Working very hard to blame Islamic fundamentalists for the terrorist attack in Norway
Though it has already been observed that in the US we don’t call terrorist attacks by that name unless they are perpetrated by Muslims. If a Christian does a terrorist act, it is not called “terrorism” and it is quickly forgotten—or, as Greenwald points out, great efforts are made to (somehow) blame Islam and/or Islamic militants for the attack anyway. His column includes a link to a very interesting article on the phenomenon.
Actually from what i have seen all over the web is quite what you describe with the bombing being admitted by a Kurdish group in reprisal of the extraditing of one of their spiritual leaders from Norway…could the bombing and the shooting have been a complete simultaneous coincidence ??
But anyway, I am actually writing to give you a link to “Anders” you tube video, where he suggests and claims allegiance to the the knights of the Templar and Sion etc. towards the end you will see him dressed in apparently modern day Templar garb…
The video is worth watching just for the music, beautiful…Interesting that Templar would choose this type of music but then after all, they initiated their campaigns and lived many years in the region.
http://www.youtube.com/verify_age?next_url=http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DrAwp2FnRmsE%26feature%3Dplayer_embedded#at=14
or if you can’t log into the actual you tube go to:
Knights Templar 2083 by Anders Behring Breivik – Oslo killer –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAwp2FnRmsE&feature=player_embedded
PS. If anyone recognizes the music please let me know the name of the group…thanks
Nick
23 July 2011 at 7:31 pm
Anders Behring Breivik has admitted to be solely responsible for both the bombing in Oslo and the shooting on the Island of Utøya. The Norwegain authorities have charged him according to §147a of the Norwegian criminal law, which refers to terrorist crimes.
His agenda is “anti-jihadist”, condemning Islam and what he calls “cultural Marxism” as ideologies of hate. The mind boggles.
Hokusai
24 July 2011 at 10:27 am
I agree… with your assessment, Home grown Terrorism…this act reminds me of the Prince Ferdinand shooting in …where was it Sarajevo ? Oslo could be the beginning or the spark that both sides have been waiting for..
Nick
24 July 2011 at 11:12 am
He sounds as though he has much in common with Christian fundamentalist groups in the US, particularly those that like to carry guns around. Under George W. Bush, the Department of Homeland Security did a risk analysis of both far-right groups and far-left groups, but the GOP got all upset at the report on far-right groups and had it withdrawn.
This event doesn’t seem related in the slightest to Kurdish nationalism or Norway’s participation in the Afghanistan War. This guy seems like the typical right-wing Christian hater of all persons who are unlike him.
The column to which the post links shows clearly how hard people are struggling to somehow place the blame on Islam and Muslim fundamentalists rather than on Christianity and Christian fundamentalists. People are strange.
LeisureGuy
24 July 2011 at 11:20 am
“The Marxist Hunter” group Logo or emblem both on his video and garb on Facebook is an interesting juxtaposition you gotta wonder about the ‘powder keg’ potential here.
Nick
24 July 2011 at 11:37 am
Here is a link sort of corroborating your thoughts LG, there seems to be a lot of disinformation strategy even within the USA.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/checkpoint-washington/post/in-norway-attack-speculation-centers-on-kurdish-group/2011/07/22/gIQA08KqTI_blog.html
Nick
24 July 2011 at 11:45 am
Another interesting comment, explicitly contrasting the Norwegian response (at least the political and media rhetorics) with what happened after 9/11:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/eirik-bergesen/norway-is-passing-the-tes_b_908008.html?ref=fb&src=sp
(conflict of interest: I am a citizen of Oslo)
Hokusai
24 July 2011 at 1:54 pm
Hope…let us hope…that Norway can maintain it’s high social trust levels.
I must say that having a blue eyed blond Norwegian perpetrate these attacks is a far cry from what happened on 9/11 in the US. I do not believe there is any similarity other than national grief. Even the revenge and vengeance aspect is mute as how do you seek retribution as the USA did and continues to do.
Regarding the well written article you site above, i liked one of the one reader’s comments (Bao) that suggests …that it is way to early to tell how this tragic event will change society in Norway.
There is no doubt in my mind that this event in Oslo will be heralded as the introduction card for many anti migrant groups in all of the EU. I don’t agree with it but it’s obviously a huge plus for their cause. Repeat or similar attacks will no doubt come about. I think all will agree that homegrown terrorism is becoming quite the Norm in the EU countries.
I find it interesting that the ethnic origins of the people shot at the lake have not been a source of discussion. After all what would be the purpose of a Norwegian white person killing other Norwegian whites ? Am i being politically incorrect ? If so my apologies…
Nick
24 July 2011 at 3:19 pm
Yes, the article is optimistic and Norwegian society has yet to prove itself. But after tonight’s quiet demonstrations (150.000 people met in Oslo alone, a quarter of the city’s inhabitants) I really do have hope. In our midst, barely separated from the crowd: The crown prince, the prime minister, the mayor of Oslo.
I’d rather not speculate about the possible reactions to an al Quaeda-attack of the same magnitude. Anyway, this wasn’t a jihadist group, but rather our own version of the UNA-bomber (whom Behring Breivik quotes extensively in his 1500 pages manifesto) and the Oklahoma bombing. I am not the first one to see the striking similiarity also in the probable modus operandi: A car bomb made of fertilizer and fuel.
As far as political rhetorics in this case go, however, we see a defiant liberalism in the face of the perpetrators authoritarian ideology. The prime minister (whose office was targeted by the bomb and who lost long time friends and acquaintances in the attacks) has publicly vowed that this will not change the society, at least not in the direction the perpetrator intended. The leaders of all political parties have publicly commited to more democracy, and agreed on how to handle the coming elections (where immigration indeed is one of the hot topics) with dignity. In the words of the the minister of foreign affairs: “The Norway that emerges from this will be recognizable” (in terms of values and political culture). The reason he gave: We owe it to the victims.
Even the surviving youths, who saw their friends beeing murdered in cold blod did not ask for retaliation, but for more open politicial debate and (literally) for “more love” in the face of so much hate. And these are no cheap words by some naive hippies, but show a mature understanding of human nature – and that maturity came at a dire price. Some of the youngsters swam to the mainland helping wounded comrades, some of them were forced to make horrible decisions of whom to help and whom to leave behind, many of the survivors are wounded.
The chief of the PST (national police security service, roughly equivalent to MI5 or CIA) said that not even the Stasi could have discovered the plans of this “lonely wolf” and argued that even if total surveillance might give us safety, “this would not be the society we want to live in”. That gives me hope.
As to the ethnicity of the members of the summer camp which was organized by AUF, the youth organisation of social democratic party: These are average Norwegian youngsters – which of course includes the children of immigrants. From the general Norwegian demographics one would expect that minority to be mainly of Pakistan descent. The footage I have seen seems to confirm that. But make no mistake: There were many many victims of obviously Scandinavian descent (even though Norwegians are not so often stereotypically blond and blue eyed, thats the Swedes, you know…) – the explicit goal was to decimate a generation of possible future political leaders to the social democrats, whom he accuses to be traitors to European culture.
As aside, but spot on in regard to leisureguy’s headline: We can read that Glenn Beck just compared AUF to Hitler jugend and warned against “islamic evil” and multiculturalism in Europe. This is exactly Behring Breiviks justification for his attacks. Suffice to say: Fox News. Just to make that clear: I am no big fan of Islam, for the exact same reasons that I am no big fan of any of the book religions, including the one I was raised in (Christianity). I am not blind to their rich cultural heritage and the human need for soothing answers in the face of our mortality, but in these days the arguments for them look really not too convincing and the social price in many ways all too high. But I will rather tolerate religious beliefs (and keep arguing against them) than tolerate hate against the believers. Religious freedom means the freedom to believe – or not.
With a death toll of presently 76 people (the numbers were adjusted today), most of them youngsters from that camp, Behring Breivik did do considerable damage to our little society of only 5 million people. He would have done even more damage – when was arrested, he had lots of ammunition left. (There seems to be medical evidence that illegal expanding bullets were used to maximize the damage).
That he was arrested at all and not just shot on sight, shows another civil trait of this society, where policemen usually go unarmed. And Norwegian policemen as just as provoked by a murderer who wears police uniform to lure his victims as any other police force in the world.
Just one other detail to give an impression of this little kingdom: One of the first victims on Utøya was a policeman who was off duty, but worked in his spare time as a security guard for that camp. He was the stepbrother of the crown princess. This society isn’t perfect (not at all!), but the “ruling classes” are really not as detached from the “common people” as in other countries. For me, that is a good thing.
