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Category: Norway

Anders Behring Breivik And Osama Bin Laden Two Sides Of Same Coin – OpEd

Friday’s horrendous attacks in Norway raise the inevitable question: Is the man who has admitted them, Anders Behring Breivik, a one-off psychopath or is he the start of something frighteningly new in Europe?

That there are those in Europe who, like Breivik, are fanatically opposed to immigration, detest multiculturalism and have a particular hatred of Islam is known. These are the hallmarks of the far right across Europe (not to mention the US, Russia and elsewhere). But is the far right in such places now prepared to kill, as he has killed, in furtherance of these bigoted, twisted ideas?

That he acted alone in planning and carrying out his murderous rampage seems to be the case although he admits to contacts with similarly-minded fanatics in the UK and there is a possible link with the far right in Poland. But he also says are 80 sleepers in Europe, prepared to murder thousands of people in pursuit of eradicating Islam in Europe and to make it a monocultural continent — something it has never been. These claims cannot simply be dismissed as the ravings of a fanatic. They have to be thoroughly investigated.

In his 1,500-page online manifesto, uploaded just before Friday’s killings, he makes it clear that his aim is not only to “cleanse” Europe of Muslims but also to eliminate all who promoted or supported multiculturalism there and opened the door to Muslim immigrants — its politicians, journalists, lawyers and others. His potential targets included the UK’s Prince Charles, its former Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel and members of all its political parties, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso (popularly known as Durão Barroso in Portugal), former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland and politicians in Belgium, France, the Netherlands. It was not only Europe’s political establishments he hoped to destroy. Targets also included oil refineries and nuclear power plants. His plan was to attack the very core of Western society which he sees as corrupted by liberalism and socialism. This is fanaticism on a scale of insanity not seen since the demise of the Adolf Hitler.

That he calls himself a modern-day Knight Templar, a successor to those commandoes of the medieval Crusades, proclaims him a fantasist. This is the stuff of a Dan Brown novel. But while he is not the first person to imagine himself a Templar, he is the first to cross the divide between fantasy and reality. His is a fantasy soaked in the blood of almost a hundred people, a fantasy made real by a frightening dedication to his hatreds.

Here is Europe’s Al-Qaeda. Anders Behring Breivik and Osama Bin Laden are two sides of the same coin: a fanatical belief that their cultures must be purified, that the political establishments which have overseen their degeneration must be destroyed and that anything “alien” rigorously excluded.

Just as there have been those in the Muslim world who followed Bin Laden, copied his methods or sympathized with his objectives, it is entirely possible that there will be those in the West who will regard Breivik as a hero to be emulated. The language he uses is chillingly reminiscent of Al-Qaeda. He refers to the supposed 80 sleepers across Europe as “martyrs”. Are there going to be other bomb attacks, other killings? We hope that Breivik is a one-off. But we dare not assume so.

