The European Islamophobia Report 2020 was published on December 29. Below is the Finland chapter of the report. The editors for the report are Dr. Enes Bayrakli and Dr. Farid Hafez. While the government of Prime Minister Sanna Marin has tried to roll back some of the draconian immigration law measures of the previous government,
Read on »Posts Tagged: Europe
Danger of white terrorist attacks in Norway and Europe. What about Finland?
A report by the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) warns that Norway and Europe may suffer from terrorist attacks in the next few months against Muslims, Jews, and the LGBTQ community, reports Yle, citing the Norwegian Police Security Service. PST cites the Christchurch attack against two mosques in New Zealand in March as a source
Read on »We will not forget who is Halla-aho, Huhtasaari, Salvini, Le Pen, Farage and other past and present far-right politicians
Even if far-right parties made some gains in the European elections, their party was crashed by the Green wave that swept Europe.
Read on »New York Times: Hillary Clinton should blame European racism, not migrants for the rise of populism
Hillary Clinton says that migration is the main reason for feeding European populism. Migrant Tales disagrees. Europe is such a racist region plagued by its colonial and post-colonial history that was and still has its hands drenched in genocide and exploitation. Don’t blame the migrants, Clinton. Blame European racism for the rise in populism.
Read on »QUOTE OF THE DAY: Stop debating with fascists and racists
Migrant Tales insight: Aleksander Hemon states in his eloquent article about fascism that we should not waste any time debating but that “it is a set of actions to fight.” In the essay, he admits feeling guilty and ashamed of his cowardice and naivety that just talking to a fascist might bring him back. In
Read on »The would-be mini Trumps: Geert Wilders, Marine Le Pen, Frauke Petry, Jussi Halla-aho and other autocrats
We have commented that President Donald Trump’s erratic and autocratic style may be a curse on the US but a blessing for Europe since his style may scare away potential voters who don’t want far-right politicians like Geert Wilders, Marine Le Pen, Frauke Petry and others.
Read on »W. Che: Everyone has a home
Migrants’ Rights Network: Walls and borders
Are walls and tighter border controls the answer to the big questions on immigration? Do they achieve what their advocates set out to do? Or should the world aim to return to a time when less xenophobia and more trust in people was the order of the day?
Read on »Donald Trump and the post-election European horror story
We don’t mean to scare you with this tweet below. But it’s interesting to note how the Donald Trump’s rise to the US presidency is bringing out the absolute worst in Europe.
Read on »We have the means to challenge and beat xenophobia and fascism in today’s Europe
Even if we should be concerned about the rise of xenophobia and fascism, which disguises itself with populist anti-immigration rhetoric in Europe, there’s one matter that should worry us the most: silence and apathy.
Read on »Asylum seekers have exposed Europe’s schizophrenia and bigotry
Nothing could depict better Europe’s schizophrenia and hypocrisy concerning asylum seekers than what happened recently in eastern Germany, where a building that was going to house them was ablaze and cheered by some onlookers, according to the BBC.
Read on »Migrants’ Rights Network: 2015 – The year when immigration became an indissolubly European issue
Halfway through December seems like a good time to sketch out some ideas on what 2015 might come to mean in a history of immigration which has yet to be written.
Read on »Institute of Race Relations: A secret punishment
An important new report by Medical Justice, ‘A Secret Punishment’ – the misuse of segregation in immigration detention, highlights the human damage caused by the use of segregation in immigration detention, as well as its political purposes.
Read on »Migration Pulse: What the refugee crisis says about race in Europe
While many Europeans have felt growing humanitarian concern on being confronted with images of desperation among refugees seeking entry, across the continent a large minority have suggested any sympathy is misplaced.
Read on »Finland Bridge: What threatens us?
Everything that puts Europe in harm’s way today is in some cases more challenging to Finland: geopolitical uncertainty in Russia ranks high on the list as does populism, anti-immigration sentiment, near-flat economic growth, high unemployment, rising poverty and nationalism.
Read on »Migrant Tales (January 26, 2013): Making torture and hate acceptable
Even if the media in the United States speaks of torture as something recent, the truth is that it has been going on for a very long time. These type of barbaric interrogation techniques were widely used in the last century in regions like Latin America. The CIA and the United States trained and promoted torture and state-sponsored terrorism in places like the School of the Americas.
Read on »Migrant’s Rights Network: How the legacy of racism continues to make ‘others’ out of migrant people
The ongoing crisis on the Mediterranean has shed light on an old unsolved – and clearly so often poorly addressed problem at the heart of Europe: namely its relation with its Other.
Read on »Who would you believe? PS MP Hakkarainen or the little girl at sea?
