A couple of interesting and encouraging posts. First up from Nils August Andressen, editor of a rightwing forum on which Breivik posted. One thing:
I make the argument in spite of a deep worry about certain aspects of the debate about Islam. There are too many, in Norway, in Europe, as well as in the US, who have Islam as their only concern, their only evil, and who interpret all events in light of that one issue. They are willing to accept ever more illiberal measures against Muslims. And not accepting the legitimacy of today’s policies, some question our whole political system, and see democratically elected leaders as traitors.
Breivik shared these dystopian views. However, from what we know today, it appears that he was not a product of the increasingly hostile Internet debate over the last few years. He was a part of the discourse, but it was not what radicalized him. If we can believe his manifesto and other information we have today, the turning point for Breivik came as early as 1999: the NATO bombing of Serbia in support of Muslim Kosovars. In 2002, he visited a wanted Serbian war criminal in Monrovia, Liberia. He has harbored thoughts about going through with a terrorist attack since those days.
I think the Liberian Serb episode is unconvincing, like all his travelog episodes: they mainly seem to be making an ‘I was there’ point. But that aside, the mainstream rightwing opinions he imbibed after he discovered his initial rationale for mass murder did nothing to discourage him. Quite the reverse: Post 9/11 he thought that he was operating at the fringe of a large political movement which would be able to take advantage of his methods to reach the goals that they jointly shared. People were coming around to his point of view, and being encouraged, he provided encouragement. Anders believes that he is a Knight Templar. He’s a real, old fashioned chivalrous male. He wouldn’t dream of letting Melanie plant her own bombs and kill red kids. She probably doesn’t see that it’s necessary, poor, foolish woman that she is. But he likes those hankies he sees fluttering from the castle window and off he goes into the lists.
Anyway. Those of you who were around and alarmed at the genesis of warblogging may remember a fellow called Bjorn Staerk, who was of that ilk for a while before going silent and then coming up with this memorable reassessment. And now he absolutely nails our current security problem:
It is a task for a later, cooler time to discuss which guilt belongs where, but it can appear that paranoid Islam haters have built with words the ideological foundation Behring Breivik has built upon with bombs and guns. But he has also built this foundation himself, through many years of working on this book. What we safely can say is that Behring Breivik and the counterjihadis to a large extent live in the same world: A world where the Christian and secular Europe stands on the brink of (self-)destruction, and where a non-violent solution appears less and less realistic.
Hey, remember nailing things? People used to do a lot of that way back when, when Normblog linked to Gates of Vienna. That was yesterday, one hopes.
Norwegians restore my faith in human nature. Anyone else ever been there on Constitution Day? It's an advert for patriotism, and I speak as one who doesn't normally do patriotism. I love Norwegians.
Posted by: chris williams | July 27, 2011 at 12:52 AM