Anti-Hate Crime Organisation Finland

STATEMENT: Yle should stop picking on minority youths and stick to facts

It was in 2020 when Helsingin Sanomat published a big story about the dangers of youth gang violence in Helsinki. The story received a lot of criticism because it spread the misinformation that youth crime is rising in Helsinki and Greater Helsinki.

It isn’t surprising that the state-owned broadcaster, Yle, has spread the issue, especially after Sweden’s parliamentary election, which was won by the far-right Sweden Democrats, which took up youth gang violence as one of their main campaign issues.

The tactic by the Sweden Democrats and the right-wing Moderates paid off.

Considering Finland will hold parliamentary elections in April, it should not surprise us that the far-right Finns Party and its National Coalition Party partner are feverishly searching for a successful campaign issue that centers on migrants and minorities.

In all three parliamentary elections last decade, the PS’s good showing was boosted by some news involving asylum seekers, mainly Muslims:

The 2011 parliamentary election, when the PS won 39 seats from 5 previously, was helped by reporting that was more amazed at the new racist kid on the political block. Even parties like the Social Democrats started copying the PS’ anti-immigration rhetoric. PS rising political “stars” like Jussi Halla-aho, James Hirvisaari, Juho Erola, Timo Soini, and others got their places under the sun. Things were so bad back then that Islamophobes were invited to give their opinions on talk shows about immigration policy..
In the 2015 parliamentary election, when the PS duplicated its 2011 result by gaining 38 seats, a rape happened in the Helsinki neighborhood of Tapanila one month before the election. The crime got a lot of attention in the media, and Yle went as far as to ask people of the Somali community why “they always rape.” The police also helped by labeling the suspects “people of foreign decent,” even if they were born in Finland. Why was it essential for the public to know the latter?
The PS got another present in the 2019 election when suspects, mainly asylum seekers, were accused of sexually harassing minors. Even if the media, and the police, who warned people to stay away from foreigners, reached hysterical levels, the PS, with the aid of parties like the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus), promised to get tough on migrants. The PS almost won the parliamentary election in April.

Is youth gang violence in Finland one of the winning campaign issues for April’s parliamentary election?

So far, Yle has brought the issue to the public through A-studio and Monday’s 8:30 pm news. Who is making such editorial decisions?

The *Yle* reporter introduces the topic: “Shootings in public places, bragging about criminals and showing it on social media indicate that street gang criminal activity has grown in Finland, according to the police.” Source: *Yle*

Many questions arise from such reporting. Some of the main ones are if gang violence is a problem, like in Sweden and why it is an issue today. Doesn’t the media bear any responsibility for labeling all minority youths?

STATEMENT: The parliamentary election has begun for the Finns Party

The far-right Finns Party (PS) is actively campaigning for the upcoming parliamentary election in April. The party published Monday its so-called “Finnishness program on Monday,” Suomalaisuuden ohjelma 2022.

The program attacks two groups: migrants and Finland’s Swedish-speaking minority.

The hostility and simplistic arguments against these two groups resemble an angry and spiteful person willing to lie and cheat to get his or her way.

The PS’ main argument in the program is to also play the usual victim. One of the arguments is that Swedish speakers, never mind migrants, “do not strengthen the linguistic cohesion and identity of Finnish speakers.”

In the PS xenophobic bubble. there is a surrealistic hope that Finland will return to a time that never existed, a time when everyone was white and spoke Finnish as their main language.

I’m not surprised the host on A-studio Tuesday, Marja Sannikka, did not ask the PS leader, Riikka Purra, to elaborate on her dog-whistle tweets of closing the border to all Russians.

Fortunately, Sannikka rebuffed Purra’s claim in a later tweet, where the PS leader claimed on her show that Russian asylum seekers would be treated on a one-by-one basis.

A later tweet below demanded that the border should be shut to all Russians.

RIikka Puura tweets: “Russia blows up gas pipelines and incorporates areas to itself, kills, rapes, destroys without remorse. I was asked many times at the studio how many Russians we should take and help. Close the border [to all Russians]. National security proceeds everything.

**Marja Sannikka tweets: “You did not say it that way on air, but those Russian asylum seekers would be treated individual**ly and receive asylum if they meet the requirements. Thus you are not closing the border [to Russian asylum seekers].”

Purra’s tweets expose lies and deception. Say one thing and then another.

