xenophobia Archives - Page 64 of 92

Will anti-immigration rhetoric boost the PS in the upcoming Finnish elections?

Posted on July 30, 2013 by Migrant Tales

Two important questions arise in light of the upcoming Euro MP and parliamentary elections in Finland in 2014 and 2015, respectively: How many parties will use immigration as an election issue, and will the next two elections reveal the ugly face of intolerance of other political parties in Finland?

If we look at the United Kingdom, there are clear signs that the Conservatives are using the anti-immigration message to boost their standing in the polls.

If the Tories have been able to gain on Labor and Ukip thanks to their anti-immigration message, will political parties jump on the same bandwagon as elections near?

We saw clearly how intolerance made its way into Finnish politics especially since 2008. As the right-wing populist Perussuomalaiset (PS) were becoming a political sensation, the reaction of other parties was shameful to say the least. Instead of challenging the PS’ anti-EU and anti-immigration message, they approved it with their silence and patronizing.

We all remember SDP chairwoman Jutta Urplilainen’s infamous maassa maan tavalla (in Rome do as the Romans do) statement and National Coalition Party head Jyrki Katainen’s affirmation, “debating immigrant issues didn’t make you a racist.”

Even today, Urpilainen’s statement is still used with gusto by some Finns. Some teachers use it to justify their ignorance and their own discriminatory behavior against other ethnic groups.

Politicians and the media must learn to lead and not cave in to pernicious ideologies that promote intolerance. We must look further than 2014 and 2015 if we want to keep Finland a successful society based on social equality for all.

PS chairman Timo Soini has claimed that the April 2011 historic election victory was mainly due to anti-EU and to a lesser degree on anti-immigration sentiment. The affirmation, in my opinion, is a good example of how racism is defended and protected in Finland.

Our intolerance is like having a gun hidden under our pillow. We can use it whenever we need to but we won’t tell anyone that we have such a firearm hidden in our bed.

There are already some clear signs that the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party is investing in the anti-immigration campaign message to lure voters. Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo of the PS “demanded” right after she was elected as the party’s new secretary that Finland should tighten immigration policy.

If the anti-immigration message picks up in the next two years, and there is no reason to believe otherwise, the biggest loser will be Finland.

Our society will not only lose demographically, but economically, socially and politically as well. Anti-immigration means being anti-foreign. Being anti-foreign in a globalized world is like shooting oneself in the leg and curing your wound with populist mumbo jumbo incantations.

It is like putting a noose around our necks as a society.

Death threats and the PS threat to our Nordic way of life

Posted on July 25, 2013 by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS) chairman, Timo Soini, reveals in a recent blog that he got four death threats recently. Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen’s Christian Democratic party received a bomb threat as well, which was reported by tabloid Iltalehti. The death threats are similar to what Swedish-language journalists received a while back. Migrant Tales has been a victim of death threats as well.

The question that we should ask in light of the latter is what these threats say about Finland and where we’re heading today as a country.

One matter it says loud and clearly is that our response to intolerance is far from satisfactory. Those that fuel ethnic hatred, racism and make it their business to polarize society between “us” and “them,” believe opportunistically that hate speech can be their political servant.

How wrong they are! Mass murderer Anders Breivik of Norway is one recent example of how you cannot keep xenophobia and racism on a short leash because it can bite back at its owner, and hard.

Ali Esbati, a survivor of 22/7,* when Breivik murdered 77 innocent victims on his Islamophobic rampage in Norway in 2011, was quoted as saying on The Local, which cites an op-ed on Aftonbladet, that Norway had learned little from the massacre. He claimed that the “undergrowth of hateful rhetoric” had recovered from the attacks by Breivik.

Read story here.

While anti-immigration parties in the Nordic region suffered election losses due to Breivik, the approval rating of the anti-immigration Progress Party (FrP) of Norway has swelled today to 20% in the polls.

An editorial on Oulu-based daily Kaleva writes about the death threats against Soini.

”Hate speech has been raging for a long time, and there are among Perussuomalaiset MPs people who have been sentenced for ethnic agitation. From the mouthes of the Perussuomalaiset we’ve read uncensored text that is written off as humor.

Death threats show that the hate speech can travel the other way. The party’s figurehead Soini is the victim of such a situation.”

To use a recent example of how the PS fuels hatred in Finland, one of its MPs, James Hirvisaari, published on Facebook the wonderful time he spent with Seppo Lehto, a far right agitator who was imprisoned for inciting ethnic hatred.

On the same weekend, he said in a tweet that a reporter working for tabloid Iltalehti ”masturbated wildly” when he was interviewed by him on the phone.

