Finns Party – No Hate Finland

STATEMENT: Spreading fake news the Finns Party way

STATEMENT 20.3.2020

ANTI-HATE CRIME ORGANISATION FINLAND

SUOMEN VIHARIKOSVASTAINEN YHDISTYS RY

FINSKA ANTI-HARBOTTSORGANISATION RF

The Finns Party (PS) are notorious for spreading fake news and reinforcing stereotypes about migrants. With the coronavirus pandemic, their pet topic – migrants and asylum seekers – do not attract the same attention as before.

PS MP and first vice president, Riikka Purra, said on a Yle’s A-talk that she has doubts about Finland’s health infrastructure. “I have received information from a hospital that they wash disposable equipment,” she tweeted, declining to say who her source is.

One old tactic used by anti-immigration and far-right parties is to make outrageous statements like Purra did. It does not matter if the story is true or not because it reached her followers.

We would not be surprised if the claim by Purra is only hot air. If she were speaking the truth, she’d get in touch with health authorities to investigate the claim.

It will not happen because her claim is most likely not true and in the fake-news fear-mongering league.

What she said should be strongly condemned.

admin@nohatefinland.org

* 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: Coronavirus, the far-right, us and the future

STATEMENT 18.3.2020

ANTI-HATE CRIME ORGANISATION FINLAND

SUOMEN VIHARIKOSVASTAINEN YHDISTYS RY

FINSKA ANTI-HARBOTTSORGANISATION RF

While the COVID-19, or coronavirus, is wreaking havoc to our societies and lifestyles, we should understand that to overcome this pandemic, we must first and foremost accept that we are in the same boat.

Being on the same boat means the whole boat and not just part of it facing the deadly pandemic, global economies in free fall, the threat of millions out of work, schools and borders closing, isolating the elderly, and staring into the unknown with question marks.

All of the latter is happening in a world that faces global warming and the largest-ever refugee crisis to date.

It is an opportune time to reflect on those factors that have brought us to where we are and why some of us believe that the best response we can offer to the present crisis is stocking up on toilet paper.

European far-right parties like the Finns Party (PS) are good examples of the toxic societies that they are trying to build with national greed and racism that is fed by us versus them.

We have no other choice today, but that challenge and beat back political forces that threaten to take us to wars that our grandparents and parents witnessed in World War 1 and 2.

The best defense that parties like the PS have is our denial. Without us knowing, our lack of courage to challenge social ills in our societies allow racists and Islamophobes to survive another day.

We are hopeful that when the COVID-19 crisis blows over, and if we are ready to take on board an important lesson, one of these is acknowledging that we are in the same boat. There is only one race: the human race.

The world will start to be a better place and far-right parties that spread hate, like the PS and others, will shrink in size and be exposed for what they are: a pandemic worse than COVID-19.

admin@nohatefinland.org

STATEMENT: The impact in Finland of populism on human rights and the rule of law

STATEMENT 7.3.2020

ANTI-HATE CRIME ORGANISATION FINLAND

SUOMEN VIHARIKOSVASTAINEN YHDISTYS RY

FINSKA ANTI-HARBOTTSORGANISATION RF

In recent days we have seen through the tragic events in Greece how the human rights of asylum seekers mean little. Such people, who have in many cases, fled war, are being used as political pawns by countries such as Turkey.

One matter is the far-right and Islamophobic Finns Party (PS) demanding that we pull out of international agreements that protect refugees and ditch human rights, another cause for concern is the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) willing to follow in the steps of the far-right party.

Kokoomus parliamentary group leader Kai Mykkänen stated after Greece decided to suspend asylum applications for a month that Finland should pass legislation to do the same.

“Finland must be prepared, if necessary, if we were exposed to pressure from a large number of [asylum] applications coming towards Finland,” he was quoted as saying in Yle and added that the country should be able to do what Greece did under exceptional circumstances.

The suggestion by Mykkänen is odd. Is there a threat to Finland from Russia? The answer is clear: Mykkänen is more interested in opinion polls than in the plight of refugees.