The PS has inflicted Finnish politics with cancer spreading thanks to conspiracy theories and alternate reality. We must challenge the disease or let our Nordic democracy die and turn into a country like Hungary.

For further information contact:

Enrique Tessieri, chairperson, Anti-Hate Crime Organisation Finland

+358 40 8400773

editor@migranttales.net

* Anti-Hate Crime Organisation Finland was founded in September 2018 and registered as an NGO the following month. The aim of the NGO is to tackle and eradicate hate crime and all forms of discrimination in Finland such as anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, Afrophobia, misogyny, and other forms of social exclusion through education and training, seminars, events, conferences, among others.

STATEMENT: How the police and justice system play down hate crime

The Southern Ostrobothnia district court ruling of the Fares Al-Abaidi case is in our opinion a miscarriage of justice. It shows how the police and the courts play down racist crime.

Imagine scores of people attacked Al-Abaidi in June 2020, but only one person was convicted for assault. Racism was not a motive for what happened.

Some questions arise when looking at the case.

Its long 26-month length;
Not all of the suspects were questioned by the police;
No hate crime charges were brought; racism had nothing to do with the cause of the incident;
The district court judge gave his sentence on the same day as the trial began, which is extremely rare in Finland.

Were all these factors due to limited police resources?

Al-Abaidi was disappointed with the ruling as we were.

“He got away with only a fine while my life changed completely,” said Al-Abaidi. “I was very disappointed [with the sentence],” he admitted. “It was a very, very bad decision.”

Fortunately, Al-Abaidi has appealed the ruling.

This is important not only for the victim, who was eighteen when he was assaulted but for Finland’s racialized communities.

While it is surprising that only one person was fined and convicted in Al-Abaidi’s case, he should prepare – like Musta Barbaari’s six-year struggle for justice – for a long battle before seeing justice.

All good people should join Al-Abaidi and demand justice for what happened.

For further information contact:

Enrique Tessieri, chairperson, Anti-Hate Crime Organisation Finland

+358 40 8400773

editor@migranttales.net

STATEMENT: Don’t blame migrants and minorities for growing social segregation

Finland’s largest daily, Helsingin Sanomat, published an editorial Thursday about how social segregation is growing in Finland. That follows a story about how some schools in Espoo have more pupils who speak other languages than Finnish, Swedish, or Saami.

The editorial plays down the problem of social segregation by not addressing issues like institutional racism, while the other story on Espoo schools gives the impression that “foreign” languages are a threat to Finnish culture and society.

Both stories overlook some salient issues why social segregation has grown in recent years in Finland. Helsingin Sanomat reveals a Freudian slip by not stating in the story and editorial core issues like institutional racism and ineffective housing and social policy.

According to the EU, urban segregation is the unequal distribution of different social groups based on occupation, income, education, gender, and ethnicity. In recent years, the gap has widened.

**Social segregation is a growing problem in Finland as in Europe. Source: Google**

Blaming the residents of specific neighborhoods and not addressing the root causes of growing social inequality means that Finland will do little to nothing to halt ever-growing social segregation in Finland.

Lowder voices and activism are needed.

This may be easier said than done in a country still in deep denial about its racism problem.

For further information contact:

Enrique Tessieri, chairperson, Anti-Hate Crime Organisation Finland

+358 40 8400773

editor@migranttales.net

Vastine: Homogeeninen kansallisvaltio? Ei kiitos!

Olimme yllättyneet Perussuomalaisten (Ps) nuorison kolmannen varapuheenjohtajan Lauri Laitisen kirjoituksesta,* joilla hän puolusti kansallisvaltiota ja sen etnistä ja kielelistä homogeenisuutta.

Myös yllätyimme miksi Helsingin Sanomat julkaisi kirjoituksen jossa on niin paljon epäasiallisuus. Voisinko minä julkaista esim. kirjoituksen jossa vaadin naisten paluuta hellan ääreen?

Tällaiset ajatukset eivät ole mitään uutta. Natsi-Saksan sotarikollinen Alfred Rosenberg, joka tuomittiin ja hirtettiin Nuremburgin oikeudenkäynnin jälkeen, väitti, että Saksalaisten “arjalainen-rotu” voisi saavuttaa suuruuden vasta, kun se olisi päässyt eroon vähemmistöistä, kuten juutalaisista.

Rosenbergin kirjoituksia suositellaan yhä luettavaksi Suomen Sisulla.yhä luettavaksi Suomen Sisulla.

Voidaan kysyä kuinka homogeeniset kansallisvaltiot ovat “luonnollisia” jos niitä on luotu väkivallalla ja toisten ryhmien sortamisen tai hävittämisen kautta.

Vaikka Laitisen historian tuntemus tai valikoiva muistinmenetys on ilmeistä, hänen kirjoitus paljastaa huolestuvampaa seikan: Perussuomalaisten flirttailu tai pyrkimys “homogeenisen kansallisvaltioon.”

Vaikka Ps vastustaa kiivaasti kulttuurista ja etnistä moninaisuutta, he eivät tarjoa ratkaisuja siihen, miten homogeenisuus saavutetaan. Miten Riikka Purran ja Jussi Halla-ahon puolue aikoo pysäyttää kulttuurista moninaisuutta?

Ainoa vastaus, joka minulla tulee mieleen on valeuutisten ja populismin levittäminen ja/tai muuttamalla demokraattista järjestelmää kuten olemme nähneet Unkarissa ja Republikaaninen puoluessa Yhdysvalloissa.

Enrique Tessieri

Ahti Tolvanen

Suomen viharikosvastainen yhdistys ry

* Lähetimme vastine Helsingin Sanomille (27.5.) tuloksetta.

STATEMENT: A hate crime is a hate crime, period

There are too many bad examples in Finland of how due justice takes too long when it comes to investigating hate crimes and other social ills like discrimination, racism, and hate speech.

One of these cases is when Fares Al-Obaidi was viciously attacked by over ten people from the Western Finnish town of Teuva. Despite the Corona pandemic and other factors that may have come into play, the case has taken over a year and eight months to investigate and bring to justice those who are guilty.

The incident, which changed a young Iraqi youth’s life, happened on June 6, 2020 when over ten suspected townspeople from the Western Finnish town of Teuva physically attacked Al-Obaidi. His car was also later vandalized.

Al-Obaidi was questioned by the police earlier last month, and one of the surprising matters that turned up was that the suspects, who attacked the young Iraqi, allege that they were provoked and attacked.

“I denied this to the police,” he explained. “I made it clear [to the investigating police officer, Aki Perämäki] that it was the townspeople of Teuva who started the incident [and attacked me].”

Moreover, the motivation for attacking him, according to Al-Obaidi, was that he wasn’t a white Finn.

**Not only was Fares Al-Obaidiattacked by over 10 people in Teuvaa on June 3, 2020, but his car was also vandalized as well. Source: Facebook**

We hope that the Seinäjoki police charge the perpetrators and also include hate crime as a factor.

Finland must get real about hate crimes and call a hate crime for what it is, a hate crime.

For further information contact:

Enrique Tessieri, chairperson, Anti-Hate Crime Organisation Finland

+358 40 8400773

admin@nohatefinland.org

Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe pays visit to Finland

Together with other NGOs, Anti-Hate Crime Organisation Finland met Thursday with representatives of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The fact-finding mission by OSCE is to get a first-hand view of the discrimination that religious groups and others in Finland. Sitting from left to right: Dr. Thomas Babila Sama (Anti-Hate Crime Organisation Finland), Ambassador Mehmet Paçacı (Turkey), PR in OSCE on Combating Intolerance against Muslims, Wael Cheblak (standing, Anti-Hate Crime Organisation Finland), and Dr. Regina Polak, PR in OSCE on Combatting Racism, Xenophobia, and Discrimination, also focusing on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians and Members of Other Religions.

Further information:

STATEMENT: The great replacement theory and playing with fire

It was only in March when the Finnish Security Service (Supo) 2020 annual report warned that the great replacement theory is nothing more than a conspiracy theory used by far-right terrorist groups. Should we be surprised that Finns Party (PS) politicians like its leader Jussi Halla-aho, vice president Riikka Purra, and party secretary Simo Grönroos spread this type of dangerous racism?

While these politicians are stoking the fires of hatred in Finland. In the United States, the Anti-Defense League, stated in a letter to Fox News the dangers of spreading the “great replacement theory,” which is nothing more than “a classic white supremacist trope that undergirds the modern white supremacist movement in America.”

Writes Supo in its last-year report: “One of the most noteworthy ideological motives of far-right terrorists is known as the Great Replacement conspiracy theory based on the idea of a fundamental threat posed by immigration and multiculturalism to the white population of Western countries. Views reflecting the idea of a Great Replacement have been highlighted in several far-right terrorist attacks.”