Add to the latter the near-constant hate speech against gays, elites, immigrants, and groups like Muslims from parties like the PS and a broader worrisome picture emerges of the problem.

Intolerance breeds more intolerance until it snaps like on 22/7 or turns into something more sinister like Germany 1933.

*I was surprised to see The Local use 22/7 to describe the mass murders that took place in Norway in 2011. Using a date for a tragedy is a way to honor and respect the victims.

When will the PS sack MP James Hirvisaari?

Posted on July 24, 2013 by Migrant Tales

Recent tweets and Facebook comments by Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari reveal how racism, fascism and right-wing populism have spread like a cancer in Finnish society. Hirvisaari now praises Seppo Lehto and claims the ultimate far right narcissist, like him, is a nice person.

Would you praise a man who gives Nazi salutes, likes swastikas, insults immigrants and longs for the days of World War 2, when Finland was Hitler’s ally?

Seppo Lehto as he sees himself when he was a candidate. Source: tiede.fi

It’s odd that the PS hasn’t said a word about Hirvisaari tweeting on Saturday that a journalist “masturbated wildly” during a telephone interview and now his praise of an extremist clown like Lehto.

Seriously folks, would you trust a party like the PS in government? One that has MPs who insult journalists, immigrants, praises far right extremists and likes to talk about skid marks in the toilet bowls of parliament?

A party that doesn’t have the guts or is incapable of putting one of its MPs in line, or sack them if necessary for making racist and far right statements, is a party that should never be in government.

Go to Hirvisaari’s Facebook page here.

Migrant Tales (July 22, 2012): What have we learned after Norway’s 22/7

Posted on July 22, 2013 by Migrant Tales

What goes around comes around.

Exactly a year ago (2012) Anders Breivik carried out his mass killings, which ended up causing the death of 77 innocent victims. Have we learned anything from that tragic Saturday that shook the Nordic region and changed it permanently?

In order to answer that question, we’d have to travel back in time to see how things were prior to that day.

In Finland, the right-wing populist Perussuomalaiset (PS) had just won a historic election victory that enabled the party to increase the number of its MPs to 39 from 5 in 2007. While party leader Timo Soini played down anti-immigration sentiment as one important factor behind the PS’ election victory, others disagreed.

Before Breivik erupted on the stage, anti-immigration parties like the PS were the new political force to contend with in Finland. It seemed that nothing could stop them from adding new election victories in the future. The louder and cruder their anti-immigration and anti-EU stances were, the more supporters they’d rally to their cause.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xjVD0ztWaKA

In Norway, Denmark and Sweden, far-right populist anti-immigration parties had grown as well and were openly challenging traditional parties.

Everything changed, however, after July 22.

The first blow came in Norway to the Progress Party (FrP), which saw its support in the September municipal election plummet by 6.1 percentage points to 11.5%. In the same month, another anti-immigration party, theDanish People’s Party (DPP), suffered an election setback.

Since 2001, the Islamophobic DPP had supported minority right-wing government in exchange for tighter immigration policy.

In many respect, Breivik was a wake-up call that woke up for Finland and the Nordic region to the threat of intolerance and hate speech.

A recent supreme court ruling against Jussi Hall-aho is a case in point. The PS MP was not only fined for defaming a religion but for inciting ethnic hatred as well. The ruling wasn’t only a big blow to the PS but to the far-right Suomen Sisu wing of the party. Halla-aho was forced to resign as chairman of the administration committee, which, among other matters, sets immigration policy.

The presidential election was another important example of how Finland is distancing itself after 22/7 from the anti-immigration and populist rhetoric of parties like the PS.

Two conservative anti-EU candidates, Timo Soini of the PS and Paavo Väyrynen of the Center Party, lost to Green Party hopeful Pekka Haavisto in the first round of voting. Haavisto is openly gay and pro-EU.

The next test for the PS will come in the October municipal elections. If polls are anything to go by, the party will suffer another election setback.

In light of the above, can we claim that Breivik had had a direct impact on the popularity of the PS and other parties in the Nordic region that are anti-EU, anti-immigration and anti-Islam?

Your answer to that questions will probably reveal more than anything else your political views on immigration, Islam and cultural diversity.

But if we ask Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, Norway had become after July 22 “more tolerant, [and] more careful not to judge people” by ethnic origin.

Even if Stoltenberg has shown leadership on how a wounded society should react to intolerance, it’s still unclear what impact Breivik will have on our societies. We are still healing from the wound and can matters return back to “normal” in Norway after Breivik?

If we set aside politics and try to understand the impact Breivik had on the region, one matter is certain: We are outraged by what happened but dread even more the possibility that it could happen again.