Eurasian Review, 26 July 2011

July 26, 2011
Norwegian hitman was obsessed with Turkey

A fundamentalist Christian who massacred 76 people in Norway had strong feelings against Turkey and Turks. A book believed to have been written by Anders Behring Breivik, who admitted to having staged both the bombing of government buildings in Oslo on Friday and later killing dozens of teenagers at a Labor Party youth camp on the island of Utoya, has revealed that the terrorist was an ardent hater of Turkey.
In a 1,500-page manifesto titled “2083: A European Declaration of Independence,” Breivik made hundreds of references to the Ottoman Empire and Turkey, rambling on about hundreds of years of world history, reflecting a revisionist interpretation that sees history only as being a long-running conflict between Muslims and Christians. His manifesto, written in a fashion akin to a journal, also indicates that he has visited Turkey.
Norwegian police initially reported that the assailant killed 93 people but then it reduced the confirmed death toll on Monday to 76.
There are 237 references to Turks and Turkey in the manifesto, but this number does not take into account the many other references to Ottoman history (written mostly focusing on the state of religious minorities) and the Seljuk Empire. He accuses the Ottoman Turks of genocide of various minorities, including the Armenians, the Orthodox Greeks and the Assyrians.
There are lengthy analyses of the Ottoman Tanzimat (Reformation) era, the Declaration of Reforms (Islahat Fermanı) period, the period under Abdülhamid II and the Committee of Union and Process government and its ruling triumvirate — Enver, Talat and Cemal Paşa — as well as the early republican period. After a 40-page analysis of the Ottomans and the early republican era, on page 187, he concludes: “[Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan’s efforts to further re-Islamize Turkey are entirely consistent with a return to Turkey’s Ottoman past as the heartland of an empire established by jihad and governed by the Shariah. Indeed, both the current Erdoğan administration and the regime headed by the overtly pious Muslim [Necmettin] Erbakan a decade ago reflect the advanced state of Islam’s ‘sociopolitical reawakening’ in Turkey since 1950-1960, when the Menderes government, pandering to Muslim religious sentiments for electoral support, re-established the dervish orders and undertook an extensive campaign of mosque construction. Despite Frank Gaffney’s apparent failure to understand this continuum of related historical phenomena, I share his acute concerns. And ultimately, we agree that Turkey’s bid to join the EU should be rejected.”
Sèvres for Turkey
Starting on page 235, Breivik presents a history of the Battle of Vienna from a Christian perspective and again accuses Turks of Islamizing Bosnia and Kosovo. Starting on page 313, he expresses his hostility toward many international organizations, including the EU and the UN. On page 314, Breivik wrote: “The EU is deliberately destroying the cultural traditions of member states by flooding them with immigrants and eradicating native traditions. This is a gross violation of the rights of the indigenous peoples across an entire continent. Europe has some of the richest cultural traditions on the planet. To replace this with Shariah barbarism is a crime against humanity. The European Union is currently the principal (though not the only) motor behind the Islamization of Europe, perhaps the greatest betrayal in this civilization’s history. Appeasement of Islam and Muslims is so deeply immersed into the structural DNA of the EU that the only way to stop the Islamization of the continent is to get rid of the EU. All of it.”
The ‘Atatürk approach’ has already failed
Breivik says on page 723 that the “Atatürk approach” failed to modernize Muslims. “Many moderate cultural conservatives have suggested that banning the Shariah will solve all our problems and force the Muslims to integrate. Unfortunately, Islam is a lot more resilient than most people can comprehend. Any ‘Atatürk approach’ will not solve anything but only delay the inevitable. Turkey became secular after Mustafa Atatürk, by military force, implemented his harsh reforms 90 years ago. The result? The Shariah lay dormant for 70-80 years. As soon as it was practically possible (Turkey had to implement more human rights to appease the EU) the former ‘dormant’ devout Muslims resurfaced and the Islamist alliance won the last election. … The reason why Atatürk failed is because Islam is extremely resilient, in fact more resilient than most people can comprehend.”
Breivik also asserted that the Treaty of Sèvres should be applied to Turkey and equates supporting Turkey’s membership in the EU as supporting a global jihad. He also says Turkey and Albania should be kicked out of NATO. On top of that, he states that Europe should wage war on Turkey to re-Christianize Eastern and Western Anatolia and the northern part of Cyprus.

Today’s Zaman

July 26, 2011
Blaming imagined tormentors for violence, in Oslo and in Istanbul

By Ron Kampeas · July 25, 2011

The liberal blogo/Twitterspheres have, legitimately, been making mincemeat of a meme emerging from sectors of the right wing that Anders Behring Breivik, the alleged author of the Oslo massacre, is a bad, bad, man — but, gosh, he might have a point about multiculturalism.

Here, specifically, is Max Blumenthal on Twitter, deriding, with considerable justification, a Jerusalem Post editorial that made that argument:

Echoing Breivik, Jerusalem Post’s editors denounce Norwegian gov’s commitment to multiculturalism via @DidiRemez

And here, specifically, is Andrew Sullivan, ripping apart Bruce Bawer of Pajamas Media:

In fact, this “madman” was, by Bruce’s own judgment, “both highly intelligent and very well read in European history and the history of modern ideas.” It is precisely this blind spot by the anti-Islamist right that made me and others get off the train. They have every right to point out supine government capitulation to restrictions on free speech, and the worst forms of Islamist violence and rhetoric. I second every one of them. Where they went over the top was in the demonization of an entire religion, and in fomenting the Steynian specter that Muslim aliens were bent on destroying Christian Europe by demographic numbers, and that all this was aided and abetted by every European leader in a multicultural, left-wing conspiracy to destroy Christendom.

So what’s with my “specificallys.”

Here’s Max Blumenthal, on July 17, interviewing Turkish Jews about their predicament in Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Turkey:

Turkish Jews experienced unprecedented levels of anxiety during Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip in 2008 and ‘09 and after Israel’s killing of 9 passengers on the Mavi Marmara in 2010. After the Mavi Marmara incident, the Turkish Chief Rabbi issued a statement mildly condemning the Israeli raid. My interviewees told me that despite Prime Minister Recep Erdogan’s declaration that “looking upon hatred at the Jews is…unacceptable,” (which they considered helpful) extremists scapegoated local Jews. Though the reactionary mood has dissipated, the trauma of shrinking from public view for several days was an experience my interviewees have not forgotten.

Neither of my interview subjects objected to my opinion that Zionism imperils Jews around the world, and especially outside the West. Indeed, their testimonies were proof of the crisis Israel has created in Jewish diaspora life. At the same time they displayed a complete lack of interest in engaging with the situation, either by examining the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, understanding the occupation, or developing a clear position on the issue. While Israel’s actions — and the reactionary tendencies of radical elements inside Turkey — undermine their sense of security, the Jewish state remains a distant abstraction that has only the most fleeting connection to their identity. And the Palestinians do not even merit a second thought.

