Leftist Finnish Academic Pimps For Multiculturalism And Islamization…….

Ah yes, the Leftist/Islamist nexus laid bare for all to see, but will the public really understand what they are seeing? Yesterday in the op-ed section of the Finnish capital’s main news daily, the Helsingin Sanomat, Kuopio University’s sociologist lecturer, Vesa Puuronen, as the paper’s “guest pen”, wrote a misguided screed on how the current Finnish model doesn’t meet his standards of a proper multi-cultural state.

His proof that Finland has gotten it all wrong (without offering any facts) is by conflating two different situations, (a) the international agreements Finland has signed concerning the treatment of aboriginal peoples (in this case the Saame people called Laplanders), (b) with that of the older and newer immigrant populations in Finland. Puuronen’s logic flows along the lines that the same linguistic rights afforded to aboriginal populations in Finland, should be given to immigrants as well. Since the older immigrant communities in Finland have become linguistically assimilated, (the shock and horror of it all) they are somehow proof that Finland is practicing ethnic discrimination against its other minorities.

But he goes on further to complain that, “since the newer Muslim community does not have equal religious rights with that of the two official state churches of the Evangelical Lutherans and Russian Orthodox, Finland is actually compounding its sins even further. Tundraman, who brought all of this to my attention offers some more insight to the issue as well as to the man in question.

Tundraman:

“Here is something that reflects the thinking among many leftist “intellectuals” on Jews (and Muslims) in Finland: On page C7 in HS today, there is an op-ed by a well-known far left academic from Eastern Finland, Vesa Puuronen. This “sociologist” is an active Finnish communist who has a few years ago (in a speech in the memory of the Kristallnacht) considered Bush to be even worse than Hitler…

Under the title “Monikulttuurisuus ja etninen tasa-arvo eivät toteudu Suomessa” (Multiculturalism and ethnic equality are not reached in Finland) he basically laments the fact that Swedish-speakers, Jews and Tatars are “better off” minorities in Finland than, say, Muslim immigrants or Russian-speakers. He says that “in Finland, different ethnic and national groups are treated differently” and claims that the Swedish-speaking Finns are “a linguistic minority who enjoys the same rights as the majority”. Then he says that ”old minorities” are treated differently than “new ones”.

He also says that “The old minorities are largely integrated into Finnish society because of the politics applied during the 20th century which aimed at cultural unity”. He then goes on to say that “The treatment of the old minorities in Finland has not been acceptable according to current international treaties on minority and human rights, because it has, in practice, resulted in, for example, linguistic assimilation. The situation of the new minorities is even worse.” Then he speaks about Russian-speakers, but continues like this: “The rights of people with Islamic faith and religious communities to practice their religion are also not the same as those belonging to the Lutheran or Orthodox churches”.

His conclusion is that Finnish multicultural policy “produces inequality between the minorities” and that this “can lead to the radicalization of ethnic groups, cultural segregation and questioning of the legitimacy of the multicultural policy among minority groups as well as among the dominant population”. He’s got it all wrong, of course: Legally, Swedish-speakers in Finland are not a minority at all, as they represent one of Finland’s two national languages.

And neither Tatars nor Jews have, through their integration, become assimilated (i.e., lost their culture). So why should new Muslim groups have MORE rights than these groups? Why should they have the same rights as the two State churches in Finland? It is really strange that HS publishes an op-ed which is full of false claims and no fact with which to back them up.”

Actually, at least IMHO, it’s not a surprise at all that the HS would allow such a factually challenged article into its op-ed pages, they do so on a regular basis.

Al Avai adds: “I wonder also why one should expect minorities to be equal in any sense. The exception that tests the rule he is making regarding Muslims is, of course, the position of the Tatars. It is precisely because they play by the same rules as the rest of the society that they have succeeded. If the new Muslim immigrants don’t have a tradition of education and self-determination, particularly of women, the outcome will not be the same as for other “assimilated” minorities. With regard to churches, how about the Adventists, Mormons, etc.? We are constantly being threatened that without doing this or doing that, the Muslims will radicalize.”

Clearly Vesa Puuronen, and by default, the HS op-ed dept “gate keeper” are pushing a modern day Leftist pro-Islamic “Islamization” and multicultural agenda, that mimics what we see in other EU states, especially in Belgium, France, Holland and Britain and Sweden. The Tatars and Jews, both being model examples of successfully integrated minorities that have kept their traditions alive, but alas, their success stories are not the models the Left is looking for, because they speak Finnish, deem themselves as being Finnish and do not challenge the religious majority for equal religious status.

There are a host of small time religions in Finland that do not have an equal status with the two main churches, but it also includes the Roman Catholic Church which is almost equal in numbers to that that of Islam, yet Catholics are not screaming for equal church status and as both Tundraman and Al Avai have noticed, they are not in any danger, whatsoever, of becoming ….”radicalized”.

Puuronen is using the scare tactic of “radicalization” in order to register some sympathy for his Leftist agenda of weakening the religious status quo in Finland, something his fellow co-ideologues are busy doing throughout the rest of Europe. Only those states with a strong sense of cultural, spiritual identity will be able to resist the pattern of Islamization and multicultural stupidity. *L* KGS

Note: The op-ed is subcription only