Ditching human rights even momentarily is the first step in restricting other civil rights that are supposed to be inalienable.

Kokoomus’ shameful suggestion reveals that human rights and democracy are expendable and can be shelved at will.

admin@nohatefinland.org

STATEMENT: The media must demand from populists of the Finns Party answers to their tough questions

STATEMENT 4.3.2020

ANTI-HATE CRIME ORGANISATION FINLAND

SUOMEN VIHARIKOSVASTAINEN YHDISTYS RY

FINSKA ANTI-HARBOTTSORGANISATION RF

Finns Party (PS) first vice president Riikka Purra reiterated on Yle’s A-studio Wednesday her party’s wish to end humanitarian-based immigration, which is code for Finland to ditch its international refugee agreements and respect for human rights.

If Purra and her party had their way, not one Muslim from a region like the Middle East could seek asylum in Finland.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Näyttökuva-2020-3-4-kello-22.00.54.png — PS MP Riikka Purra suspects that most of the people in Turkey’s refugee camps aren’t asylum seekers. Her solution to the Turkish-Greek border crisis is that millions of people should apply for asylum in Turkey. Source: Yle A-talk.

Article 14 of The UN Human Rights Declaration clearly states that,

(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

There has been a lot of discussion in Finland about the role of the media in fueling a hostile environment against migrants, especially Muslims and people of color.

An example of the above was shown in the A-studio interview when host Anikka Damström didn’t care to ask what ending humanitarian-based immigration would imply for Finland and its international commitments.

Damström’s first question was if the 10,000-100,000 people at the Turkish-Greek border are in need of asylum. The question is a loaded one in a country that suspects asylum seekers all the way up to the president of Finland, Sauli Niinistö.

What kind of a country would be if it stopped respecting human rights? We only have to look at Poland and Hungary to get an answer to the question.

Finnish journalism should get real and start to ask politicians tough questions and demand answers.

Without vigilant media, we are doomed to maintaining and living with Finland’s hostile environment against migrants and minorities.

Without leadership from the media and Finland’s political class, populist and Islamophobic parties like the PS will continue to cast their dark shadow on the country.

admin@nohatefinland.org

STATEMENT: We need answers from the Finns Party and rapidly

STATEMENT 1.3.2020

ANTI-HATE CRIME ORGANISATION FINLAND

SUOMEN VIHARIKOSVASTAINEN YHDISTYS RY

FINSKA ANTI-HARBOTTSORGANISATION RF

After the Finns Party (PS) Youth leader Toni Jokinen scandal hit the fan hard after he admitted that he is “an ethnonationalist, traditionalist, and a fascist, there are a lot of questions that need to be answered.

One of these burning questions is if we want to allow our well-functioning social welfare society to be destroyed by ethnonationalism and fascism.

Before we get to the answer to that question, it would be important that our media grows more teeth and that politicians show more leadership in defending our values and way of life, which include social equality for all irrespective of one’s background.

A good way of challenging parties like the PS is to demand some straight questions. Here are some I would ask:

The PS wants to bar Muslims and people of color from coming to Finland. Does this mean that you will ditch international agreements like the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, European Convention on Human Rights and the UN Declaration of Human Rights?
Does the PS believe that these radical changes, which would imply Finland leaving the EU, are possible?
The PS wants to scrap hate speech laws. How will you assure that migrants and minorities won’t become victims of racist harassment and hate crime?
Could the PS define what is racism and social equality?
What does social equality mean? Is it only a white Finnish right?
Your party clearly states that it does not want Finland to be culturally and ethnically diverse. (Duh. It already is). If this is the case, and it is, what are you going to do about all those who are not white like you and live in Finland?
Is the PS going to put them in camps, islands and/or send them back to where they, their parents or grandparents came from?
When the PS speaks of making radical changes in immigration law, does this mean that migrants and minorities will become officially treated as second- and third-class citizens before the law?
Tell us specifically what would Finland look like if you had your way in changing immigration law and the constitution? What would you do to people who oppose such changes?

There are many other hard questions that could be asked to PS politicians.

