UK Bars Finnish Lawmaker Päivi Räsänen From Northern Ireland Religious Freedom Conference

Finnish member of parliament Päivi Räsänen has again been denied entry to the United Kingdom, this time for a religious freedom conference to be held in Northern Ireland. The decision rests on her conviction for "hate speech" after she defended the biblical understanding of marriage, according to Kristen Waggoner, CEO of Alliance Defending Freedom, a U.S.-based legal group that has supported her case.

Räsänen, a member of the "Friends of the United Kingdom" group in the Finnish Parliament, had been invited to speak at the event. Her electronic travel authorization (ETA) was approved in June and then canceled last month. After the cancellation, she applied for a full visa and wrote personally to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood asking to be allowed to attend the conference. She has received no reply.

It is the second time in two months that she has been refused entry to the United Kingdom. In July, Räsänen was told she could not transit through Heathrow Airport after taking part in another ADF conference.

The "hate speech" conviction in Finland

Her prosecution over what became known as the "Bible tweet" case ended in March with a split verdict from Finland's Supreme Court. The court acquitted her over a 2019 tweet quoting Scripture but convicted her of "hate speech" in connection with a 2004 pamphlet she co-wrote with Bishop Juhana Pohjola, who has also been barred from the United Kingdom.

The pamphlet argued for natural marriage from a biblical perspective and was published more than ten years before same-sex marriage was legalized in Finland. Räsänen was fined 1,800 euros, and the foundation that published the pamphlet was fined 5,000 euros. Two lower courts had acquitted her on all charges.

Restrictions on conservative speakers

Lorcán Price, Räsänen's lawyer at the European Court of Human Rights, said the United Kingdom ban is not an isolated case. He said that over the past year the country has blocked several conservative individuals and politicians, as well as a Lutheran bishop, from entering, and that restrictions on the rights of Christians in the United Kingdom have tightened, with silent prayer, offers of conversation and public preaching of the faith criminalized.

Pohjola said it is alarming that a Lutheran clergyman is punished in one European country and barred from another for publishing a pamphlet that peacefully expresses views the Finnish state disagrees with.

Räsänen said: "It is shocking that the United Kingdom has blocked me, a democratically elected politician from an allied European state. This case has been pointed to as a clear example of state censorship."