Who would it be? Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Teuvo Hakkarainen who got reelected below for claiming that newcomers should adapt or ship out of Finland and “a sharp no to asylum tourism,” or the silence of a little girl at sea? Yes, right, this is the very PS MP who sent an SMS message wth a picture of
Read on »Migrant Tales (June 16, 2012): The crux of European racism – too little inclusion, too much race and blood
Much of the way Europeans perceive themselves as a group today is still deeply embedded in racism. The fact that we haven’t yet even started to confront the legacy of colonialism, which fuels our ”us” and ”them” view of the world, reveals a disturbing fact: There’s still too little inclusion and acceptance in this part
Read on »My identity is mine, not yours, so stop labeling me according to your prejudices
Don’t let anyone, no one, ever define who you are. That’s your right and never give it away. Why do some public services like the police even some migrants believe they have the right to define who are? The police do it constantly. Every time they label a person or group as a person with “foreign”
Read on »Institute of Race Relations: Deaths of Europe’s ‘unwanted and unnoticed’ migrants exposed
IRR European News Team The IRR publishes a disturbing new report, Unwanted, unnoticed: an audit of 160 asylum and immigration-related deaths in Europe, revealing the extent of Europe’s departure from its vaunted humanitarian ideals.
Read on »Migrant Tales Literary: Peep show
Leo Honka Folks! We’re not going to visit a traditional peep show with women or men but one where all your bigotry, hate, and racism undress before you. Social media peep show sites like Hommaforum* are such places. People visit them anonymously and get all excited by their lewd thoughts. They too undress but with
Read on »Racism Review: #JeSuisCharlie? Maybe if you’re white!
Raul Perez Now that some of the dust has settled following the shooting of 12 cartoonists from the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris, the numbers are in. According to a recent Pew survey (n=1,003), 3 in 4 Americans heard about the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and 60% supported the magazine’s depiction of the Prophet
Read on »European Network Against Racism: Muslims in Europe – Questions and Answers
European Network Against Racism (ENAR)* As anti-Muslim manifestations increase in Europe, particularly in the aftermath of the Paris and Copenhagen attacks, we clarify some misconceptions and answer some of the most frequent questions about Muslims in Europe. Visit original posting here. Q: Who are Muslim Europeans? Muslims have been present in Europe since the
Read on »Are we sowing the seeds of a second Holocaust in Europe?
If we look at this famous, or infamous, picture of Germans rounding up Jews in Warsaw to be sent to a death camp, a harrowing question emerges: Could it happen again? Instead of Jews would there be Roma, Muslims or even Jews being escorted at gunpoint to a box car? Even if such a question
Read on »Institute of Race Relations: ‘Apologists for terrorism:’ dissent and the limits of free expression
Frances Webber Freedom of thought, expression and inquiry is under renewed threat from governments which, paradoxically, claim to be fighting to preserve freedom of expression in Europe. The ongoing case of a Belgian prison teacher issued with a work ban on national security grounds, and other disturbing cases of exclusion and criminalisation that have occurred
Read on »Social media Frankensteins
Ever wondered how a wannabe becomes a social media hit by spreading hatred and racism? There are a lot of these types of politicians and characters around who with low budgets become famous and even get elected thanks to social media. They are called #SocialMediaFrankensteins. With the help of social media and many blind followers, some
Read on »Racism Review: Je Ne Suis Pas Charlie: A Critical View
To be frank, the magazine Charlie Hebdo deserves criticism, not praise—despite the horrific events that have unfolded. While I am certainly not condoning the murder of its staff members, I do find them guilty of Islam-bashing and inconsiderately expressing religious intolerance, cultural ethnocentrism, and extremely poor human judgment, issues that should be important to antiracists
Read on »Are the sour fruits of the Charlie Hebdo attack the usual ones of hypocrisy and denial?
