by Farooq Sulehria
Thus it is not a coincidence that Breivik has unleashed his puritan terror on AUF activists. The AUF (Labour Youth Club) is Norwegian Labour Party’s youth wing. Both Labour party and AUF have been campaigning against racism. Ever since the 1950s, a summer camp at holiday island of Utoya has been a regular feature of AUF’s activities.
One does not expect funeral processions coming out of a paradise. The horrific July 22 events in Norwegian capital of Oslo, a bomb blast outside Prime Minister’s office followed by a shoot spree claiming 92 lives, delineate such an unusually disastrous tragedy.
The Oslo massacre has bereaved Norway of her innocence the way Olof Palme’s murder in 1986 marked end of Swedish myth.
“Norwegian democracy is unique in that the Prime Minister along with other Ministers can go about their daily lives without security by their side. Norway’s King can travel by public transport without anyone batting an eyelid and it is this democracy which is under attack,” writes Toni Usman in an email to his friends. A successful TV-stage actor and an engaged activist, Toni Usman himself is a shining example of Norwegian tolerance and ingenuousness where not merely royals, elite politicians and celebrities freely mix with commoners, ordinary citizens also live a life unheard of even in Europe let alone South Asia. Living without the fear of theft or violence, the Norwegian lifestyle may appear naive to even Europeans. ….
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Breivik is not insane, according to Professor Andrew Silke. His thought processes are clear and rational. He appears to reasonably well socialised, and in control of his faculties. He even displays a sense of morality. His political arguments are deeply wrong. Breivik comes across as an intelligent, thoughtful person, albeit obsessional with what he perceives to be the eliminationist threat of multiculturalism to Norwegian – and European – society. None of these attributes make him insane, and certainly not mad enough to be the psycho figure posited by Sam Leith and Boris Johnson. David Wilson, professor of criminology at Birmingham City University, said: ‘When he killed those kids he imagined he was involved in some kind of righteous slaughter, that he was being channelled by some greater purpose to do what he did.
The Norwegian terrorist might like to parade as a jihadi, a holy warrior or a Knight Templar. No system of security can prevent such act of terrorism. The slaughter of innocent Norwegians is a blow against multiculturalism. After the blood shed he told his lawyer his actions were “atrocious but necessary”. He wanted war against minorities.
The initial hastiness to blame islamist terrorists for the gruesome slaughter, examplifies the institutionalisation of Islamophobia in the West. It is wrong to call him a psychotic loner. He begain his “crusaid” against the spread of Islam after attending a secret meeting in London. His lawyer has branded him “insane”. Had he been a Muslim he was immediately branded as Islamic terrorist. Studies have shown that such individuals have rarely mental illness or psychiatric abnormalilies.
Breivik says in his manifesto that his best friend as a teenager was a Pakistani boy whose gang regularly beat him before he decided to break from them
What about terrorists, such as Tony Blair and Bush who certainly believed that they were right while slaughtering thousands of innocent people across the globe in his wars? Not to mention hundreds of thousands, if not millions, murdered by British empire throughout its existence! British journalists love speaking about any other nation’s crimes, but not about their own’s. Double standards rule.No body called Bush and Blair having mental illness.
The overwhelming majority of terror attacks in Europe in recent years have been carried out by non-Muslims.In Britain , a string of recent convictions of would-be anti-Muslim terrorists has underlined that Breivik is very far from being just a Norwegian phenomenon. Lower-level violence and intimidation is common in Britain. Recently a Masjid in Luton was vandalised and spray-painted with a swastika and EDL slogan.
The rise of Islamophobia in Europe, Australia and US has become the new aceptable form of racism. I do not agree that someone who”can see nothing wrong in shooting dead 69 innocent civilians in cold blood” is “insane”.
Breivik’s actions are not rooted in mental imbalance but in political belief, and we must study and negate his beliefs – and those who adhere to them – to stop future slaughters.
IA
http://www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk