Recently in Finland Category

Overseas terrorist groups. Let's see... have the Mary Kay Commandos made it to Helsinki?

No, this case appears to involve the Somali jihadist group al-Shabaab. "Finland terror suspects are Somalis: report," from Gulf Times, September 18:

Two people arrested in Helsinki on suspicion of funding terrorism and recruitment had foreign links but planned no attacks in Finland, police and intelligence officials said yesterday.

The daily Ilta-Sanomat earlier quoted unidentified police sources as saying the two were Finnish citizens of Somali origin.

“The case we are investigating is one of support, not a terrorist act as such,” Olli Kolstela of the Supo intelligence service told a press conference, adding that there was “no cause for concern in Finland.”

The head of the police investigation, Kaj-Erik Bjoerkqvist, said the two, a man and a woman, were of foreign origin and had links with overseas organisations, but declined to give details.

He said the police were investigating a number of people but only two had been arrested.

Supo said the inquiry had begun in 2009 following a routine police check. The pair was arrested on September 7, triggering searches of homes and other locations in the capital, police said.

In January, Finnish intelligence said it was keeping an eye on “several dozen” inhabitants of the Nordic country with contacts with the radical Shebab Islamist group in Somalia.

Earlier this month police in neighbouring Sweden arrested four people with reported links to the Shebaab on suspicion of planning an attack in the city of Gothenburg.

A count of terrorism against the four has since been withdrawn, but they still face charges of planning murder.

An update on this story. Juha Molari condemned Doku Umarov, one of the world's most wanted jihadists, who is believed to be behind numerous attacks on innocent civilians and the bombing of Moscow's Domodedovo Airport. Umarov has also claimed responsibility for the Beslan massacre.

Perhaps Finland has had no Benjamin Franklin to warn its establishment against trading liberty for security, and indeed, they will soon have neither. It is Molari who is being treated as dangerous, as a terrorist. First, he was hauled in for "inciting racial hatred." In this latest development, he has been removed from the priesthood and dismissed from his parish. Now, that's sure to advance the cause of world peace, especially in Chechnya. Yeah. That'll show 'em.

"Finnish pastor defrocked for speaking out against terrorists," from RT, April 14 (thanks to Pokermutt):

A Finnish Priest has been defrocked for openly speaking out against a terrorist website hosted in the country.

­"The Espo chapter of the Lutheran Church of Finland has dismissed Juha Molari as the pastor of the Raseborg Lutheran parish. He has been defrocked and deprived of all means of subsistence," Johan Backman, Finnish human rights activist and the Chairman of the Finnish-Caucasus Friendship Society, told Interfax on Thursday.

Juha Molari had earlier been charged in Helsinki for inciting racial hatred, after he described one of the world's most-wanted criminals as a terrorist. Police questioned pastor Molari after he gave an interview to RT in which he discussed Doku Umarov, the man behind the Moscow Metro and airport bombings.

Later on Thursday, Johan Backman, a Finnish human rights activist and the chairman of the Finnish-Caucasus Friendship Society, told RT that Finland is sheltering terrorists in the country because of very strong lobbying from the political elite and a manipulated public opinion.

“The Finnish ruling elite is protecting the terrorists and terrorist activities on Finnish soil, and they are also trying to change public opinion and to protect the activity of Doku Umarov in Finland,” said Backman. “Our security police tried to close down the web resources of Doku Umarov in 2004, but that was unsuccessful because of lobbying by leading Finnish politicians.”

Russia's number one Chechen terrorist, Umarov, is also high-up on the international most-wanted list.

The Kavkaz-Centre site was the first to publish the terrorist's words on the attacks he has claimed responsibility for – the Beslan school siege; the Nevsky express and Moscow Metro bombings; and most recently, the Domodedovo Airport blast.

The website is banned in Russia, but in Finland the Kavkaz-Centre enjoys quite a comfortable standing not only on the internet, but also in downtown Helsinki.

The priest was the first to openly say this was an outrage, and the reaction was quick to follow.

He got an email, apparently from Dagestan, saying that if he doesn’t “stop the fight against the Kavkaz-Centre, they will cut his head off and his family’s.”

Juha Molari went to the police, but instead ended up being persecuted himself for criticizing a legally operating organization. The police refused to close the website and to open a criminal case following threats against the pastor. They answered that Doku Umarov is the president of a separatist government and a respectable person.

Was Beslan a respectable massacre? Was Domodedovo a respectable bombing?

This out-Orwells Orwell. "Finnish priest persecuted for speaking out against terrorists," from RT, April 7 (thanks to Paul):

A priest in Finland is being accused of inciting religious hatred after he described one of the world's most-wanted criminals as a 'terrorist'.

­Police have questioned Pastor Juha Molari after he gave an interview to RT in which he discussed Doku Umarov, the man behind the Moscow metro and airport bombings.

