Tag: xenophobia

Three anti-immigration PS MPs will pay Hirvisaari's fine for hate speech

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Three far-right anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS) MPs, Juho Eerola, Jussi Halla-aho and Olli Immonen, announced today  in a statement that they will pay PS MP James Hirvisaari’s 1,424-euro fine slapped  for hate speech by a Kouvola court in December. The statement, which was signed the three PS MPs, states that the fine was politically motivated. 

Instead of arguing the absurd defense line of the three PS MPs, let’s see who these three far-right anti-immigration politicians are. Starting with Jussi Halla-aho, he was fined for defaming a religion in 2009. Halla-aho is a Counter-Jihadist who has written on blogs like the Gates of Vienna, warning us about how Muslims are taking over Europe.

Juho Eerola is another anti-immigration politician who praises fascism and Mussolini’s corporatist economic system because it had no unemployment. Certainly he expresses such opinions carefully and in a hush-hush fashion. When his aide, Ulla Pyysalo’s name came up on a neo-Nazi membership list of the Suomen Kansalinen Vastarinta, Eerola did not consider this enough grounds to sack her.

Olli Immonen has warned on a number of occasions about an ensuing war between Christian white Europe and Islam. Immonen has been remarkably quiet after the cold-blooded killings in Oulu that saw a naturalized Finn of Moroccan background gunned down by a white Finn.

The three, including Hirvisaari, are members of the Nazi-spirited Suomen Sisu association, which strongly discourages white Finns marrying non-Finns.

Of all the three, the eeriest has got to be former Finnish Railways (VR) employee MP Hirvisaari. After the tragedy that struck Norway on July 22 when Anders Breivik went on the rampage, Hirvisaari blamed the “100% rapes” committed by immigrants on Norwegians and that country’s loose immigration policy for the killings.

Timo Soini's little PS fish and big PS fishes

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

The PS councilman Tommi Rautio scandal, where he stated on Facebook that he’d decorate the Finn who killed a Moroccan native in cold blood at a pizzeria Oulu, is turning into a messy Breivik-type watershed for the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The concern raised by PS chairman Timo Soini, and how the Rautio scandal has already impacted the party’s popularity internally and externally, is clear in its new non-convincing  get-tough stance on racism. 

Eyeing with concern the party’s delayed response to the Rautio scandal, the The PS of Köliö suspended on Sunday the councilman about a week before the party meets next weekend. Soini said almost two days after the scandal broke out that Rautio would be formally sacked from the party when the PS’ national executive board meet on March 4.

Should we believe the latest assurances that the PS is getting serous about racism? Certainly not. Rautio is a small fish compared with big PS fishes like Jussi Halla-aho, James Hirvisaari and others.

Why isn’t the PS equally concerned about their big fish like PS MP James Hirvisaari, who got fined for hate speech in December, as was PS MP Jussi Halla-aho in 2009 by a court for defaming religion? Remember PS MP Teuvo Hakkarainen?

Soini has repeatedly played down the problem of racism in his party. In December he said that there were only “one, two or three” such cases. Shortly after the April election, he said there were no racists running for office.

The Rautio case proves that small fish in the PS are expendable whereas big ones are not.

The "us"-and-"them" smoking-gun statement that once justified mass murder in Europe

Posted on by Migrant Tales

One of the matters that surprises me about some politicians in Europe and Finland continue to flirt with ideologies that led Europe down a path of near-total destruction in the 1940s. The younger they are, and the further their time perspective of those times, the more they appear to flirt and idolize with fascism. To them I would like to give them a quote by Rudolf Hoess, the notorious commandant of the Aushcwitz concentration camp during 1940-43. 

When we speak of fascism we should put it in a 2010s context. It has different enemies but is the same political beast.

In order to understand the horrors of World War 2 and especially those of the Nazi régime, a very good starting point to understand those harrowing times is reading up on the Nuremberg Trials.

Hoess was not tried at Nuremberg but in Poland, where he was tried by a Polish military tribunal and hanged at Auschwitz on April 7, 1947.

One of the matters that strikes you when you read about Hoess, and all those that were tried for genocide and war crimes after the war, is how they played down their roles.

