The world was shaken Friday by the bombing of a government building in Oslo, Norway, followed by a massacre of scores of young people at a Labour Party youth camp on Utoya Island. The suspect, 32 year-old Anders Behring Breivik, has been the focus of news and commentary across the globe.
A 1,500+ page manifesto attributed to Breivik, 2083: A European Declaration of Independence, shines a light into an alarming ideology. Online postings at Document.no attributed to Breivik indicate a man who despised Islam and multiculturalism, and who demonized Muslims as a pernicious force in Norway. One post rages at the thousands of Europeans allegedly killed or sexually assaulted by Muslims, while another post laments the Norwegian children who supposedly commit suicide because of Muslim cruelty. If Breivik believed these things, and if he then killed countless Norwegians (which he admitted to authorities, according to MSNBC), I cannot make sense of his sentiments, other than to attribute them to projection.
Below are links to news articles and commentary on the Norway tragedy.
My deepest sympathies goes out to the families and friends of those killed in the Oslo and Utoya Island violence.
The Telegraph: Norway Killings: The Laughing Gunman Who Shot 85 Young Victims, One by One
MSNBC: Norway Attack: Right-Wing Extremism Emerging?
CNN: Who is the suspect in the Norway attacks?
Mother Jones: Oslo Shooting: Read Anders Behring Breivik's Internet Comments Here
Religion Dispatches: Is Norway's Suspected Murderer Anders Breivik a Christian Terrorist?
Talk to Action: Anders Behring Breivik: Soldier in the Christian Right Culture Wars
Daily Kos: What's Christianity Got to Do With It?
Freak Out Nation: Commonalities Between America's Right Wing and Alleged Norway Shooter
Lady Atheist: The Norway Tragedies: Book Review/Analysis
Truth Wins Out: Now You Know The Reason They Seemed So Vulnerable To You
Pharyngula: A Glimpse into the Deranged Mind of a Mass Murderer
I share your bafflement, Ahab. I read some excerpts of his manifesto online and he was obviously poisoned by hatred and a sense of racial and ethnic superiority. However, sadly, the extreme Muslim terrorists (among the many he purports to hate) could not have planned the carnage better.
ReplyDeleteCognitive Dissenter -- Yes. He was precisely what he claimed to hate.
ReplyDeleteYes. Yet another stunning example of projection.
ReplyDeleteFreak Out Nation: Commonalities Between America's Right Wing and Alleged Norway Shooter
ReplyDeleteFood for thought for all right wingers all over the world. Or it would be food for thought if they cared. But in my experience, all right wingers are people who care about self only. A few dead bodies wouldn't deter them.
Exfundy -- It certainly gives them something jarring to think about. The Norway tragedy has lots of commentators talking about right-wing ideology.
ReplyDeleteSuch a horrible tragedy. And perpetrated by a white, pseudo-Christian man! I was thinking in the car today that all the worst things that have happened to me in life, all the very traumatic things, were done to me by... white men! For all that whack-jobs love to fear-monger about Muslims (or anyone different from themselves), I am willing to bet that they are most in danger from the average (white) Joe next door, not some sinister bogeyman in a turban (or whatever.) I do get tired of these violent nutjobs spreading hate everywhere...
ReplyDeleteKnatolee -- There is truth in what you wrote. I think the extremist right is just as immediate a threat, if not moreso, than extremist Islam.
ReplyDelete