Credere, Obbedire....Combattere?

(Sananvapaus = Freedom of speech; Demokratian puolesta = For democracy)

[EDIT: The blog-post in question is translated into english here]

That's it! I planned not to write anything on this farce, but now I feel I'm obliged. I'm just about to snap.

Jussi Halla-aho is a Finnish Slavic linguist, blogger and a politician who has become famous for his texts that criticize Finland's policy of immigration and multiculturalism. Halla-aho maintains a blog titled Scripta that deals with issues such as ”immigration, multiculturalism, tolerance, racism, freedom of speech and political correctness”.

According to Halla-aho, the biggest problem is large amounts of immigrants compared to the chances to integrate newcomers. He has stated that minority group whose integration has failed everywhere are muslims that come from certain parts of the globe. According to Halla-aho, these are often cultures that honour force unlike western civilization and as long as these newcomers stick in to their characteristics and society encourages them to wrap into their divergence adaptation is not possible and that creates the problems of social exclusion and ethnic ghettoization. He has stated that discrimination and privileges should not be allowed because of ones culture or nationality. According to Halla-aho, criticizing "totalitarian fascist ideologies like political Islam" is not racism and the facts can not be criminalized. He has told that he has received death threats because of his web columns.

After delaying their decision for several times The Finnish Green Women's Association announced 18 November 2008 that they have asked Finnish police to began criminal investigation on Halla-aho. The Green Women's Association's leader Heli Järvinen claims that Halla-aho's texts are not just expression of freedom of speech and innocent multiculturalism criticism and that they stir to raping and hatred. Halla-aho has denied this and told that he opposes violence against women. In December 2008, Finnish police began investigation on Halla-aho for incitement against an ethnic group because of his texts. Finnish police are also considering whether they should review his gun licence.

Halla-aho has denied that he is an anti-foreigner. He maintains that he is simply “critical of immigration”. According to Halla-aho he has received positive feedback also from the immigrants.

Now the Finnish government has pressed charges against Halla-aho basically for insulting muslims and "racism". He himself commented that the charges were pressed because of political pressure to neutralize his potential candidacy for European Parliament just a day before the meeting of The True Finns party council, where the nomination could be decided. Go against the concensus and you'll be stigmatized.

What's also notable is that The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has punished Finland for limiting the freedom of speech 7 times in 10 years, more than almost any other country in the Union. Only seven countries climb higher on the Hall of Shame, where Turkey holds the pole position.

The political elite in Finland obviously can't handle any criticism when it comes to certain subjects and taboos.

"Whether he went on with the diary, or whether he did not go on with it, made no difference. The Thought Police would get him just the same. He had committed— would still have committed, even if he had never set pen to paper— the essential crime that contained all others in itself. Thoughtcrime, they called it. Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever." - George Orwell, 1984.