What fruits will the Charlie Hebido attack yield? Will we engage in debate or find comfort in denial? Will we succumb to easy answers and hypocrisy or to openness? Since some claim that free speech was attacked last week, a tweet by Daniel Wickham raised some poignant questions about Sunday’s march against terrorism. The London School for Economics
Read on »Arson attack against mosque in Sweden is another red light flashing in the roaring silence
A mosque in Sweden that was hit by arson on Christmas Day is the latest warning that we cannot stand idly to the ever-rising tide of Islamophobia and far-right violence griping Europe these days. Words are not regular bullets that kill instantly but are time bombs that can explode anywhere and anytime. The attack against the
Read on »Institute of Race Relations: Roma – fascism’s first victims, again
Liz Fekete Anti-Roma violence draws strength from fascist ideas that linger on in mainstream European thought. On 15 September, a Roma man from Romania, homeless in Sweden, died of injuries sustained on 31 August, when a fire broke out at a Roma temporary tent camp in Högdalen, southern Stockholm. We will probably never know whether
Read on »European Network Against Racism first hate speech report
In March, the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) and European Region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans & Intersex Association (ILGA-Europe) launched an Appeal for an election campaign free from discrimination and intolerance, urging European parties to condemn discriminatory or intolerant remarks during the European Parliament election campaign. An online form was launched, enabling
Read on »The anti-immigration menace in Europe and Finland is real and we must do something to challenge it
Migrants were very active in the early 1980s and on October 19, 1982 we marched for the first time since a group of East Pakistanis, today Bangladesh, marched from Helsinki to Turku in the early 1970s demanding work. The march by the East Pakistanis may have been the first by foreigners in Finland. Migrants and
Read on »Cultural and ethnic diversity are who we are
When you do everything possible to undermine diversity you end up letting out the genie out of the bottle. If we look at the political climate in Finland today with the rise of an anti-EU, anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam party like the Perussuomalaiset (PS) in 2011, it’s clear that the genie
Read on »European Network Against Racism report highlights Finland’s racism and discrimination challenges
Shadow reports on racism in Europe by the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) reveals something we’ve not known and written about on Migrant Tales for a long time. Apart from racism and discrimination happening in employment, the question behind the question is why is this still an issue? Why are governments still doing too little?
Read on »Why are Europe’s Islamophobic politicians and parties so “pro-Israel?”
Are you sometimes surprised to read about how many far-right anti-immigration groups are so pro-Israel? Some, like anti-Islam Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Juho Eerola of Finland, may go as far as to draft a written question to parliament demanding that Muslims renounce publicly their hatred of gays and Jews. A posting by Migrant Tales reposted on
Read on »Burst the hate bubble of anti-immigration groups
When you listen to anti-immigration politicians and groups, there’s one matter that exposes them to the tee: Constant whining without any solutions. They don’t give you the solution to the problem because they simply have none to offer. Read full story here. The Nazis were questionably pro-active on ethnic issues. As we saw from 1933,
Read on »Why do we still hesitate to challenge intolerance in Finland?
I had an interesting chat yesterday with an old friend about racism in Finland. One of the matters we agreed was that Finland hasn’t reached that stage where we accept that racism exists and that concrete steps must be taken to challenge it. This fact leads us to a second important question: Why? The answer
Read on »The Roma blonde girl in Greece and the shadow of intolerance
When I first read about Maria, the blonde girl that was discovered in Greece belonging to an unrelated Roma couple, a number of disturbing questions arose. One of these was an obvious one: Why so much interest by the media? It would take a while for the red herring to be exposed. It eventually became
Read on »Migrants’ Rights Network: Another tragedy in Lampedusa, one too many
Clara Dublanc* The migrant boat disaster off Lampedusa has highlighted the struggle of Southern EU members to deal with migrant flows. It is time that Europe steps up and accepts shared responsibilities for the external borders of the Union. Last Thursday 3rd October, the small Italian island of Lampedusa witnessed
Read on »ENAR condemns racism against blacks in Europe
MT comment: The statement by the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) was published five days before the fiftieth anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s “I have a dream” speech, and the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and of its Abolition. Millions of black Europeans are still victims of racism and discrimination
Read on »Why aren’t we outraged enough by intolerance?
Finnish department store J. Kärkkäinen’s Magneettimedia writings are a disturbing sign of how anti-Semitism, like anti-immigration and anti-Islam sentiment, have gained a foothold in Finland. And why shouldn’t it find fertile ground to grow in this country? During the past years, the genie of intolerance has been let out of the bottle and it shows. We’re
