Any sensible person condemns what happened on Monday, when a woman was gang raped by a group of teenagers in the northern Helsinki neighborhood of Tapanila. Some voices, notably the most anti-immigration voices, are demanding an apology from the Somali community. One Somali woman, Ujuni Ahmed, apologized on behalf of the whole community on Helsingin Sanomat today while another one, Abdirahim Husu Hussein, refused to so in a recent blog entry.
While both Ahmed and Hussein have their reasons, and both are fine and acceptable, it’s incredible how we fall into the same trap over and over again when a minority commits a crime.
Sally Kohn, in a tweet below, sums is up perfectly.
Kohn’s tweet in a Finnish context would read:
Somali rapist = entire community guilty (plus majority of the migrant community)
Migrant rapist = all migrants guilty
White Finnish rapist = mentally troubled, lone wolf.
Exacerbating the problem is the xenophobic and anti-immigration climate in Finland, which doesn’t permit a sensible debate on our ever-growing culturally diverse society.
How can we debate and resolve anything if one group is trying to prove that the others are criminals and rapists?
Maybe this is the core problem: The grand majority of rapes in Finland are committed by white Finns, or specifically by men. This is unacceptable.
There is no difference between a migrant rapist or a white Finnish rapists because the crime committed by both groups is equally horrendous.
She did not apologize, she condemned the attack. There is a difference. You would apologize for something you have done, but you can condemn an action without being responsible. And I am glad she did. Like she said, you can’t sweep issues under the carpet. That just ignores the problem. Now, is there a problem? Yes, there is.
This was not just a rape, it was a gang rape and its not a first one. How did none of these rapists challenged each other against this vile crime? Out of 5 they all went along with it. How someone even dared to voice the idea of raping someone? Let’s add up the fact that even when age, socioeconomic position and other matters are factored in, Africans still 12 more likely to rape someone than native Finns. That tells us we have a problem.
Does Somalis have attitudes that make them likely to rape. Do they see finnish women being whores they can harrash and rape as they want because they are not veiled, FGMed and are independent? Not all do I´m sure but Somali community should do some soul searching about this. Apart from Ujuni Ahmed, all I can see from Somali community is self victimization. They take the victim position to protect their own, even if they are rapist. Somalis should strongly condemn the action and not make excuses so we would not believe what I wrote earlier.
You may see it that way, Yossie, but her admission could be seen as an apology or more specifically a condemnation of what happened.
This types of cases should be challenged by our society but I don’t think it helps at all if you start labeling certain groups with a broad brush. No religion in the world teaches and promotes rape.
Let’s deal with the problem of rape, which is a male issue irrespective of the nationality or ethnicity.
Why do rapes still go on in Finland if we live in a prosperous country where everybody has access to education?
Yossie, why dont you condemn the Finns who created a site and gather there to plot how to kill or get rid of us> http://mitavittua.fi/
I dont like to use easily the term called racism, but ive to say that this site shows how deeply racism is rooteds in this country. The people who post comments are from old to young people, everyday people, and most of them post their real face. Some of them are threatening us to be killed. \im not scared to be killed, you wanna kill, go ahead and doit, dont just post on the internet, DOIT!! i dont have nothing to lose, but atleast the world will now. These people just wanted an excuse to abuse us and now they got it. Yossie, are you to condemn this site or what…question mark……The threats made in that site is violant that it made news headlines.
Yossie, now, you and the ones like you made a big big noise that, the ones who already hated us got a reason to incite more fuel to the fire. Now we have a sites like this one http://mitavittua.fi/
plotting death threats against us, and majority of us never raped a woman not has it ever occured to our mind to harm innocent women. Are you happy now Yossie, that these people who hate us want out heads even tho majority of us are innocent….question mark…….
Enrique
Maybe no religion but there are cultural differences. In some places it is not seen like we see it here. Don’t even try to deny it. Also, it does not matter whether country is prosperous or if everyone has education. It’s not really something that needs to be educated. If you don’t get that attacking others is bad, then telling you so wont change it.
D4R
I condemn all violence, death threats and racist insults.
“I dont like to use easily the term called racism, but ive to say that this site shows how deeply racism is rooteds in this country”
So how is it, when it came to these attackers, you told us they were “bad apples” and we can’t blame you all. Why are you not applying the same standard here? That racist commenters are just bad apples and we should not blame all Finns.
Also, I have asked you this many times, now answer:
Why do you think the boys did what they did?