa paid off. In a new story published on the same day the daily asks an Internet authority about Huhtasaari’s defense. The Internet authority claims that Huhtasaari could have been joined to the racist Facebook community if somebody had access to her password.

 

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* 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.

Sweden’s former Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt is bewildered by Finland’s immigration policy

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Sweden’s former right-wing Moderate Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt expresses bewilderment by Finland’s immigration policy, writes business daily Kauppalehti. “It is remarkable that before theelections in Finland they spoke about the importance of labor immigration but are [now] struggling to close Finland’s doors [to such people].”

Bewilderment? I would call it disappointment and caving in to one’s fears and populism.

The answer is simple and it comes in a long  and unfriendly name to pronounce for foreigners: P e r u s s u o m a l a i s e t (PS).*

The PS are in government with the Center Party and National Coalition Party. Immigration policy is under PS Labor and Justice Minister Jari Lindstöm.

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Read full story here.

Our foreign minister is the head of the PS, Timo Soini, who has some issues with the EU and is the main apologist for the racist behavior of his party.

This racist behavior that he defends as a good cop discourages skilled migrants, foreign investment and jobs from growing in this country.

Continue reading “Sweden’s former Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt is bewildered by Finland’s immigration policy”

Finland’s deputy state prosecutor to investigate Sademies’ Facebook post on sterilizing Africans

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Helsinki substitute councilman Olli Sademies’ post on Facebook at the end of May, where he wrote that Africans should be sterilized after three children, is going to be investigated by the deputy state prosecutor, according to Tampere-based daily Aamulehti, citing Finnish News Agency (STT).  

Using such violent language against any minority by anyone never mind a politician belonging to Finland’s second-largest party is unacceptable. Sadmies’ claim on Facebook is, in our opinion, tantamount to inciting ethnic agitation and violence against black people in this country.

Apart from his political credentials, Sademies is a retired policeman. I wonder what that says about the Finnish police service.

No action was taken by the PS against what Sademies posted about African men.

When confronted last month by YLE’s Swedish language service, Seppo Kanerva, who is head of the Helsinki PS city council group, said that they hadn’t had time to discuss what Sademies wrote on Facebook. “We had so much to talk about that we didn’t have time for such nonsense,” he said.

Kanerva did say, however, that if Sademies continues to write similar posts he could be sacked from the party.

Sadmies’ Facebook page was taken down Tuesday after he posted a “business idea” about an aerosol that would spray pig’s blood on Muslims. 

The substitute councilman claims that he was taken down because of an identity check but we know that Migrant Tales’ associate editor Marshall Niles filed a complaint to Facebook about his racist and disgraceful posting.

Näyttökuva 2015-7-2 kello 12.58.58Read full story here.

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Danish People’s Party Pia Kjærsgaard: Inte min talman, or not my speaker of parliament [1]

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS) [2] Speaker of Parliament Maria Lohela no longer is alone in the Nordic region after Denmark’s new center-right government elected the founder of the xenophobic Danish People’s Party (DPP), Pia Kjærsgaard, as the new speaker of parliament, according to the Copenhagen Post. Like her counterpart in Finland, Kjærsgaard has built her political career on Islamophbobic fear-mongering. 

The new Danish speaker of parliament was named a few years ago by Swedish magazine Gringo as the “racist of the year,”

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Read full story here.

Bashy Quraishy, an anti-racism activist in Denmark, writes: “This sad Danish political development [election of Kjærsgaard] is an indication of the things to come and against which progressive activists have been warning for years…In a way it is good because it can activate the ethnic minorities, leftwing forces and humanists in Denmark. It is my hope!”

Just like the PS, which are close political and ideological allies of the DPP, the impact of last month’s Danish elections is being felt by migrants, refugees and minorities.

Continue reading “Danish People’s Party Pia Kjærsgaard: Inte min talman, or not my speaker of parliament [1]”

Olli Sademies tweets: “I was taken down from Facebook due to an identity check”

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS)* substitute councilman for Helsinki, Olli Sademies, tweets that he was taken down from Facebook due to an identity check. If this is true, we should see Sademies back on Facebook soon with his racist comments about Muslims and Africans. 

A warning: Facebook and Twitter are hostile places for migrants and minorities because a lot of the racism we see in society originates from these two places. Marshall Niles complained to Facebook about Sademies’ recent post about a pig’s blood spray for Muslims.

Were there others who sent similar complaints? We don’t know. But we do know that Sademies has a lot of people who dislike what he posts.