Competing for the anti-immigration thunder and rhetoric of parties like the PS, DPP, FrP and Sweden Democrats are far-right groups like the Finnish Defense League, which are copy-and-paste clones of the English Defense League.

Breivk scared the wits out of some of us and proved that anti-immigration and Counter-Jihad rhetoric can convert itself into a monster that has the ability to wreak terror and change our societies for good.

That I believe is the real message and threat of 22/7.

Migrant Tales (September 30, 2010): Populist chatter and a tale of elk flies

Posted on July 22, 2013 by Migrant Tales

MT comment: This is Migrant Tales’ first story on Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari published on September 30, 2010. The extremist anti-immigration politician was spreading is views back then. Like today, his pet topics were rape and far right nationalism.

____________

There is a True Finns candidate in the April 2011 elections that spreads elk flies every time he opens his mouth to bash immigrants. His multicultural name, James Hirvisaari,* gets a lot of free publicity whenever blogs like mine comment on his extremist views.

Hirvisaari has a problem: He is another True Finn that has been charged for incitement of ethnic hatred.

His campaign catchphrase is: Finnish language, Finnish spirit, Finnish nature, Finnish flag. This phrase, in my opinion, shows how low xenophobic groups in Finland have stooped. They now use our sacred icons to drive home their racist views.

Hirvisaari’s first campaign promise, I support a Finnish Finland in a European Europe, is a phrase that looks sound at first glance but after closer study it raises disturbing questions. If he is so Finnish, why is his first name, James?

His second campaign promise, I support Western and Christian values, is another kick in the groin that leaves you with a question mark: What does he mean? Yes, true, James, spreading hatred, strife and insulting other European ethnic groups are part of our Western and Christian heritage.

If you go back to the Nazi Germany era, he may have a point.

Hirvisaari states in his third campaign promise that he is for local democracy and against European federalism. I am totally confused now: Why doesn’t he speak straight and state that he wants Finland to leave the EU?

I really “love” his fourth promise. He supports a selective immigration policy but would he, seriously, hand on heart, give a residence permit to a person person like himself from another country who shared the same extremist views?

In order to simplify things, why doesn’t Hirvisaari state in plain Finnish that he loathes a certain religious group? That his whole political ideology is based on this and nothing more.

* If you want to read some funny comments about Hirvisaari’s political ideas visit Facebook. His real names is Erkki Kalevi.

PS MP James Hirvisaari claims journalist “masturbated wildly” in phone interview

Posted on July 21, 2013 by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari is the best gift that anti-racists could have in this country. If there is a loose cannon in parliament, it’s Hirvisaari. The PS MP has a pretty one-track mind. When he opens his mouth, he usually talks about Muslim rapists, skid marks on toilet bowls and now his latest topic, masturbation.

Here’s a tweet on Saturday by the PS MP: “I sensed during the telephone interview that the boy journalist masturbated wildly.”

The journalist that Hirvissari refers to is Mikko Vesa of tabloid Ilta-Sanomat.

The Ilta-Sanomat journalist asked Hirvisaari about another tweet on July 14, where he suggesting that n-word kiss chocolates should be changed to baboon kisses.

Folks, this is not a prank. Hirvisaari is an adult, an MP elected by voters to represent them in the Finnish parliament.

The European Court of Human Rights turned down in July a request by Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari to review a conviction for ethnic agitation in December 2011 by the Kouvola Court of Appeals, which was upheld last year by the Finnish Supreme Court.

The PS aims to become the biggest party in the 2015 parliamentary elections.

Interior Minister Räsänen disagrees with findings of police report on the Romany minority

Posted on July 17, 2013 by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales asked Monday what kinds of arguments will politicians now come up with to criminalize begging after a police report didn’t reveal any links between Romany beggars and human trafficking and organized crime.

The police report not only exposed shameful urban legends used to victimize poor Romanies from Romania and Bulgaria, who make 10-20 euros a day, but revealed the populism, racism and sheer contempt that some politicians have for this minority.

Conservartives like Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen for her homophobic, anti-abortion and anti-immigration views. Read full story here.

After over six years, this blog has taught me an important lesson: intolerance blinds. Those who are blinded by their prejudice and bigotry have learned to dress their arguments with suits and ties. One of these concerns the Romany minority.

The old stereotype about the Romanies in Finland was that all of them are criminals and therefore shouldn’t be trusted. An old prejudice that existed in Finland at the turn of the century was they were horse thieves.

Many of the politicians who want to criminalize begging, grew up at a time where the Romany minority were seen as criminals.