Russia's number one outlaw Chechen terrorist Doku Umarov is also high-up on the international most-wanted list. But it seems one of Russia's neighbors isn't interested in helping bring him to justice.

“I use the word terrorist. They use the word president,” Molari explains.

The pastor has been a long-time critic of a website called the Kavkaz Center, where extremists freely express their views.

The site was the first to publish the terrorist's words on the attacks claimed by Umarov, and is banned in many European countries but freely operates in Finland.

Apart from facing being defrocked for speaking out against Doku Umarov and his internet mouthpiece, Juha Molari is receiving threats of a different kind.

“We advise you to stop your activity against the Kavkaz Center. If you don’t come to your senses we’ll cut off the heads of you and your family”, one of them says.

A surprising move against the current. Anti-dhimmitude in Finland: "Helsinki Drops Muslim Women-Only Pool Sessions," from YLE, January 5 (thanks to Twostellas):

The City of Helsinki will stop reserving special hours for Muslim women to use the public pool in Jakomäki. In the future, the timeslot for Muslim ladies will be open to all women.

Other swimmers had criticised the practice, according to Teemu Raatikainen, who manages the pool.

Previously, the Jakomäki swimming hall blocked off Saturday mornings specifically for Muslim women. The women's session followed a swimming class for Muslim girls....

Opposing jihad is racism

Of course, we know that all Albanian Muslims are modern, moderate and secular, and so this guy doubtless had some other motive. And maybe he did. But it must be admitted that there is an unusually high correlation between Islamic faith and people who just seem to "snap" and commit random acts of violence. "Finland Mall Rampage: Gunman's Body Found," from SkyNews, December 31:

Police have found the body of a gunman who killed five people in a city near the Finnish capital of Helsinki.

Ibrahim Shkupolli shot dead three men and a woman at a shopping centre in Espoo.

Officers also found the body of a woman in a nearby flat.

It is understood she was the 43-year-old killer's partner and worked at the Sello centre.

Police could not say whether she was killed before or after the gun rampage.

Officers later found the gunman's body.

Shkupolli had a criminal record for firearms offences and was thought to have used a 9mm handgun in the attacks.

Emergency services were called to the mall after shots were heard soon after 10am local time.

Reports said a lone gunman dressed in black had walked through the mall randomly firing at shoppers....

Nothing to see here. Move along. Nobody here but us technical errors. "Publisher says 'technical error' led to omission of part of book critical of Islam," from Helsingin Sanomat, with thanks to Fjordman:

The Finnish translation of a controversial book by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born member of the Dutch Parliament, has a passage missing, in which the writer sharply criticises the founder of Islam - the Prophet Mohammed.

The book is a collection of essays and interviews. The missing passage is from an interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw, published on December 25th, 2003. The interview was part of the newspaper’s series on the Ten Commandments.

Hirsi Ali said that the Finnish publisher of the book, Otava Publishers, had asked for permission to omit the passage, because it might be found to be offensive by Muslims.

However, she did not give permission for any such omission.

At Otava, Tero Norkola, head of publishing at the company’s non-fiction department, was unaware of the missing passage when Helsingin Sanomat contacted him. He said that he is certain that Otava did not deliberately order the cut.

Norkola was asked why he thought that the missing passage happened to be the one that has raised so much international controversy.

"It is interesting. Mysterious", he admits. However, he insists that no decision was made to cut the passage, and that its omission must have been a "technical error"....

For safety reasons Otava omitted the name of the Finnish translator from the book. Translators’ names have been left out of other versions as well....

In addition, the Finnish version contains Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s script for the short film Submission, which was directed by Theo van Gogh, who was later murdered by a Moroccan-born radical Muslim.

Hirsi Ali’s Paris-based agent did not know that the Finnish version did not contain the book’s most widely-quoted passage, in which she said that by Western standards, Mohammed was a "pervert and a tyrant" who opposed freedom of speech. She also says that Mohammed is the model for all Muslim men to follow, and suggests that this may be the reason why many Muslim men are violent.

I have featured many stories here from the jihadist Kavkaz Center website. You can find there open expositions of Islamic jihad doctrine and the necessity to wage war against unbelievers. And now it comes to you, says Reuters (thanks to Nicolei) courtesy a Finnish businessman:

A Finnish businessman has restarted a Web site used by Chechen resistant and will begin raising funds for the site he said provides an alternative to Moscow's version of the war in Chechnya.

"There is an information war going on right next to the regular war, and the Russians want to monopolise the flow of news," Mikael Storsjo, who runs the servers on which the Web site is based, said on Thursday.

"I don't think they have the right to do that, I think the Chechens have the right to make their voice heard."

Moscow had no immediate comment on the site, www.kavkazcenter.com, but Storsjo's Web site has been condemned in the past by Russian officials who called it a mouthpiece for Chechen rebels.