And here’s Andrew Sullivan today, quoting same Blumenthal interview:

Israel doesn’t seem to be helping them out much. Max Blumenthal interviews two young Turkish Jews.

Blumenthal, at least, has the excuse of writing his twaddle five days before Oslo. Sullivan, on the other hand, is somehow capable of balancing two ideas completely inconsistent with one another within a few blog posts.

As one might have guessed, I’m sympathetic to the notion that bad people who set out to harm innocents need excuses less than they need pretexts. In Norway or in Istanbul, extremists are going to seek out their hated targets whatever the state of multiculturalism or the actions of Israel.

But OK, let’s entertain for a moment the notion that the ideas that supposedly drive extremists into their rages bear a responsibility for the violence that ensues.

If they do in Istanbul, they do in Oslo. Positing anything else is rank hypocrisy.

via Blaming imagined tormentors for violence, in Oslo and in Istanbul | Capital J | JTA – Jewish & Israel News.

July 26, 2011
Anders Behring Breivik is a freemason

Anders Behring Breivik in a freemason uniform, in footage uploaded to YouTube on 23 July

July 26, 2011
Norway killer: who were the Knights Templar?

Anders Behring Breivik’s rambling 1,500 page manifesto is replete with reference to the Knights Templar, a medieval Christian military order.

Breivik used Templar imagery in his European Declaration of Independence

By Raf Sanchez

The Templar were founded around 1119 and swore to protect Christian pilgrims journeying to the Holy Land.

From its two founders, Hugues de Payens and Godfrey de Saint-Omer, the order grew rapidly and soon came to be seen as among the most skilled of the European forces struggling to reclaim Jerusalem from the Arabs.

The Templar were instantly recognisable from the blood red crosses that adorned their white tunics, a symbol Breivik adopted and put on the front page of his “2083: A European Declaration of Independence”.

The cross also appears on several of the apparently home-made uniforms he was pictured in on his Facebook page.

The knights took part in several major victories against Saladin, the leader of the Muslim forces, but by the mid-13th century the Crusades were beginning to turn decisively against the Europeans.

By 1303, the Templar had been forced out of the Holy Land and most returned to western Europe.

Many congregated in France, where there presence was seen as a growing threat to King Philip the Fair, both because of their arms and the deep debts the king owed the order after his expensive wars with England.

In 1307, the king struck and dozens of Templar were rounded up, tortured and executed.

He was aided by Pope Clement who issued a papal bull instructing all of Christendom’s monarchs to move against the order and by 1312 it was officially disbanded.

Rumours of surviving Templar have abounded, often accompanied by claims that the knights were holding a secret that could destory the Catholic church if it were ever revealed.

Today, the Templar are a potent symbol for far-right extremists of a pure and holy group of warriors who were betrayed by the corrupt order they fought to defend.

www.telegraph.co.uk, 25 Jul 2011

July 26, 2011
Knights Templar: Norway ‘crusader’s’ group explained

This image of Anders Behring Breivik from a manifesto attributed to him shows Breivik in a uniform with a white and red cross of the Knights Templar. (AP)

By Elizabeth Flock

In a detailed diary kept by Anders Behring Breivik — the Norwegian man charged with killing at least 94 people in a bombing in Oslo and shooting on a nearby island Friday — the suspect details months of preparations that led up to the attacks.

Breivik also exhaustively references the Knights Templar, which he calls an “international Christian military order,” that “fights” against “Islamic suppression.”

Monday, it was reported that a Mexican drug ring also invoked the obscure Knights Templar.

Who are they?

The Knights Templar’s earliest function in around 1119 was to protect Christian pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land. The armed group soon became known as the most skilled in the battles to reclaim Jerusalem from the Arabs and racked up several successive victories over Muslim forces.

But by 1303, the knights had been forced out of the Holy Land and returned to western Europe. They fled to France, where they were seen as an armed threat by King Philip the Fair, who had many of them tortured and executed. The king had the support of Pope Clement V, who issued a papal bull that made sure the group was disbanded by 1312.

Since then, rumors of the surviving knights have come and gone, including one rumor that the knights could destroy the Catholic church with a single secret they held.

Breivik says the Christian military order was refounded in 2002 in London under the name PCCTS as an armed “anti-Jihad crusader-organization.”

The Templar are recognizable by white tunics with red crosses, a symbol Breivik put on the front page of his “2083: A European Declaration of Independence,” and emblazoned on homemade uniforms featured on his Facebook page.

In his diary, Breivik wrote of his plan of attack: “If you for some reason survive the operation you will be apprehended and arrested. This is the point where most heroic Knights would call it a day. However, this is not the case for a Justiciar Knight. Your arrest will mark the initiation of the propaganda phase.”

Breivik gave himself the ranking of the Justiciar Knight, and said there were up to 80 such “knights” around western Europe, all “completely unknown to our enemies.”

Breivik’s actual membership in the organization has yet to be established.

www.washingtonpost.com, 25 07 2011

July 26, 2011