Editorial|A man known as a far-right activist stabbed one child in Oulu and tried to stab another in the middle of the city. Everyone should think about what kind of atmosphere we tolerate in Finland.
Aha far-right activist and a man convicted of several violent crimes stabbed a 12-year-old child last Thursday in a shopping center in Oulu. He then chased the other child, trying to stab him as well. The victims seem to have been selected on racist grounds.
It is most obviously an extreme right-wing terrorist act, although the suspect denied an extreme right-wing motive during the detention trial on Monday. It is also widely understood as such.
The security police have long been warning about the threat of far-right terrorism. The warning has not been in vain, several cases have come to light. One of the most visible was a case connected to the extreme right, where the district court of Päijät-Häme sentenced three men for terrorism crimes last fall. Still, the extreme right-wing threat is treated surprisingly lightly.
The decline can already be seen in how a significant part of Finnish society tolerates open racism. There are always voices that try to directly deny the existence of the extreme right with their definitions. Still others start talking about the threat of Islamist extremism or left-wing radicals, as if warning about the threat of the far-right means downplaying any other threat. All this has been creating an atmosphere that increases radicalization and, in part, also violence. The number of radical right-wingers is small, but the number of sympathizers is larger.
A day after the events in Oulu, the United States announced that it had designated the neo-Nazi group the Nordic Resistance Movement (PVL) as a terrorist group. So one of Finland’s most important allies recognizes the threat. In the domestic debate, there is a reason to stop belittling the threat of extreme right-wing violence now at the latest. When they try to kill random children, everyone should also think about what kind of atmosphere we tolerate.
The editorials are HS’s positions on a current topic. The articles are prepared by HS’s editorial department, and they reflect the magazine principle line.
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