Read on »Why we must challenge anti-immigration parties across Europe
A political party that bases its popularity on anti-immigration and populist rhetoric is like playing a risky political game of Russian roulette. The game continues until the only bullet in the revolver goes off in your head. Higher bets are placed each time that the revolver doesn’t fire: more xenophobia, more hate speech, more racist
Read on »Dissecting Finnish racism and bigotry
“Racism is like a Cadillac, they bring out a new model every year.” Malcolm X (1925-65) The quote by one of the most powerful voices to emerge from the U.S. Civil Rights Movements, reveals how racism survived in the 1960s to see another day. Even though the quote by Malcolm X was made about a
Read on »ENAR press statement: Riots in Sweden – time for government to finally address ethnic minorities’ exclusion
Comment: As Migrant Tales has written on a number of postings, the riots in Sweden mirror the dire situation of some immigrant groups in that country and how marginalized they are from the rest of society. ______ Brussels, 28 May 2013 – The ongoing riots in Stockholm, Sweden are a strong wake-up call for
Read on »The biggest threat to Europe are those who claim to be afraid on our behalf
I’m neither afraid of cultural diversity nor terrorism. Being against different cultures in a globalized world is like being against sex. Cultural diversity, interculturalism and sex are part of the human condition. You cannot make them illegal in any way, shape or form. If we’d embrace far right and mainstream anti-immigration ideologies so common in today’s
Read on »ENAR press statement: British soldier’s murder is unacceptable but should not result in a racist backlash
Comment: This statement by the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) says that all types of violence should be condemned. We strongly condemn the murder committed against a member of the British armed forces. _______ Brussels, 23 May 2013 – The European Network Against Racism (ENAR) strongly condemns the hateful murder committed against a British member
Read on »Statement by the Council of Europe’s Human Rights Commissioner: “Europe must combat racist extremism and uphold human rights”
Migrant Tales comment: This statement by the the Council of Europe’s Human Rights commissioner, Nils Muižnieks, is a good example of how racist anti-immigration groups are gaining more power in Europe. In Finland we saw the spectacular rise of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party in 2011. Finland’s anti-EU, anti-immigration and anti-Islam voice got stronger in parliament. Matters
Read on »We speak of two-way integration but too many still believe in assimilation
Finland’s integration law is exemplary in many respects because it aims to integrate newcomers as equals in our society. No law is, however, written in stone and is only as good as the institutions and people that enforce it. One of the matters that some have a difficult time grasping is what two-way adaption, or integration,
Read on »Whiteness and white privilege speak European languages
As we hold our collective breaths and await to know the identity of the bombings in Boston Monday, too many don’t see a suspect but a whole ethnicity or religious group. Tim Wise put it very well in an opinion piece where he makes some distributing revelations about the power of whiteness. If we understand
Read on »Julian Abagond: The term “illegal immigrant”
By Julian Abagond The term “illegal immigrant” (1930s- ) means an undocumented immigrant, one without papers to stay in the country. The older term was ”illegal alien”, common in English in the 1970s and 1980s, rare in American news stories since 2003. An illegal immigrant can mean someone who: crossed the border illegally, overstayed a student or
Read on »Three news stories that expose the challenges facing Europe: Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, anti-Roma and official approval of the latter
Three stories this week spoke volumes about the challenges facing Europe during these times: discrimination against Muslims is widespread in many European countries; a string of anti-Semitic attacks have been reported in Eastern Europe; and Hungary’s top journalism prize is awarded to an anti-Semitic and Roma basher. Despite their geographic differences, all three stories are related shedding light on
Read on »ENAR announcement: Recycling hatred – racism(s) in Europe today
The European Network Against Racism (ENAR) will organize a policy forum at the Institute for European Studies (IES), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, on 7th March 2013 in order to launch the ENAR publication, entitled “Recylcing hatred: racism(s) in Europe today.” For more information go to the following link. Recyling hatred #1 Recyling hatred #2
Read on »Making torture and hate acceptable
Even if the media in the United States speaks of torture as something recent, the truth is that it has been going on for a very long time. These type of barbaric interrogation techniques were widely used in the last century in regions like Latin America. The CIA and the United States trained and promoted torture and state-sponsored terrorism in places like the School of the Americas.
Read on »Rule number one about racism: Don’t generalize!
It is amazing that people who should know better have never learned one very important fact: Don’t generalize about ethnic groups. We’d avoid a lot of harm to ourselves (living in the narrow world of hate and racism) and others (labeling and victimizing) if we stopped generalizing about ethnic groups. The suggestion by Kai Haavisto,
Read on »Why was Finland “tolerant” of Jews when it was an ally of Nazi Germany?