Hokusai
25 July 2011 at 3:28 pm
So you are actually suggesting that Fox News was responsible for pushing this nut over the edge ? Wow…little baby Glen Becky’s brainwashing Templars, triggering them to act out… Hmmm…sounds a little like the UBL videos on Al Jazira….
By this assumption I guess Glen could be in the same group as Al-Awlaki, UBL and the blind Sheik et al; Never really thought of it like that but I guess your right.
Glen beck has been warning that this would come out in the EU for some time now. i guess he was right but suggesting that Fox news was to blame…I think that’s stretching it a little…or shall we ban that right wing centralist news station ? maybe we should just shut down Fox News …! That will take care of everything !
BTW, I have been to Lahore 3 times in just the past three years and boy oh boy, I could tell you some stories about the sentiments there…wow ! Talk about extreme views…that’s the place to go !! (I spoke Punjabi and Urdu as a young lad, attended Etchison academy etc…)
Nick
25 July 2011 at 6:54 pm
Ooops, did it read like that?
No, I really didn’t want to suggest that Behring Breivik had any inspiration from Fox News or Glenn Beck, he has been drinking from even muddier waters. I just wanted to state that Beck, while routinely condemning the attacks, explicitly condones the motivating ideology of an ultra right wing terrorist and mocks his victims as Hitler jugend. And even though I shouldn’t be surprised, I find that outrageous enough to, well, criticize Beck. The shortest derogatory term to describe the man’s attitudes that came to my mind was “Fox News”.
Hokusai
26 July 2011 at 12:24 am
Nick, you’re going too far. No one has suggested (or would suggest) that shutting down Fox News will take care of everything. I quite understand Hokusai’s puzzlement. I thought his comment was intriguing. But certainly the terrorist’s actions, whether influenced by Beck or not, personify what we would get if people DID take seriously what Glenn Beck’s fulminations.
I think your post is offensive, in fact. I started to respond last night, but felt I should sleep on it. I have, and now I want to say you need to think about what set you off. It’s not what Hokusai wrote—it seems to me that as you read his comment you connected it with something that makes you angry. Probably better to deal with directly.
LeisureGuy
26 July 2011 at 7:05 am
Noted, thank you. Perhaps it was a bit insensitive bearing in mind recent events but in America we have been down this road before with Fox news being the proverbial ‘kicking can’
I may not agree with what at times the commentators on Fox news spout but I do realize it is the number one rated Cable news show in the US and here in Mexico we also receive the BBC and CNN international and I turn the channel quite frequently between the three to catch up on daily International news and editorial opinions of the news, throughout the world.
If I suggested anger in my comments then I am not as apt as you LG, in the art of the written word. My comments were actually written with ‘tongue in cheek’, humorous with a touch of introspection. As we all know days after the 9/11 events, all Americans were united much as the Norwegians today in that, those despicable acts would not alter what America stood for, that are freedoms would not be curtailed by some madman living in a cave in the rugged mountains of Bora Bora.
Unfortunately those initial days post 9/11, of calls for more openness and continuance of societal freedoms later led to more restrictions and eventually the Patriot Act. It has been my understanding that emotions to terror acts often manifest themselves as, at first: disbelief and shock (how could it of been, one of our own) Sadness and mourning (public gatherings of unity and consolation) and then the inevitable anger and retribution (yet to be played out in my opinion) Acceptance and continuance (look at us at the airports)
I consider these to be the international traits of humans and societies throughout history, call me stupid or insensitive but these human traits or emotions have stood the litmus test of time and suggestions to the contrary are most welcome.
Again, I really do apologize if my comments above suggested insensitivity or anger and it was not my objective to communicate either. I understand that it is a natural trait to blame something or someone in order to go through a healing process. Suffice to say your comments are well noted and correct in that this post was not the proper venue to display cynicism nor sarcasm.
Fox news has been and will continue to be the kicking dog and I for one think it’s probably a good thing. After all, with all the rest of the media playing the same game it’s rather convenient to have the occasional outsider to kick around as our president and administration very well know.
Nick
26 July 2011 at 9:16 am
@ Hokusai…i certainly did not direct my ‘fox’ comments specifically and in a sense, I did agree with you. I know that you were only suggesting Fox as the venue and yes perhaps in a progressives thought they are a necessary evil ? By the way…I have a few Hokusai prints including the “Big Wave” your pen name does you justice…thanks and keep writing as your thoughts are indeed intriguing !
Nick
26 July 2011 at 9:35 am