The most incredible fact about those politicians who want to criminalize begging is that they’d care less for the victims. If you look closer, they are shedding crocodile tears if that.

Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen, a conservative who believes that homosexuality is an illness and claimed this summer that it’s ok to break the law (abortion) if it is against the Bible, is the first politician to comment on the police report.

“There are perceptions as well that [during 2005-09] there are links [to human trafficking and organized crime],” she was quoted as saying on YLE.

Why is Räsänen so keen on maintaining a view that these Romanies are victims of human trafficking or victims of criminal organizations? Because that’s what her argument has been all along in order to criminalize begging.

The same argument will be used by other MPs. These are National Coalition Party’s Arto Satonen and Jussi Halla-aho and Olli Immonen of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party, both who are members of the extremist Suomen Sisu association.

YLE interviewed on Tuesday Helsinki Mayor Jussi Pajunen, who said he would be in favor of criminalizing begging because it “isn’t something we’re used to” in the Nordic region.

We should ask Pajunen, who makes about 200,000 euros a year, more than the mayor of London, if it is in the Nordic spirit to make so much money and care so little about the needy.

Shame on Pajunen and all those that want to sweep the Romany problem under the rug.

Why we must challenge anti-immigration parties across Europe

Posted on July 15, 2013 by Migrant Tales

A political party that bases its popularity on anti-immigration and populist rhetoric is like playing a risky political game of Russian roulette. The game continues until the only bullet in the revolver goes off in your head. Higher bets are placed each time that the revolver doesn’t fire: more xenophobia, more hate speech, more racist rhetoric, more prejudice…

Read the major headlines of Europe’s main dailies, social media websites and Migrant Tales to understand that we are on a perilous path. Even if we wanted to change our xenophobic ways, some of us have passed the point of no return.

One story that struck me this week happened in Paris, France. A veiled woman was beaten in a bus and later arrested by the police. The victim could be a member of the Romany community in Eastern Europe, anti-Semitism in Denmark, a black minister in Italy, or a Somali refugee in Finland.

Here’s what happened:

“Ms Lamia is a professional caregiver…On June 30 2013, at 6 pm, Lamia takes the bus like any other night to go to work. When an elderly woman gets on the bus, Miss Lamia naturally gives away her seat, but the lady refuses and violently invectives Lamia about her headscarf. Follows a stormy debate: ‘Dirty Arab, go back to your country, you should read the Koran …’ screams the lady. As she is about to get off the bus to go to work, Ms Lamia faces once again the aggressiveness of the old lady. She thinks Lamia is following her, so she shoves Lamia who, this time, replies. At that moment, a tall man comes to Miss Lamia and violently slaps her. She clings to him to hold him while calling for help. It took the intervention of a few people to stop him. Requested by Lamia, the police arrives on the scene and, instead of arresting the aggressor, decides to put Miss Lamia in custody.”

The fact that this still happens in a country like France shows that we have learned very little after about 100 million died in two World Wars. It shows as well that the medicine to treat a serious illness like intolerance is insufficient. It’s like giving aspirin to a patient with terminal cancer.

Here’s another story about the rise in hate crimes against Muslims in France:

Hostility rises when Islam is in the news, for example last year when an Islamist killed seven people or when a politician accused Muslim children of stealing classmates’ snacks, the Committee against Islamophobia in France (CCIF) said. The CCIF welcomed a European Parliament decision on Tuesday to lift the legal immunity of far-right leader Marine Le Pen so she can be tried on racism charges for comparing Muslims praying in the streets here to the wartime Nazi occupation of France. The group said in its annual report (French) that anti-Muslim acts rose to 469 last year, after 298 in 2011 and 188 in 2010. The rise reflected trends cited by other recent reports that also noted increasing levels of anti-Semitism and racism in France.

Check out the weekly headlines by I CARE:

Kosovo Jails Macedonia Mass Murder Suspects
Macedonia: Spate of Anti-Gay Attacks
A Mosque in Reykjavík Threatens Icelandic Culture
Sweden: fall in number of hate crime reports
Council of Europe’s Anti-Racism Commission publishes new report on Finland
Council of Europe’s Anti-Racism Commission publishes new report on Portugal
Council of Europe’s Anti-Racism Commission publishes new report on San Marino
Polish Jewish leader protests handling of anti-Semitism cases
Islamophobia in the Netherlands
Position of LGBT population in Serbia “improves”
Tipton mosque blast was ‘terrorist attack’, say police (UK)
Newcastle Division’s Lee Patrick wants to gas Muslims (UK)
Harpenden Town Council condemn ‘fake’ Gypsy site notice (UK)
Right-wing extremists launch bid to revive Fascist party (UK)
Disquiet over ‘shameful’ policing of racial violence in Brent (UK)
Veiled woman beaten in a bus in Paris, the police arrests the victim (France)
Anti-Muslim acts rising in France, rights group says
Marine Le Pen expected to face charges for incitement to racial hatred (France)
Islamophobia assaults in Argenteuil (France)
Need for the immediate investigation of homophobic, sexist and racist motives behind two attacks (Cyprus)