Finns claim proudly – followed by an obvious sigh of relief – that even if we were an ally of Nazi Germany during World War 2, anti-Semitism never reached the same levels as in Hungary, Romania and in other parts of Nazi-dominated Europe. While Finland offers an interesting case with respect to anti-Semitism in war-ravaged
Read on »A cartoon that reveals a truth about integration and diversity in Europe
Sometimes when I read about how immigrants, their children and grandchildren are treated in some European countries, this cartoon comes to mind. After the first warning and after you understand fully the but after the ” we’re a very tolerant society…” line, many will encounter the wall of institutional racism, the final icing of your integration cake
Read on »Promoting tolerance now and tomorrow
In Migrant Tales’ Finland & Cultural Diversity 2012 review, it’s clear that a lot more work needs to be done to promote tolerance. Thanks to Umayya Abu-Hanna’s column on Sunday’s Helsingin Sanomat,* our collective complacency was once again shamefully revealed. Racism, or the lack of acceptance of other ethnic groups as equals in our society,
Read on »Timo Soini on racism: See no evil, hear no evil
It is surprising how a politician like Timo Soini of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party can argue anything he wants on television about immigrants and visible minorities. His objection to positive discrimination on a debate on MTV3 Wednesday is a case in point. Migrant Tales has written in the past about colorblind racism, which is one of the most common
Read on »New World Finn: Open the doors
Twenty-five years ago, when I worked briefly for the Buenos Aires Herald as a young reporter, I wrote a column about how Argentina’s past could come to haunt it in the future. The last military regime (1976-83) that ruled the country was one of the most ruthless that Latin America had seen during the last
Read on »ENAR: Hate crime victims finally recognised with European Parliament vote
Comment: Without a doubt, this is an important piece of legislation by the European Parliament, which will require EU states to systematically collect data on hate crimes. Even if the Finnish police collects such data, reporting hate crimes to the police may be more complicated for an immigrant than meets the eye. The key question
Read on »Alina Tsui: Immigration Reform – The Xenophobic Crisis in Greece
By Alina Tsui Illegal immigrants are tearing apart the social fabric of Greek society. They’ve been blamed for the spike in crimes and the cause of Greece’s economic woes. At least this is the narrative that’s repeated by the far-right and accepted by most Greeks. With no end in sight of the economic crisis
Read on »Race and intelligence
A BBC documentary, Race and Intelligence, asks if there is a racial* pecking order where white people are more intelligent than blacks. It seems unbelievable that this question continues to be asked in the twenty-first century, according to Rageh Omar of the BBC. One of the matters that has amazed me personally in Finland and
Read on »Der Spiegel names Timo Soini as one of Europe’s most dangerous politicians
German newsmagazine, Der Spiegel, published the top ten most dangerous politicians in Europe concerning the euro crisis. One of these was Perussuomalaiset (PS) chairman Timo Soini, who is in the ”good” company of Geert Wilders, Viktor Orban, Marine Le Pen, Nigel Farage, Silvio Bertlusconi and four others. Even if Soini is in the opposition, his shadow hangs
Read on »Julian Abagond: human zoos
Julian Abagond Human zoos (1500s- ), also known as ethnological exhibits, peoples shows (Völkerschau) or Negro villages, showed native peoples at zoos and fairs. They have been common in the West since the time of Columbus, butreached their height from the 1870s to the 1930s – back in the days of Joseph Conrad, Gauguin, minstrel shows and
Read on »Business Insider: Timo Soini’s “threat” to the world economy
Not only must have Perussuomalaiset (PS) party chairman Timo Soini been swept off his feet with delight for being named by Business Insider as the seventh-most dangerous person to the global economy, but Finland as well for such a dubious recognition. Who ever heard of Business Insider anyway? For starters, somebody could inform the online publication that the official
Read on »Finland’s and Japan’s demographic and economic decline
You don’t have to be an expert to understand that Europe and especially Finland are speeding towards a demographic and economic decline of untold proportions. The calamity we face will not come from outside our borders per se but will have the “Made in Finland” label on it. There’s an interesting story on the
Read on »Go for the values and weaknesses of a group if you aim to destroy their self-esteem
How would you go about destroying the self-esteem of a group? If you were an anti-immigration politician, certainly you’d target the group’s values (religion) and exploit your racist arguments by pointing the finger at their most vulnerable weaknesses, like high unemployment. Prejudice and racism are diehard social ills because they take generations to wear off.
Read on »The crux of European racism: Too little inclusion, too much race and blood
Much of the way Europeans perceive themselves as a group today is still deeply embedded in racism. The fact that we haven’t yet even started to confront the legacy of colonialism, which fuels our ”us” and ”them” view of the world, reveals a disturbing fact: There’s still too little inclusion and acceptance in this part
Read on »Do we write too little or too much about a social ill like racism?
By Enrique Tessieri A friend of mine recently said that one of the reasons why some don’t like Migrant Tales (MT) is because we write too much about racism. Do we treat a social issue like racism fairly on MT? Do we write too much or too little about it? Certainly I would be happy
Read on »Social inclusion is vital to a well-functioning society
Why are we so passionate at Migrant Tales about immigrant and minority rights? Because such groups are effective measuring sticks that reveal the state of civil rights and democracy. The more social inclusion you succeed at promoting the healthier your society is.
Read on »Racism Review: Free Speech for Anti-Semites and Other Racist Folks: Debates in Europe
There are some important and interesting debates on hate speech in Europe, with critics of new and old hate-speech laws often parroting “first amendment” arguments one often hears in the US.
Read on »Finland’s interior minister wants to make begging illegal
Christian Democrat (KD) Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen was quoted as saying on MTV3 that she is in favor of making begging illegal in Finland. Just like many past suggestions by the conservative Räsänen, like her provocative views on homosexuality that caused last year an exodus from the Lutheran Church, her views on begging and how to deal with a group like the Roma of Eastern Europe doesn’t come as a surprise.
Read on »Our Finnish national identity in the new century
Glancing through a pile of documents and certificates my late grandfather (1892-1979) had is like entering a time machine. Two certificates catch my attention: a Finnish-language test in 1925 and another one when he changed his surname from Hantwargh to Harvo. Both documents offer us a glimpse of how a social construct like Finnish national identity was forged in the last century.
Read on »The "us"-and-"them" smoking-gun statement that once justified mass murder in Europe
One of the matters that surprises me about some Finnish politicians is how they continue to flirt with ideologies that led Europe to its destruction in the 1940s. The younger they are, and the further they are in time from fascism, the more some flirt and idolize this ideology. To them I would like to give them a quote by Rudolf Hoess, the notorious commandant of the Aushcwitz concentration camp during 1940-43.
Read on »The Migrant Tales Manifesto (for Finland and Europe)
Thanks to the growing number of supporters, Migrant Tales has become that “voice for those whose views and situation are understood poorly and heard faintly by the media, politicians and public.” During these past years we have read and debated many points of views and have complied them on a list below.
Read on »Cultural diversity needs proactive solutions not populist whining
The many threads on Migrant Tales mirror what is wrong with the ongoing debate in Finland and our ever-growing cultural diversity. On the one side we have those who cannot do anything else but complain while the other side looks for solutions.
Read on »A good immigration integration policy for Finland and Europe
One of the biggest challenges to Finland’s new integration program is how well it promotes what it set out to do. How passionate are we Finns about ethnic and minority equality in this country if the most important piece of the puzzle is still missing: the big picture and what place new Finns and their children have in our society.
Read on »Uncovering the tree of hatred
If we could draw a tree that bares these fruits of hatred how would it look like? Would our surprise be to discover that it’s the same-looking tree that continues to cast its shadow on all of our societies for centuries? It still stands mighty and tall because we continue to feed and protect it.
Read on »Immigration laws reveal what kind of a society we are
Tell me what your immigration laws are and I will tell you what kind of society you live in. Show me how those laws defend minorities and encourage cultural diversity and I will show you hypocrisy.
Read on »Different cultural diversity strokes for different folks in Finland and Europe
One matter shines through after reading and responding to the thousands of threads on Migrant Tales: multiculturalism, racism and inequality mean different things for different people. One way to make sense of the ongoing debate on Finland’s ever-growing acceptance of its cultural diversity is figuring out what these terms mean for different groups.
Read on »Nationalism, Fascism, Populism and Racism – a family of Kings or Thieves?
So, nationalism, fascism, populism and racism – ‘who’ are they are and do they share anything in common with each other? Here, I’m going to give a brief but hopefully pertinent overview. Are they Kings or Thieves? Maybe my conclusions will surprise you.
Read on »Argentina’s dirty war: A couple I never met but always knew
It’s a long story how I ended up conscripted in the Argentinean army during the dirty war (1976-83). Being part of a country that was at war with itself was like taking a one-way stroll down the ally of hatred with a sack over your head. Even if no sack was placed over your head your eyes couldn’t see nor your ears hear what was happening. Terror has a way of numbing your senses.
Read on »Fairy tale worlds with the help of hate speech in Finland and elsewhere
The recent anti-immigration killings in Norway at the hands of Anders Breivik and this week in Italy by Gianluca Casseri show how xenophobic fairy tales can turn a person into a killer. As populist and far-right parties in Europe continue to throw petrol at the flames of their hate speech, it is only a question of time when new Breiviks and Casseris will appear on the scene.
Read on »Making racism shameful in Finland and Europe
While the US Civil Rights Movement led by Martin Luther King Jr. did not eradicate racism in the United States, it was singled out as a threat to society and challenged. Landmark laws like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 were not the only matters that changed things. Racism became shameful in many parts of the United States.
Read on »A-studio 7.11.2011 TV1 klo 21:00: Onko perussuomalaisilla yhteyksiä äärijärjestöihin?
It would be interesting to have a debate on Migrant Tales after the A-studio report today at 9pm that asks if the PS has connections to far right groups.
Read on »guardian.co.uk: Far right on rise in Europe, says report
The far right is on the rise across Europe as a new generation of young, web-based supporters embrace hardline nationalist and anti-immigrant groups, a study has revealed ahead of a meeting of politicians and academics in Brussels to examine the phenomenon.
Read on »Multilingual Mania: Dehumanizing Immigrants-Lies and More Distorted Lies
It’s a classic trick of the racists to paint a portrait of a people so horrible that it makes anything that is done to them to be justifiable. It’s quite a brilliant idea, really, to be able to paint such a nasty picture of someone in the mind of the public without many people hardly even catching on to the trick. This strategy serves to dehumanize people, stripping them of their humanity and making them into objects that deserve to be tamed, oppressed, and controlled.
