{"id":1162719,"date":"2026-08-22T08:00:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T08:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1162719\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T08:00:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T08:00:28","slug":"what-paivi-rasanens-exclusion-says-about-christian-free-speech-in-britain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1162719\/","title":{"rendered":"What P\u00e4ivi R\u00e4s\u00e4nen\u2019s exclusion says about Christian free speech in Britain"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PäiviP\u00e4ivi R\u00e4s\u00e4nen\u00a0(Photo: ADF International)<\/p>\n

The power of left-wing activists to block Finnish politician P\u00e4ivi R\u00e4s\u00e4nen from entering the UK shows the fragility of Christian freedom of expression.<\/p>\n

Finland\u2019s former Minister of the Interior, equivalent to the UK Home Secretary, was due to give an address in person on freedom of speech at an evangelical Christian conference in Northern Ireland this August.<\/p>\n

The Christian MP initially had her Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) to the UK approved in June. But in July she was told her ETA had been cancelled<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

On July 17, the Christian Institute (CI) described<\/a>\u00a0the political machinations that led to the cancellation of R\u00e4s\u00e4nen\u2019s invitation.<\/p>\n

The CI reported Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) in Northern Ireland calling for the Finnish MP \u201cto be barred from speaking\u201d at the Parliament Buildings at Stormont, Belfast, \u201cdue to her biblical views\u201d.<\/p>\n

In March Finland\u2019s Supreme Court convicted<\/a>\u00a0R\u00e4s\u00e4nen of \u2018hate speech\u2019 for expressing biblical sexual ethics in a pamphlet she published for her church in 2004.<\/p>\n

CI said: \u201cFollowing reports that P\u00e4ivi R\u00e4s\u00e4nen was invited to talk at a \u2018Faith in the Public Square\u2019 event in Stormont, associated with the Bangor Worldwide Missionary Convention, Naomi Long, the Alliance Party leader, wrote that R\u00e4s\u00e4nen would \u2018bring the Assembly into disrepute\u2019 by being there, and called for her to be deplatformed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Long wrote to the Assembly\u2019s Speaker, Edwin Poots, of her \u201cprofound concern\u201d, saying: \u201cAllowing such views to be platformed in a Stormont event would utterly violate the role that the Assembly has in representing all of the people of Northern Ireland equally.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CI quoted another Alliance MLA Nuala McAllister saying Parliament Buildings \u201cmust never provide a megaphone for prejudice\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Alliance Party, which says it wants \u201can inclusive, dynamic, prosperous and sustainable Northern Ireland where we can all thrive\u201d, has 17 members on the 90-strong Assembly. Long is Minister of Justice in the Province\u2019s devolved government.<\/p>\n

With the help of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), R\u00e4s\u00e4nen plans to appeal her conviction at the European Court of Human Rights.<\/p>\n

On August 18 ADF reported\u00a0that R\u00e4s\u00e4nen would be forced to speak virtually<\/a> at the conference that week after her ETA was cancelled.<\/p>\n

The ADF and R\u00e4s\u00e4nen herself called on the UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood \u201cto make a last-minute intervention\u201d to allow her to attend the conference in person under a full visa. Under UK law, the final decision over whether a foreign national can enter the country for work reasons lies with the Home Secretary.<\/p>\n

R\u00e4s\u00e4nen said:\u00a0\u201cIt is shocking that the UK has blocked me, a democratically elected politician in an allied European state, from entering the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was convicted of \u2018hate speech\u2019 in Finland for peacefully expressing my Christian views. This was an egregious case of state censorship, noted with concern by observers around the world, including the US State Department and the US Religious Liberty Commission.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though this unjust conviction is currently on appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, the UK has likely refused me travel authorisation on this basis. In doing so, the UK is punishing me for exercising my fundamental human rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cI call on Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to urgently intervene to allow me to enter the UK to speak at this event. There is still time for this censorship to be reversed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does not the fact that the Home Secretary refused to overturn the decision show the power of left-wing activists in the UK\u2019s political establishment to prevent orthodox Christians from expressing counter-cultural biblical views?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Julian\u00a0Mann, a former Church of England vicar, is an evangelical journalist based in Lancashire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"P\u00e4ivi R\u00e4s\u00e4nen\u00a0(Photo: ADF International) The power of left-wing activists to block Finnish politician P\u00e4ivi R\u00e4s\u00e4nen from entering the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1162720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,393,43339,4884,1144,219344,32430,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":["post-1162719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-britain","category-uk","category-united-kingdom","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-free-speech","tag-great-britain","tag-northern-ireland","tag-paivi-rasanen","tag-religious-freedom","tag-scotland","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wales"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117138113235158528","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1162719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1162719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1162719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1162720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1162719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1162719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1162719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}