The fact that a particular political party, like the Perussuomalaiset (PS), Danish People’s Party, Sweden Democrats and others across Europe, base their political agenda on anti-immigration rhetoric tells you that they are playing with fire and are one of the main causes of the cancer spreading throughout Europe.

There’s still time to tackle the biggest threat to our societies today, which is right-wing anti-immigration populist ideology, and wake up those who pay homage to them with their silence.

What does the PS’ new party secretary mean by “tightening [Finnish] immigration policy?”

Posted on July 12, 2013 by Migrant Tales

Left Alliance MP Risto Kalliorinne asks Perussuomalaiset (PS) new party secretary Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo to elaborate what she means by ”tightening immigration policy?” Apart from labeling herself a chauvinist, Slunga-Poutsalo “demanded” that Finland should tighten immigration policy.

Read original story here.

While Left Alliance MP Kalliorinne poses an important question, we all know the answer that Slunga-Poutsalo would give if she elaborated on what she said.

The answer lies with the far right Danish People’s Party’s EuroMP Morten Messerschmidt, who was invited to speak at the PS’ annual congress in June. He said recently:

“I think we need three sets of rules of immigration. One for Europeans, who will be regulated by EU-law. One for people from the rest of the Western World, including parts of East Asia, South America, etc. And then a third set of rules for the third world, who in general do not really offer anything we can benefit from…”

The latter statement by Messerschmidt is in line with the Nuiva Manifesto and the thinking of many PS anti-immigration extremists like MP Jussi Halla-aho, James Hirvisaari and others.

The interesting question, however, is why the PS hasn’t yet revealed more aggressively its DPP colors on immigration policy. The answer probably hinges on how much the PS thinks it can profit from an anti-immigration political stance.

Slunga-Poutsalo believes that the party can, which explains why she is making anti-immigration statements in the first place.

The problem lies in the PS as well. Ever wondered why its chairman plays down its far right anti-immigration faction? It’s not because he’s a nice guy and likes immigrants, but because he sees this faction as a threat to his political base.

Soini has claimed in the past that PS’ anti-EU stance played a key role (80%) and anti-immigration a minor role (20%) in its historic election victory of 2011.

If you want to know where the PS’ anti-immigration policy is heading and how it will end, study the far right DPP.

European Court of Human Rights will not review PS MP Hirvisaari’s conviction for ethnic agitation

Posted on July 10, 2013 by Migrant Tales

The European Court of Human Rights has turned down a request by Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari to review a conviction for ethnic agitation in December 2011 by the Kouvola Court of Appeals, which was upheld last year by the Finnish Supreme Court.

There was no doubt that far right PS MP Hirvisaari stood a chance of having his conviction reviewed by the European Court of Human Rights after it was upheld by a Supreme Court decision earlier.

Migrant Tales applauds the decision.

Lahti-based daily Etelä-Suomen Sanomat wrote about the European Court of Human Rights’ decision. Hirvisaari has declared war on the daily by boycotting it.

In his usual style, Hirvisaari lashes out against the decision not to review his conviction as ”bowing to Mecca.” On a Facebook thread he slams the president of the Kouvola Court of Appeals, Pertti Nieminen, as the ”Great Satan.”

Hirvisaari, who would never have stood a chance of being elected to parliament without the help of Timo Soini, who commonly plays down racism in the party, has been embroiled in numerous scandals during his two years as MP. Some of these include complaining about skid marks on the toilet bowls of parliament to blaming Anders Breivik’s murderous rampage in Norway on immigration policy.

Some of his most infamous remarks aren’t his homophobic views and plans to control what the Finnish media writes, but hiring Helena Eronen as his aide.

Eronen, who is a member of the far right anti-immigration Muutos2011 party, resigned in August after she wrote a scandalous blog entry that foreigners could help the police in ethnic profiling by wearing sleeve badges.

The reaction of the Finnish and even international media to her blog entry was a clear sign how far out of touch Eronen’s “sarcasm” was with common decency and respect for immigrants and visible minorities.

The last time ethnic groups like the Jews were required to wear identifying badges was during the Nazi regime in Germany.

Tag: xenophobia