There is one quote by Hoess that, in my opinion, gives us the smoking gun to the madness, racism, hatred and mass murder that roamed Europe freely at the time.

This is how Hoess justified what he did that caused the death of about 2.5 million Jews at Auschwitz.*

Hoess: “I had my personal orders from [Heinrich] Himmler [to exterminate Jews].”

Question: “Did you ever protest?”

Hoess: “I couldn’t do that. The reasons Himmler gave me I had to accept.”

Question: “In other words, you think it was justified to kill 2.5 million men, women, and children?”

Hoess: “Not justified – but Himmler told me that if the Jews were not exterminated at that time, then the German people would be exterminated for all time by the Jews.”

The last quote by Hoess is chilling and reveals the smoking gun that justified mass murder by the Nazi régime. What is even scarier today is that it is still used by people to justify their racism and declarations of wars against other groups. Some of these are groups, politicians and individuals who claim that Muslims will take over Europe. They make up their stories with the help of high birth rates and a pocket calculator.

If predicting the future were so easy, then we have invented a time machine to the future (sic!).

* Leo Goldensohn: Nuremberg Interviews. Vintage Books. New York 2004. p. 296.

Migrant Tales blog: Trolls can distort your view of other groups

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Migrant Tales has seen a lot of traffic as of late. Every day we see as well more trolls knocking at our door and some of them do get through. 

If, however, you did make it past the moderators and act like a troll on our blog you will be treated accordingly. You will be seen as a pack of cigarettes with the famous warning: Trolls are hazardous to your mental health and may seriously distort your view of other groups.

If, however, you want to learn and debate in earnest about immigration, immigrants and Finnish identity in this century, you are most welcome to do so.

What is wrong with some people in this society? Some trolls house so much hatred and ignorance together  with low self-esteem that they write like ticking time bombs ready to implode.

Here is an idiotic thread that failed to make it past the moderators. He calls himself Tired Johnny: “When this country is disgusting for you, please -and you are free- “get-out”. Nothing is holding you here. Bye, bye!!”

Here is another one by none other than True Finn: “The foreigners who comment on this thread are so aggressive and anti-Finn that they give a really bad image of foreigners living in Finland.”

Bad image?! Excuse me. Ever heard of Tommi Rautio?

True Finn goes as far as to call me a “Nazi.” LOL!

Here is another one who must see Muslims in his sleep. He calls himself anonyymi: “Islamilaisesta näkökulmasta katsottuna Suomi kuuluu Dar al-Harb alueeseen eli sodan maahan (From the point of view of Islam Finland belongs to the Dar al-Harb region war zone).”

What is wrong with this person? Can you ever have a civil debate with him? I seriously doubt it.

Here is another one who calls himself truesoldier: “…your racist racist that occurs here frequently is a sign that things are not well with you.”

This is a typical comment by a “racist” troll who switches the tables and accuses us of being racist. It is as ludicrous as accusing the Jewish victims of Nazi Germany of being a member of the SS. We have seen a lot of this before on many occasions.

Here is another very weird one  by crusader: “Only Aryan Jesus can save Finland from the non-white non-Christian subhuman seedline of Satan. All you Finns out there need to fight in the name of Aryan Jesus for your nations purity. Hail Christian Europe, but most of all Hail Aryan Jesus!”

We at Migrant Tales not only owe our eve-growing popularity to what we write and believe, but to our trolls who spread our name on the net.

To them we offer our eternal gratitude!

Thank you Oulu for demonstrating and standing up for your rights!

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Migrant Tales would like to thank all those people who marched in Oulu and Helsinki on Friday against the violence that gripped Oulu last weekend and give simultaneously the thumbs down to the chicanery of others, like Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP from Oulu Olli Immonen, who has warned us about a “culture war” between white Europe and Islam. Is this the first chapter of that “war” that  Immonen suggests? 

The march in Oulu was organized by the Islamic Society of Northern Finland, surprisingly YLE in English forgot to mention the organizers. The Helsinki march was organized by William Bol and Kadar Kelle.

Here is a video clip on Ilta-Sanomat  about the March in Oulu.

