racism – No Hate Finland

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

* 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: 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

STATEMENT: Finland’s most Islamophobic assault so far in 2020 should be treated as a hate crime

On June 7 in the western Finnish town of Teuva a Muslim was attacked by white Finns. If we look at the bias indicators, three factors stand out: victim perception, the severety of the violence (the victim was taken to a hospital for treatement), and vandalizing and writing graffiti on his car.

While hate speech is not a hate crime, in this case, it is a strong case for bias motivation. The suspects threatened to kill him, and while assaulted, an older man asked him to “ask Allah for help.”

A hate crime is a criminal offense that has a bias motivation targeting a particular group that could be based on real or perceived gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, age, or disability.

Even if crimes are serious offenses, a hate crime can have a lasting impact on the victim and his community.

We are not the only ones who are concerned about eh racist aspect of the crime, The mayor of Teuva Veli Nummela, the town’s newspaper Tejuka were just as adamant about the motivation of the crime.

Nummela wrote in a blog: “We will evaluate these practices [anti-racism] at the beginning of the new school year. We want to do our best in the fight against racism and violence and respect for human rights.”

Tejukka‘s June 17 editorial, “Measuring civility,” openly condemns what happened to the Muslim, adding that “racism should not be accepted in any shape or form.”

The town newspaper also published several stories about the incident interviewing the victim, the police, and a foreigner living in Teuva.

The police are not ruling out a hate crime but appear not to be in any rush to do so.

According to the Criminal Code of Finland (766/2015), Section 5, there are grounds for increasing the punishment if the crime “was based on race, skin color, birth status, national of ethnic origin, religion or belief, sexual orientation or disability of another corresponding grounds.”

The police state: “For now there is no information that points to a hate crime but we are not excluding such a possibility.” No evidence of a hate crime (bias indicator)? For one, check out the victim’s car. Source: Poliisi

I spoke with the Muslim today, and he is recovering from what happened but is still clearly shaken by what happened.

“I will move [from Kristiinankaupunki] to Helsinki at the end of this month,” he said. “I cannot live here because I am afraid to go outside.”

The bias indicators of this crime speak for themselves and suggest that what happened was no ordinary crime but also a hate crime.

For further information contact:

Enrique Tessieri, chairperson, Anti-Hate Crime Organisation Finland

+358 40 8400773

admin@nohatefinland.org

STATEMENT: Somali Finn youth death is a sad reminder of similar cases

Today we heard the tragic death of an eighteen-year-old Somali Finn youth who died after two white Finns stabbed him at the Kannelmäki train station of Helsinki. The police have taken two suspects into custody. Investigations are ongoing.

The death of the young man, which is tragic and needless, brings a sense of DeJa’Vu concerning other similar crimes. Two that come to mind are the horrific events of Black February 2012, when three Muslims were killed in three weeks, a suicide, and a Finns Party councilman who offered to give a medal to a white Finn for killing one of these victims in cold blood.

The father of one of the victims wasn’t at all happy with how the police handled the case. He said that apart from not expressing any empathy for the parents’ grief, it was difficult to get any information from them about the crime.

“The police appeared to be more concerned about keeping the case under wraps because they feared a revenge attack by Somalis.

And then there was the brutal stabbing of a Pakistani migrant in February 2018 by three white youths.

Writes the Helsinki Times: “Assailants inflicted 20-30 stab wounds on the victim using knives and other edged weapons. His lips were also cut and was stabbed near the eye. Fortunately, the victim was transferred to the hospital urgently and underwent major surgery. Although still in ICU [intensive care unit] and in critical condition with severe injuries, his situation is not life-threatening anymore, and has regained consciousness.”

Much to the surprise of the victim and other NGOs following the case, no hate-crime charges were brought against the suspects. There was, however, a small consolation: the charges against the three youths were raised from suspected manslaughter to suspected murder.

An interesting matter to watch from the case is how long it will take for the police to determine if what happened was a hate crime or not.

admin@nohatefinland.org

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

* 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: 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

* 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: 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

What the SAS Airline ad forgot to mention: Racism was also copied

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON FEBRUARY 15, 2020

Recently SAS Airline made a video about how everything Scandinavian is copied culturally. What the video forgot to tell us is that even if it copies everything, it is selective about what it copies.

Remember the story about a Muslim Swede called Aye Alhassani, who was told flat out that she would have to take off her hijab if she wanted to work as a flight attendant?

Certainly, the SAS ad did not mention this. It didn’t even mention how different Scandinavian and Nordic countries like Finland copied racism.

“Thank you, colonialism, for being one of the roots of our present-day racism,” the SAS ad should state.

But the ad is right: Everything in our culture, everyone’s culture, is copied.

All of the anti-immigration populist parties in the Nordic region have grown strongly and even been in government.

The Progress Party of Norway recently exited the government because a woman and her two sick al-Hol refugee camp children were brought for treatment to the country.

The Danish People’s Party suffered a big blow in the last election but has succeeded at turning Denmark into one of the most Islamophobic countries in Europe.

Finland and Sweden, both, supposedly, examples of Nordic social equality, have the far-right Sweden Democrats and Perussuomalaiset leading in opinion polls.

No, SAS, there are some things Scandinavia and Finland would have been better off not copying.

Originally published by Migrant Tales.