Read on »Ten matters that ignite the debating spirit of Migrant Tales
Migrant Tales will never censor opinions that aren’t racist. One of the strengths of this blog has been its diversity of opinions on immigration, Finnish identity and other topics. Even so, some matters get our adrenalin circulating faster than others. Here are the top 10:
Read on »The meaning of the veil and why some want to ban it
Switzerland’s lower house of parliament voted Wednesday 101-77 to outlaw veils like the burqa when using public transport or visiting authorities, reports AP. The measure, which is being spearheaded by the Swiss People’s Party, will go for a vote in the upper house before federal elections next month.
Read on »guardian.co.uk: English Defence League filling vacuum left by mainstream politics, says report
Mainstream political parties must tackle far-right groups through doorstep hearts and minds campaigns that tackle anti-Muslim sentiments at local level, according to two reports on challenging extremists.
Read on »Le Monde Diplomatique: Lessons from Norway
What do the tragic events in Utoya and Oslo tell us about the status of far-right, anti-immigrant or Islamophobic politics in Norway, Scandinavia and the rest of Europe? Commentators and “security experts” — many of whom were initially convinced of the Islamic nature of the attacks — have spent the past month speculating.
Read on »Spiegel Online International: Anti-Roma Protests Turn Violent in the Czech Republic
For weeks there have been riots between Czech locals and newly settled Roma in northern Bohemia. What started as a series of brutal but isolated fights has grown into a popular movement in small towns along the eastern German border. Right-wing extremists have fanned the hatred.
Read on »BBC: Ed Miliband condemns David Starkey’s race comments
Labour leader Ed Miliband has described historian David Starkey’s comments on race as “disgusting and outrageous”. Mr Starkey told BBC Two’s Newsnight “whites have become black” after four days of rioting across England.
Read on »Exposing the language of anti-immigration groups in Finland and Europe
One of the most surprising factors behind the hate speech of anti-immigration groups is that it is never portrayed as hatred. Racists never admit in public they are racists nor do far-right groups claim that they are extremists.
Read on »Are immigrants and Multicultural Finns becoming a social movement in Finland?
The news coming out of our television sets in recent months show protests in the Arab world, Greece and recently in London. Similar demonstrations have sparked in Chile and Israel. Despite differences between these protests, the message is the same: We don’t trust our traditional rulers any longer.
Read on »PS stands for perkele saatanas – damn everything!
The biggest shock on April 17 was that Finns woke up to the reality that a large minority (19.1%) had radical views on issues like the EU, immigration and nationalism. A poll published on Friday showed that the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party continues to be the biggest in Finland. What does it say about the present state of Finland?
Read on »The New York Review of Books: Toleration and the Future of Europe
In Anders Breivik’s manifesto, the ostensibly Christian defeat of the Ottoman armies at Vienna in 1683 is the central historical event. He imagines a European rebirth in 2083, four hundred years later, and names the Polish king Jan Sobieski, whose troops were crucial to raising the Ottoman siege, as one of his heroes: “John III Sobieski and the Holy League successfully defended Europe against an army of more than 150,000 Muslims.” Breivik thinks Europe today is again under siege from Muslims, and that Europeans must resort to “atrocious, but necessary” violence to defend it. It is unsurprising that what Breivik has to say about European history is trivial. The plagiarism of his manifesto recalls Hannah Arendt’s point that those who do great evil may themselves be incapable of cultural creation. The superficiality of his worldview recalls her notion that the greatest of evils has no roots, and therefore has no bounds. But since the reference to Vienna has largely passed without criticism, it is worth recalling for a moment what actually happened in 1683.
Read on »Spiegel Online International: Can Europe’s Populists Be Blamed for Anders Breivik’s Crusade?
Norway and the world are still struggling to understand the ghastly deeds of Anders Breivik, who was driven to kill by his hatred of Muslims. His confused worldview, which Breivik describes in a 1,500-word manifesto, was influenced by European right-wing populists. Do politicians and writers share some of the blame for his terrible crimes? By SPIEGEL Staff.
Read on »Europe’s and Finland’s radical right: toning down diatribe rhetoric
We are seeing today how the impact of the killings in Norway have placed the far right and right-wing populist parties under greater scrutiny. If these parties are now forced to tone down their anti-immigration message that fueled their rise, will greater scrutiny dull their message and weaken them in the end?
Read on »Living in post-22/7 Europe: The tide has turned
One of the biggest blows to the far right and right-wing populist parties in Europe and the Nordic Region after the horrific events in Norway has been to seriously question their raison d’être: their provocative anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam discourse.