YLE in English writes: “Demonstrators called on Oulu decision makers and police to promote tolerance in the community. They also want officials to step up efforts to make the city more secure for immigrants as well as the native Finnish population. This latest racially-flavoured incident has been a pause for reflection for inhabitants, as it was preceded by two other violent acts involving foreigners.”

Even if too many Finnish politicians still prefer to cringe in the face of racism or deny its existence completely like the PS, immigrants, Finns and visible minorities in Finland have no choice but to demand their right to live without fear and harassment.

Soini and the PS to ban "racists" from running for office

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

In light of the recent scandal that has rocked the Perussuomalaiset (PS), party chairman Timo Soini now promises to banish “racist” candidates from taking part in the municipal election of October 28, according to Helsingin Sanomat, citing Swedish-language daily HBL. Can we and should we believe Soini’s latest promise?

The answer to that question is on a TV news interview on Nelonen right after the April election and what he said during a presidential debate in December, according to MTV3. On Nelonen Soini assures us that there “isn’t one racist” in the PS but then on MTV3 he admits that there are at the most “one, two or three” cases.

Racism poses the biggest threat to Soini’s plans to build a credible party. But renouncing racism is easier said than done. It is like like asking the Communist Party to renounce Karl Marx and substitute him for Adam Smith.

How do Soini and the PS define “racist?” This is unclear even if much of their energy in the past months has gone into denying racism as a wider problem in the PS and Finland.

When trying to make sense of what a right-wing populist party like the PS is really saying, you have to venture behind the meaning of the soundbites. What does Soini mean when he announces plans to ban racists from running in the municipal election of October?

He is telling us that the PS is worried about how racism is deflating credibility from the party. This is a good piece of news because, if you recall, racism, anti-immigration and anti-Islam were factors that helped the PS from becoming Finland’s third-largest party in April.

Do I believe Soini is serious about tackling a social ill like racism in the PS and Finland?

Do you believe in political fairy tales?  No I don’t.

His party is a part of the problem.

Uusi Suomi blog: Aina hyväntuulinen Ismael, joka kuoli

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment:  Here is a beautifully written blog entry about the tragedy that cost the life of a Moroccan employee at a pizzeria. 

I am left without words and still in shock. On Migrant Tales we have had to cover three tragic deaths involving two Somalis and one Moroccan in just over three weeks. 

A question hounds me and should hound all of us: I still don’t know what shocks me more: the actual cold-blooded killing or the reaction of some people?

I am personally outraged by what has happened and so should every sensible person be in this country. The threat to our society does not come from abroad but lives within our borders. It comes in the way of intolerance and hatred. 

What happened in Oulu over the weekend is a good example of that. 

Here is the link to the original blog entry. 

____________________

Ahmed Al-Nawas & Miriam Attias

Ismael kuoli lauantaina. Kuolinsyy: luoti päähän.

Ismael oli ujo 21-vuotias, aina hymyilevä ravintolatyöntekijä, jonka harrastuksiin kuului pelata perjantaisin jalkapalloa.  

Työpäivän päätteeksi, puoli tuntia ennen sulkemisaikaa pizzeriaan saapui asiakas, joka tilasi pizzan, kävi WC:ssä ja jostain syystä ennen pizzan valmistumista hermostui ja ampui kohti kolmea ihmistä.

Näkikö hän jotain, mistä ei pitänyt? Esimerkiksi sen, kun Ismael rukoili ruokasalin takaosassa WC:n vieressä?

Voiko tätä ymmärtää? Pitääkö edes yrittää? Ei ole olemassa hyväksyttävää syytä tappaa. Vai onko?

Ihmiset etsivät selityksiä ja netissä on jaettu kokemuksia pizzapohjan laadusta ja täytteistä. Samalla joku antaisi ampujalle mitalin, koska tappaminen sodassa on sallittua ja kunnioitettavaa, eikä poliisi edes automaattisesti tutki lausuntoa rikoksena, mikäli kukaan ei nosta syytettä. Onko Suomi vuonna 2012 siis sodassa? (Sodassa tappaminen on sallittua. Mutta jopa sodassakin kiellettyä on sivullisten ja siviilien tappaminen.)