Why would Facebook want to verify Sademies’ identity now if they do that shortly after the person begins using the social networking service?

Writes Marshall Niles, who reported Sademies: “Ironically, for a man who is so blatant and outspoken towards his pig blood sterilization erotica, he seems to be embarrassed to tell his minions that his Facebook was deactivated for violating its community standards, which clearly state “No Racism/ No attacks against a group of people based on caste, color, creed, sex etc”…

We hope that Facebook understands that posts by a politician like Sademies should not be tolerated because they fuel hatred and prejudice. A new James Hirvisaari has resurfaced from the PS and his name is Olli Sademies.

Sademies has been on the warpath against Muslims and Africans. In May he wrote on Facebook that those Africans who have three children should be sterilized. On Monday he resurfaced attacking Muslims by suggesting a “business idea” to create a pig’s blood spray that would be used against Muslims.

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Sademies tweets that his Facebook page has been taken down due to an identity check.

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Migrant Tales tweets back: What’s the [real] reason why you were taken down from Facebook?

Continue reading “Olli Sademies tweets: “I was taken down from Facebook due to an identity check””

Is the Danish People’s Party advising the PS on how to become the biggest party in Finland?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Helsinki substitute councilman, Olli Sademies, is creating Islamophobic waves again. Right, he’s the substitute councilman who suggested in the end of May that Africans should be sterilized after having three children. Now he wrote on his Facebook wall a “business idea” to create a pig’s blood spray that would be used against Muslims. 

What should we think about Sademies’ latest outburst? Since his comment about sterilizing Africans wasn’t serious enough for the PS to sack him on the spot, it’s doubtful that he’ll get the boot for his latest racist comment.

Sademies appears to be a good old Finnish redneck who probably couldn’t find Djibouti never mind Somalia on the African map. But there’s one thing his dead sure of: His racist comments about Muslims.

Is Sademies the new James Hirvisaari of the PS? While there are many Hirvisaaris in the party, Sademies is getting as much publicity as the former MP who was sacked from the PS after he took a picture and posted it on Facebook of a friend making a Nazi salute in parliament.

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One of the best comments on Sademies’ Faceook thread is by a Naima M:

Brigitta, Sademies in an expert in these things. He can apparently tell us if garlic helps to repel vampires as well as to scare off Muslims or if only pig’s blood works. At the same time we could ask him if krypton could be of any help.

But where does he get his ideas from? Is it from parties like the Islamophobic Danish People’s Party (DPP) with which the PS is a close but not too public ideological ally?

Continue reading “Is the Danish People’s Party advising the PS on how to become the biggest party in Finland?”

What we should learn from the Tapanila sexual assault case

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The Tapanila sexual assault case is a good example of how the Finnish media permitted again its prejudices to get the better of itself. Those who committed the crime had everything against them: They were “Somalis,” or youths with “foreign backgrounds,” who committed “gang rape.” In today’s Finland, where xenophobia is thick in the air, those two words are sure to unlock your darkest prejudices.  

Jukka Kemppinen, a professor in information law and forme court of appeals judge, writes a sobering blog entry where he states that the sentences that three of the five suspects got was fair.

He writes: “‘Gang rape’ gives us a picture of sexual intercourse where there many are involved. This didn’t happen in the Tapanila case. Criminal law makes the difference between rape and aggravated rape. These types of cases are explained in the law. I’m of the opinion that what happened wasn’t aggravated rape from what was said about the case and at the district court. Force was used in the act. The victim was fingered under her clothes. That’s all that happened. ”

Another matter that showed how our racism ignited our mass hysteria to fever pitch was the labels that were given by the police and media of the assailants. After the five suspects were in police custody, the police published a statement were they called them youths “with foreign backgrounds.”

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Migrants need greater voting rights in Europe to challenge the far right and ultranationaistic menace

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Bashy Quraishy made recently a very valid point on his Facebook wall: “Active political participation, voting in large numbers and support for the friendly politicians is Alpha and Omega for the protection of ethnic minority rights in Denmark.”

And adds: “We need to wake up, confront the far right movements in politics and defeat them.”

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This cartoon depicts the DPP’s (and even the PS’) answer on how to deal with refugees fleeing civil wars.

The biggest challenges and threat facing Europe and countries like Denmark and Finland is the lack of democratic participation by migrants and minorities.

Continue reading “Migrants need greater voting rights in Europe to challenge the far right and ultranationaistic menace”