It is our hope and wish that not only the media but many other sectors of Finland wake up to the threat that the PS pose.

One more question to Halla-aho: Do you believe that you will succeed in changing society to fit your ethnonationalist and far-right world view?

admin@nohatefinland.org

* Anti-Hate Crime Organisation Finland was founded in September and registered as an NGO in October. 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: Alternate reality or getting real

STATEMENT 28.2.2020

ANTI-HATE CRIME ORGANISATION FINLAND

SUOMEN VIHARIKOSVASTAINEN YHDISTYS RY

FINSKA ANTI-HARBOTTSORGANISATION RF

This week has been a very sobering moment for some circles in Finland after former Finns Party (PS) Youth second vice president Toni Jalonen admitted that he is “an ethnonationalist, traditionalist, and a fascist.”

But that was only a part of the PS’ circus show. We heard PS MP Ano Turtiainen justifying a civil war if a Christian Democrat MP were convicted of ethnic agitation. There was also PS MEP Laura Hutasaari who labeled members of right-wing parties like the National Coalition Party as communists.

With the PS Youth holding a do-or-die meeting on Saturday to change the bylaws, it may well be that the youth organization may implode and break away from the PS if the bylaw changes do not materialize.

The disconcerted situation of the PS should not surprise us. What can you expect from a party whose only ideology is Islamophobia and other far-right “goodies” like ethnonationalism and massive deportations of Muslims?

The PS lives in a state of an alternate reality upheld by racism and myths. Even so, the rest of society should not look away and bury its head in the sand to challenge the menace that the PS poses on our way of life.

It’s time to get real, assess the threat and act.

admin@nohatefinland.org

STATEMENT: Residential periods for citizenship should be lowered, not increased

The Islamophobic Finns Party (PS) has submitted a draft law that will raise the residential period to get Finnish citizenship to ten years from five years now, reports Helsingin Sanomat.

While wishing to raise the residential period to ten years is nothing new, it is a good example of how the PS wants to retard non-Finns from being full members of society.

The solution to integration is very simple: The faster you grant citizenship, the faster people can become full members of society. If you are a foreigner, you cannot vote in parliamentary and presidential elections.

The PS’ draft law is disingenuous. It states that Finnish citizenship should be granted only to people who will integrate and that they won’t commit crimes.

PS parliamentary group leader Ville Tavio stated in Helsingin Sanomat that citizenship too quickly. It would be a pull factor for people who cannot find work to bring their families.

Tavio forgets conveniently to state that only about 10% of all foreigners living in Finland came as refugees.

The draft law proposed by the PS has nothing to do with ensuring safety in Finland or saving taxes spent on migrants but to perpetuating the injustice that non-Finns face and who are the mercy of anti-immigration parties like the PS.

ANTI-HATE CRIME ORGANISATION FINLAND

admin@nohatefinland.org

STATEMENT: The killings in Germany are a warning to Finland and the rest of Europe

The killings that took place in Germany and which caused the murder of nine people at two hookah bars not only sends shock waves in Germany but to the rest of Europe.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the gunman, whose murderous deeds were apparently fueled by far-right extremism.

She stated:

“However, most currently indicates that the perpetrator acted out of far-right, racist motives fueled by hate against people with different backgrounds, a different religion, or different appearance. Racism is poison. Hatred is poison.”

With the rise of parties like the Finns Party (PS) since 2011, minorities in Finland have also witnessed hate because they may be of a different religion or look different.

Demonizing groups like Muslims and labeling them as “an invasive species” by a PS MP or spreading fear about how white Finns will become a minority in their country is the same type of poison that Merkel warned.

Hatred against Muslims, people of color, Jews, and other visible minorities has not unfortunately subsided in Finland but picked up speed.

Even if we saw home-grown terrorist attacks against asylum reception centers and the rise of the far-right as a result of a large number of asylum seekers that came here in 2015, we should take what happened in Germany as a wake-up call.

ANTI-HATE CRIME ORGANISATION FINLAND

admin@nohatefinland.org