Selitystä ei ole. Kukaan ei voi tietää mitä ampujan päässä liikkui. Vaikka kyseessä oli ”impulsiivisena ja väkivaltaisena” tunnettu henkilö, jonka tapana oli käydä pizzalla, kuten lehdistö on päätellyt, ja vaikka kyseessä olisi hetken päähänpisto, emme tiedä, oliko rasistinen reaktio tappamisen laukaiseva tekijä. Pelkkä rasismi ei tapa ilman asetta. Vaikka ampuja oli tappanut aiemminkin, ”hänellä oli tapana” ei myöskään riitä selitykseksi. Voi olla sattumaa, ettei jotain tapahtunut muualla. Mutta se, että joku tilaa marokkolaiselta pizzayrittäjältä pitsaa, ei poissulje rasismia. Rasismi on muutakin kuin se vastaus, jonka sinä antaisit kysymykseen ”tilaisitko pizzaa marokkolaiselta yrittäjältä”.

Halusimme tai emme, jouduimme tapauksen johdosta kuitenkin keskelle rasismi-keskustelua. Jos motiivin rasistisuudesta on epäselvyyttä, siitä ei ole epäselvyyttä, etteikö keskustelut sitä olisi. Se, että joudumme kuolemantapauksen johdosta lukemaan siitä, miten ampujaa onnitellaan ja haluttaisiin palkita, ja siitä, kuinka se nyt olikaan, ”saavatko ne oikeasti enemmän toimeentuloa kuin muut” ja siitä, kuinka tappaja periaatteessa oli mukava tyyppi hänen ystävän mielestä, voimme päätellä, että a) tapaus, jossa uhri ei ole ”kantasuomalainen” koskettaa hämmentävän vähän, b) ns. breivikiläinen henki on muuttanut maahan ja c) vihanlietsonta, halventavat puhetavat, väkivalta ja ihmeelliset selitykset eli kaikki, mitkä ämpäriä täyttävät, on tulleet niin normaaleiksi, että paljoa ei tarvita siihen, että mikä tahansa on jollekin se viimeinen pisara.

Ismaelin kuolema ei ole mikään maahanmuuttopoliittinen kysymys.

Mutta joka tapauksessa, rasismia tai ei: on kaksi pohtimisen arvoista kysymystä. Siinä tapauksessa, että teko oli rasistinen ja olisit maahanmuuttaja, olisiko huolissasi?  Tai entä sitten, siinä tapauksessa, että teko ei ollut rasistinen ja olisit kuka tahansa, oletko huolissasi? Onko oikeusjärjestelmämme nyt sitten ihan varmasti kunnossa, jos vuonna 2006 taposta tuomion saanut väkivaltaisena tunnettu henkilö oli jo nyt vapaana kävelemään ladattu ase taskussa pizzalle?

Toivon voimia Ismaelin veljelle ja muulle perheelle tragedian keskellä.

Miriam Attias

entinen oululainen

osa sitä yhteisöä, jota Ismaelin kuolema ja välikohtaus kosketti

Populist PS of Finland: Living and dying by the political sword

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

The chairman of the right-wing populist Perussuomalaiset (PS), Timo Soini, has assured us on numerous occasions how racism and hate speech have no role in his party. He has said that those who wander down such a questionable path will end up being devoured by what they preach. 

Aren’t the latest gallup figures a good example of what Soini warned: live by the sword, die by the sword?

When you study an anti-EU and anti-immigration party like the PS and its leader, you have to look right under your nose for the answer to uncover the deception in the statement.

Even if Soini doesn’t use the same hate speech and racist language that many of his PS MPs do, his ideological views about immigration and other matters like women’s rights are very similar to his followers.

This explains why Soini is not moved by the racism in his party never mind about PS members belonging to the neo-Nazi groups like Suomen Kansalinen Vastarinta.

The political nomenclature that the PS leader uses resembles that of a good-cop-bad-cop approach to an issue. While a PS member like Tommi Rautio can suggest on Sunday that the Finn who killed an immigrant and wounded another at a pizzeria in Oulu over the weekend should be given a medal because we are at war against immigrants, Soini will smile back and claim with a poker face: “Racism is bad.”

