Finland’s War on Free Speech
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Finns Party MP Jussi Hallo Aho
Photo Credit: Wikimedia
Halla-aho continued: “I emphasize that, unlike the writer of newspaper Kaleva‘s primary editorial, I didn’t present my own, offensive argument as my opinion, but used it to criticize and insult double standards. Factually speaking, and considering the mechanisms of evolution, the mere thought of living as a parasite on tax funds or killing people while intoxicated as being genetic characteristics of some population is insane.”
He concluded: “Therefore, even if I had presented the argument about Somalis as my opinion and not as demonstrative material, the fact that an indictment was made against me for my proposition concerning Somalis but not against newspaper Kaleva for its proposition concerning Finns, would be in conflict with the equality section of the Constitution.”
Elsewhere, Halla-aho wrote: “The imams are building, on European soil, in their mosques paid for by Europeans, a fanatic robot army without free will, whose only task is to destroy Western society.”
Later, Halla-aho also wrote — based on the common opinion in Finland that immigrant rapists select their victims randomly — that they should choose leftwing supporters of multiculturalism, since only that would persuade them to reconsider their uncritical support for mass immigration from Muslim countries.
In November 2008, the leftist Finnish Green Women’s Association responded by announcing that they had asked Finnish police to initiate a criminal investigation of Halla-aho. The leader of the Green Women’s Association, Heli Järvinen, claimed that Halla-aho’s texts were not simply expressions of freedom of speech and bona fide criticism of multiculturalism, but that they “incited both hatred and rape.”
As a result, public prosecutors charged Halla-aho, who has a doctorate degree in Slavic linguistics, over allegedly racist, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim comments.
According to Deputy Public Prosecutor Jorme Kalske, “Halla-aho had uploaded to the Internet and submitted writings to the general public, in which Islam and its sacred institutions were combined with paedophilia, and in which was also presented the robbery of pedestrians and the looting of tax revenue by a certain national group or with a specific genetic characteristic.”
When the charges were presented in the Helsinki District Court, Halla-aho stressed that he was opposed to violence against women and he denied that he was against foreigners; he said that he was simply “critical of immigration.”
According to Halla-aho, the biggest problem associated with immigration is the large number of immigrants in relation to the resources used to integrate them. He has said that the one minority group whose integration has failed everywhere is Muslims, and that their refusal to assimilate creates problems such as social exclusion and ethnic ghettoization.
Halla-aho has also said that he is opposed to so-called positive discrimination, which grants special privileges to Muslims due to their culture or nationality. Moreover, Halla-aho has said that criticizing “totalitarian fascist ideologies like political Islam” should not be considered racism and that “facts cannot be criminalized.”
Two lower courts had previously dismissed the hate charges against Halla-aho and only fined him for “defaming religion.” But Finnish public prosecutors, outraged at the lenient rulings of the lower courts, appealed the case to the Supreme Court, which actually increased the lower court sentence by ordering Halla-aho to pay a 50-day fine instead of a 30-day fine.
Halla-aho, who chairs the Finnish Parliament’s Administration Committee (which deals with immigration issues), says he will appeal the verdict in the European Court of Human Rights.
Originally published by Gatestone Institute http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org
tell a friendAbout the Author: The writer is the Senior Analyst for Transatlantic Relations at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group, one of the oldest and most influential foreign policy think tanks in Spain.
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Jewish opinion on Halla-aho
So what! That's free speech about. Oh I'm so sorry I didn't know it was a sin to think like someone righteous.
Free speech, WTF it is? Only green leftist have a free speech in Finn… I mean North-DDR!
Free speech for the dumb…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaHarYdJ2O8
well, should mr. Halla-aho join in Green-Leftist party then? He would prob. get these "non-racist" – ideas of his up and running. I mean – if this is a Political party issue..