Helsingin Sanomat reports on Jussi Halla-aho's connection to Counter-Jihad Movement

In the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat today, True Finn blogger and popular racist, MP Jussi Halla-aho answered to questions concerning his involvement with radical anti-islam "counter-jihad" bloggers and activists. Halla-aho said he is an occasional reader of the racist blog "Gates of Vienna". The blog in question lists MP Halla-aho as a correspondent, the same status awarded to the infamous anonymous blogger "Fjordman", who is also quoted extensively in the Norwegian shooter's manifesto, to the point that Fjordman was actually suspected of being Anders Behring Breivik!

Jussi, 40 "My style icons include the Unabomber and the Michigan Militia Movement"

When asked to clarify what being a correspondent meant, Jussi Halla-aho reportedly screamed at the reporter and hung up. Administrators at the Gates of Vienna blog refused to comment on MP Halla-aho's involvement with the blog. Halla-aho later denied shouting at the reporter in a post in his racist webforum Homma, but Helsingin Sanomat says they have recorded the actual call. Gotta love journalists who actually get their job done! (Murdoch take note)

Halla-aho's flavour of anti-immigrationism has generally been under fire since the Norway attacks, with the popular soap box Uusisuomi closing down a whole bunch of loony right-wing blogs. Halla-aho has been opinionating a lot this past week for people to not judge all hate talk on the basis of one crazy individual. Why, some people are even saying racist lunatics shouldn't even have guns! A very bad week for halla-ahonists all around.

Jussi Halla-aho expresses his condolences for the victims of the Norway attacks

Just kidding, he posted this gem into Facebook:

"Many Finns, whose orgasm was interrupted when members of [Jussi Halla-aho's racist webforum] Homma failed to burn down [an immigrant owned] pizzeria in Tampere, are now making up for lost time. For your information, I regret nothing I've written and refuse to take any kind of responsibility for Breitvik's actions. Furthermore I intend to continue on my chosen path, because multiculturalism sucks ass, no matter what Breitvik did."

What a class act Finland has as chairman of the Immigration Committee!

Jussi Halla-aho's racist webforum closed down after Norway massacre

Looks like True Finn MP Jussi Halla-aho's racist webforum Homma has been shut down for today, following the news about mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik's email to True Finn MPs being picked up by several media sources. It is of course possible that the two things are not related, and that the webforum administrator just wants to quote "have 14 hours of silence in memory of the victims" but it still seems like an odd thing to do. There is also a message about an update on the website for Suomen Sisu, the interesting 'nationalist' group Jussi Halla-aho is a member of.

Meanwhile Halla-aho revealed to tabloid Iltalehti that he has in fact read the manifesto, and critiqued it for containing too much "Christian fundamentalism" and being "very confusing." Maybe he read the whole 1500-page manifesto during the 24 hours it's been available online? He is a doctor after all. In fairness, the manifesto does include in it a lot of text from various anti-islam bloggers, with whom Halla-aho may already be familiar. More entertainingly, in far-out conspiracy world, he might even be one of the far-right individuals who met in London 2002, who included the Utøya killer Anders Behring Breivik? Only time will tell.

Norway mass murderer emailed True Finn MPs

According to Iltalehti, a True Finn regional leader Terhi Kiemunki, and several MPs of the True Finn party received an email from the Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik just hours before the shooting. The email reportedly contained the far-right murderer's 1500 page anti-immigrant manifesto and was titled "The Islamisation of Western Europe and the status of the European Resistance Movements." The message also contained several photographs of the mass murderer, dressed in military gear and posing with various firearms.

What a sensible looking young man, our party members will love this!

Mrs Kiemunki proceeded to do the smart thing, and forwarded the manifesto to her entire mailing list. "It looked like it was about Islam, and we have a lot of people who are researching that kind of stuff," she explained. The mistake is made a bit more understandable by the fact that the manifesto mentions the True Finn party and Suomen Sisu in his list of the "indigenous european resistance organisations" that Anders Behring Breivik supports, naming True Finn MP Jussi Halla-aho in particular as an inspiration. Jussi Halla-aho has since denied knowing of mr Breivik or his manifesto.

Helsingin Sanomat on everyday racism in Finland

A well written post about everyday racism in Finland in today's Helsingin Sanomat. 

Dog faeces in the pram of an African-Finnish family. A working woman who's lived in Finland for 18 years told to go back to Africa. Helsingin Sanomat asked their readers to write in about their experiences with everyday racism in Finland.

"I saw a drunken woman harassing a Muslim woman and her child on the bus stop. Nobody there interfered so I got off the bus. The drunken woman was shouting 'Get the hell out of here, welfare leeches! You should be fucking killed' I threatened to call the police, and when she saw I meant business, she left."

A dark-skinned Finnish woman told us she'd been a victim of harassment due to the color of her skin. "I was sitting in the bus, reading a book when two men sat next to me and across from me. The one next to me leaned in close, practically onto my breasts and asked what I was reading. When I tried to leave, he grabbed me to keep me sitting there. The other one said 'You cunt. Where is your bomb vest? Did you leave it in Afghanistan?' What shocked me the most was that nobody raised a finger to help me."

Researcher and activist Sirkku Varjonen wishes people were more willing to act when they see racism. "Ignoring racist harassment creates an illusion of silent acceptance, which can be just as devastating to the victim as the attack itself," says Varjonen.

True Finn MP Tom Packalén wrote in to remind us that racist violence is rare in Finland. "I think Finland is not a racist country by any means. For example in Helsinki one finds very little racist violence in relation to population, when compared to any other country." Packalén says he doesn't want to disregard people's experiences of harassment, but says that commonly these attacks are such that almost anyone could fall victim. "These cases are due to a different appearance. There is just as much harassment of this kind among the native population. Commonly the attacks are also drug related."

Children also face racism in their daily lives. A reader writes in. "When my Somalian husband comes to pick up our child from kindergarten, she gets laughed at by other children. One time my daughter told me, she and another ethnic girl were not invited to a themed birthday party, because 'black girls can't be princesses'."

Mohamed Xadar Ismail, a project worker for youth organisation Kanava says parents need to think about if they are passing on prejudice to their children. "Racism and prejudice are easy to spot. If a child is raised to be able to interact with people from different cultures from an early age, they will grow up to be a functional adult that gets along well with people. Finland needs more of these skills in the future."