The ongoing cat-and-mouse debate in Finland, whether racism is a problem or not in this country and the PS, exposes yet a more worrying matter. Our dysfunction as a society to challenge an issue like racism.

We don’t need the PS or anyone to confirm our deepest worries. Our silence confirms it.

The question is not to be in shock-and-awe at the type of Finland we are seeing before us but to tackle the problem.

We are all responsible for allowing the ogre of racism out of its cage in Finland. Politicians, the media and the general public, especially immigrants and Finns with international backgrounds, must join forces and give parties like the PS and those who want to turn Finland into a segregated society a very clear message:

You won’t get off the hook easily anymore. We will not tolerate your racism and we will challenge you everywhere.

Somali death in Finland: The problem that constantly mocks at us

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Migrant Tales was saddened to be tipped off that apparently another Somali national had died violently now in Espoo after it reported the tragic death of a Somali national in Oulu. The shock and outrage of the Somali community of the death of one of its members reveal their  mistrust for white Finnish society and the authorities. 

A blogger writes:  “Migrant tales, thank you for your releasing this information publicly. The victim was a Somali national and was murdered by his Finn brutal friends (see 17.2 thread by Akaaro).”

Matters are at a very poor state in Finland. So much so, in fact, that politicians like Jussi Halla-aho and the Perussuomalaiset (PS), who spread racism by declaring outright war against Somalis and Muslims, are elected to office and given important roles in parliament with the approval of other political parties.

Should we ask where the root of the problem lies? It lies right under our noses and inside all of us.

While violence is a good measuring stick that reveals how our society has failed some of its members, it is especially tragic when it happens to a group like the Somalis.

According to an April 2009  survey by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), one in three Somalis in the Greater Helsinki area said that  he or she has been a victim of racially motivated crimes in the past 12 months.

The report states:  “The highest incidence rates for assault or threat was found for Somali respondents in Finland – where 74 incidents of assault or threat for every 100 interviewees were recorded. This very high rate reflects the fact that many Somalis in Finland were victims of assault or threat on several occasions within a 12 month period.”

Some Finns, who argue in a colorblind fashion, will claim that if both violent deaths in Oulu and Espoo aren’t a hate crime we should not even bother to report it.  It has no importance and is an insignificant matter like the shameful situation of Somalis in Finland.

Every time a Somali dies in Finland or any other person in fact due to a violent crime or if he or she is abused racially in public, our failure as a society in addressing these social ills always stares back at us.

Politicians in Finland who "shop" for your anti-immigration vote

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Everyone needs to think, first of all, of themselves when it comes to education like an immigrant. How does an immigrant think? He thinks, nothing is owed me. I don’t have a place waiting for me at Harvard. I better understand the world I’m living in and boy, I better work harder than the next guy because I’ve got nothing else going for me. Thomas L. Freidman

The level of debate in Finland concerning immigrants and cultural diversity is still far from Freidman’s quote. Politicians who denigrate and insult immigrants and refugees as “welfare shoppers” hide the real motive behind their ludicrous claim: They are shopping for your vote.

What has happened to some of us? Those very values that made our country a good place to live in weren’t certainly built on greed. I personally enjoy being a member of my community and helping others. Many people in this country feel the same way as I.

One of the matters that I have noticed in the ongoing one-sided debate in Finland on immigrants and immigration is that some take criticism personally. They may ask: “How dare this person, who isn’t even a white Finn, dare criticize my country?!”

Nothing could be further from the truth. People who debate openly and question a social ill like racism and prejudice are should be seen as this country’s true “patriots.” Since when was apathy and spreading racism a constructive society-building process?

Such attitudes not only reveal the person’s low self-esteem but their arrogance. Some of them picture Finnish culture and Finland as something frail ready to wilt and die if it comes in contact with the outside world.

The crucial matter that stops some from overcoming their reactive arguments is acceptance of  “others.”  As we have stated on this blog previously, acceptance should be a mutual process.

A warning to all those that continue to spread urban tales about immigrants and minorities. What they write today will be read in the future. Do some of them want to look like a Finnish version of the Klu Klux Klan or someone who had a vision of the future?

We at Migrant Tales have chosen the latter route.