THE STORY WAS UPDATED
The National Bureau of Investigation (KRP) has remanded in custody a 28-year-old white Finn who used to be a municipal candidate for the Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party but now belongs to the far-right Sinimusta Liike (Blue-and-Black Movement), according to Helsingin Sanomat.
The police’s intelligence gathering of the suspect led to a search of his home, where arms were found. KRP is investigating the suspect’s activities and if other suspects are involved.
The case is not the first white Finnish suspect. In December 2021, the police announced the country’s first far-right terrorist case. In November, detective inspector Toni Sjöblom told Migrant Tales that charges would be brought against five suspects “within a few weeks.” By mid-March, no charges have been brought against the suspects.
The Finnish Security and Intelligence Service’s (SUPO)In National Security Overview 2022 said that the threat of a terrorist attack in Finland would come from “supporters of right-wing extremist or racial Islamist ideology, and from small covert cells [comprising] of such individuals.”
The latest terrorist suspect, who studied law, was a Perussuomalaiset (PS) candidate for councilperson who lobbied at the university against “woke culture” and “cultural Marxism,” a concept used by far-right activists.
The same type of bias in how the media, politicians, and even the police treat “white” terrorism is evident in the case of the 28-year-old. He was active with the PS Youth of Lapland, representing the party’s most far-right views, and was a strong proponent of ethnonationalism.
One active member of the PS Youth of Lapland was Johannes Sipola, who was convicted with Toni Jalonen for ethnic agitation in 2020. Sipola blamed in a tweet below the Christchurch massacre on multiculturalism.
One has only to look at the stir that parties like the PS, the National Coalition Party, and others have whipped up concerning youth gangs. Public interest and labeling hinge squarely on ethnic background.
There is also little debate and condemnation in the media and among politicians of the role of the PS.
According to the European Islamophobia Report 2022, “The PS is one of the most important platforms of Finland’s Islamophobic network with ties to openly hostile and violent groups like Suomen Sisu, Soldiers of Odin, Hommaforum, Kansallismielisten liitouma (National Alliance), Sinimusta Liike (Black-and-Blue Movement), the banned neo-Nazi Pohjoismainen vastarintaliike, and others.
It should not be surprising that the vast majority, if not all of the 38 [now 39] Finns Party’s MPs, based their election campaigns on an anti-immigration theme. The party’s chairperson, Riikka Purra, has said directly that her party wants to exclude foreigners from getting social welfare, make citizenship requirements stricter, and further tighten immigration law. Matias Turkkila, the editor of the PS’s newspaper, Suomen uutiset, commonly publishes stories that spread fake news about asylum seekers. Jussi Halla-aho, who was convicted for ethnic agitation and breaching the sanctity of religion in 2012, is one of the main figures of the Islamophobic network.”