Read on »guardian.co.uk: Anders Behring Breivik had no legitimate grievance
Despite the fact that Anders Behring Breivik was not permitted to publicly justify his actions in public on Monday, a scrambling defence of his repertoire of prejudice is already in full swing. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Bruce Bawer, who is quoted by Breivik in his manifesto 2083: A European Declaration of Independence, emphasises his repeated warnings that a rightwing extremist may use violence to address “legitimate concerns about genuine problems”. Bawer blames mainstream politics for failing to address the corrosion of Europe by Islamicisation and multiculturalism, meanwhile The Jerusalem Post cautions that “Oslo’s devastating tragedy should not be allowed to be manipulated by those who would cover up the abject failure of multiculturalism”.
Read on »Suomen Kuvalehti.fi: Terrorismintutkija: Breivik selittää tekonsa vasta-jihadilla – tästä on kyse
Kun uhrit on laskettu, alkaa syiden pohdinta. Millaisella ajatusmaailmalla Anders Behring Breivik perusteli tekonsa itselleen ja yrittää tehdä niin myös muille?
Breivik julkaisi perjantaina noin 1500-sivuisen manifestin, jossa hän muun muassa kuvailee valmistautumista terrori-iskuun. Hän kertoo vastustavansa islamia ja marxismia. Terrorismintutkija Toby Archer sanoo, että Breivik ei ole vain hullu. Hän on selvästi mielenvikainen, mutta hänellä on myös poliittinen viesti.
Read on »Right-wing populist parties want Europeans to live in their news blackout
The job of autocratic regimes is still made easy today thanks to faulty technology and infrastructure. If a military regime usurped power from a democratically elected government, it can literally “turn off the lights” and keep the population in a news and information blackout.
Read on »guardian.co.uk: North Carolina’s reparation for the dark past of American eugenics
North Carolina’s compensation to victims of forced sterilisation is a chance to illuminate a gruesome US tradition of racial ‘science.’
Twenty-seven American states joined a decades-long pseudo-scientific crusade to create a white, blond, blue-eyed, biologically superior “master race”. Their misguided utopian quest was called eugenics. But only one state, North Carolina, is now readying a massive plan of financial repatriations to its survivying victims. Just how much North Carolina should pay is now the subject of a historically wrenching debate.
Read on »HS: Ihmisrotuja ei voi perustella biologialla
Mitä pidemmälle ihmiskunnan geneettisen muuntelun tutkimus on edennyt, sitä selvemmäksi on käynyt, että mitään selviä ihmisrotuja ei ole olemassa.Antropologian historian aikana ihmiskunnassa on erotettu kymmeniä eri rotuja. Ihmisbiologiassa ollaan kuitenkin nykyään luopumassa tai on jo luovuttu rodun käsitteestä.
Read on »Am I a carrier of European right-wing populist rhetoric?
We all know that right-wing populism is on the rise in Europe. By the same token, many us without knowing it, may carry the same seeds of intolerance that these groups spread without ever knowing it. Certainly our democratic society must be able to debate a wide range of issues that affect us like immigration. We must, however, be able to distinguish what are inaccurate claims and facts.
Read on »The New York Review of Books: A New Approach to the Holocaust
It is fruitless to reduce the manifold evil of the Holocaust to a single cause. Ideology, charisma, conformism, hatred, greed, and war were all very important, but each was related to the others and all mattered within rapidly changing historical circumstances. In his profound study Holocaust, Peter Longerich puts forward an analysis that includes all these factors and shows how politics or, as he puts it, Politik, set them all in motion. In this amplified English edition of his Politik der Vernichtung (1998), Longerich preserves the German term Judenpolitik, and with good reason. In German Politik means both “politics” and “policy,” and the compound noun (Juden + Politik) gives a sense of a joining of concepts that English cannot quite convey.
Read on »guardian.co.uk: While the European left dithers, the right marches menacingly on
Immigration: The longer the left’s response is confused, the more the populist right begins to make xenophobia acceptable. It is hard not to be very uneasy. Every month, there is another milestone passed in the ever onward march of Europe’s populist, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, nativist right.
Read on »Ny Tid: Islamofobins idéhistoria
Om man alls vill begripa den hets mot muslimer som likt vinterns isvindar för närvarande sveper över Europa bör man läsa Mattias Gardells bok Islamofobi – det slår Lars Sund fast
Read on »The multicultural society of the future
It seems odd that in today’s technilogically advanced societies in Europe and elsewhere our views of other groups continues to pose major challenges. If I had to picture the sitaution in a cartoon, I would draw a picture of one of our first primates, Australopithecus africanus, which existed 2-3 million years before present sitting in front of a computer and speaking to the future with a Skype time machine.
Read on »Finland also locks up asylum seeker children
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- A child in the Joutseno Immigration Removal Center.
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