While the PS supports these types of theories, it should not surprise us. What is worrying is the reaction of the media to the Supo report and why it didn’t raise much concern about the potential danger of such theories, which have been the ideological smoking gun of terrorist acts in Norway on 22/7 and recently in Christchurch, New Zealand.

While dailies like Helsingin Sanomat commented on the issue, they relied more on what Supo said than exploring the topic further. They should have asked why these types of “theories” are being spread by the PS and what potential they have to fuel home-grown terrorism.

Giving the long history of race-baiting by the PS, it is never too late to call out the party for what it is – racist and dangerous.

For further information contact:

Enrique Tessieri, chairperson, Anti-Hate Crime Organisation Finland

+358 40 8400773

admin@nohatefinland.org

STATEMENT: Migrants are NOT a homogeneous group – stop labeling us as such

We all know how far-right anti-immigration parties like the Finns Party classify migrants as one homogeneous group. They do this for the same reason as a racist would blame a whole group like 1.8 million Muslims for an act of terrorism.

This is common to other racialized groups in other countries. Blacks are all murderers when they kill a white person but a white person who carries out mass murder is a lone wolf or mentally deranged. Members of Group X are all criminals.

While the racist bias of xenophobic groups is not surprising, it is unfortunate that the media becomes an uncritical mouthpiece for their claims. The media knows better and should not refer to all migrants, even asylum seekers, as one unified group.

We should ask why the media and the general public, including some public servants and politicians, generalize about groups irresponsibly.

Their own racism and vantage point of white privilege are certainly factors.

We should demand more critical reporting by the media when speaking of migrants and especially when Islamophobic groups are making their racist rounds in public.

For further information contact:

Enrique Tessieri, chairperson, Anti-Hate Crime Organisation Finland

+358 40 8400773

admin@nohatefinland.org

STATEMENT: A style guide to writing about migration and avoiding words that hide our racism and denial

Below is a list of terms and observations together with recommendations for journalists and others that write about this topic, which NoHateFinland plans to update in the future:

Maahanmuuttajat is the term in Finnish for migrants. By using the term, we perpetuate stereotypes about this vastly diverse group. We generalize and, with it, fall into the trap of perpetuating stereotypes.
When a reporter interviews an Islamophobic politician and uses the term maahanmuuttajat liberally, he gives such a politician a free pass. If we dig deeper and try to decipher what the term means, it is a code word for non-EU nationals who are Muslims and come from Africa.
If you disagree, ask yourself if Swedes and other EU nationals are called maahanmuuttajat.
Using such a term to speak about “foreigners” is the same as grouping all Europeans into one category, which would be absurd. This is misleading and wrong.
The use of terms such as maahanmuuttajat is not only enabling an anti-immigration party to continue labeling and victimizing non-EU citizens, it also helps us to cover up and deny the racism in our society.
Maahanmuuttajataustainen, a person of foreign origin, is a sinister word used by anti-immigration politicians and public officials to intentionally or non-intentionally exclude first-generation Finns.
Here is a question: What would happen if we would drop the concept label “person of foreign origin” from our vocabulary? In my opinion, it would fast-forward inclusion.
One of the biggest question marks that first-generation Finns and minorities have is their exclusion and how their background does not make them “a real” Finn.
Using such terms encourages exclusion and a sense of outsiderness of such people who are equal members of this society on their own terms.
By using “person of foreign origin” on children born here and who speak Finnish as their main language, we strengthen white Finnish privilege. We tell such brown and black Finns that they are outsiders and that white people are the only cultural standard.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Hold an Islamophobic politician to account. When they paint non-White people with a broad brush as maahanmuuttajat, ask the person to specify. Are we speaking of Muslims, Africans, EU citizens, or what?
Even if it is an incomplete term, call first-generation people born here F i n n s, or brown, black, or Other Finns. Identity is a personal matter. Ask instead of automatically labeling a person into a certain group.
Strive to use language that is inclusive and does not polarize society into us and them. Anti-immigration parties use such language constantly and the media, unfortunately, follows suit.
Don’t ever use the term maahanmuuttokriittiinen, which is a rude synonym used by anti-immigration parties and politicians.
Have you noticed how only white Finns are using these terms?

For further information contact:

Enrique Tessieri, chairperson, Anti-Hate Crime Organisation Finalnd

+358 40 8400773

admin@nohatefinland.org