Fwd: [bangla-vision] Our Perspective on the Terrorism (and its aftermath) in Norway, Pt.1

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From: <peacethrujustice@aol.com>
Date: Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 4:59 AM
Subject: [bangla-vision] Our Perspective on the Terrorism (and its aftermath) in Norway, Pt.1

 

 

THE PEACE THRU JUSTICE FOUNDATION

11006 Veirs Mill Rd, STE L-15, PMB 298

Silver Spring, MD. 20902

 

SHA'BAN 1432 A.H.

(July 26, 2011)

 

 

Assalaamu Alaikum (Greetings of Peace):

 

In the immediate aftermath of the horrific tragedy in Norway a few days ago, the first thing that came to my mind for me was Oklahoma City 1995. I made a fact-finding and humanitarian trip to that city after the bombing of the Federal Center by a red blooded American Christian (ex-military) terrorist by the name of Timothy McVeigh (and whoever else assisted him in that horrendous act). I can still recall the sights and sounds of that visit to this day.

 

I recall my tour of the city, and seeing the blown out shell of what was left of the federal building. I recall having the section of the building that housed the Day Care Center - occupied by a significant number of young children who would have their lives cut short because of hate - pointed out to me.

 

I also recall the warm outpouring of neighborly concern that would periodically be directed at me when people noticed (or were told) I was a Muslim who had traveled from Washington to offer support. I recall some of the apologetic expressions of thanks, because of how Muslims had been initially accused of the crime. (They apologized to me as a recipient symbol of that injustice.)

 

I also recall visiting the Islamic center that had been vandalized by gunfire; and meeting the young Muslim woman who suffered a miscarriage because of the stress produced by the attack on her home (when her husband was absent and she was all alone).

 

These thoughts came to mind, coupled with the emotional weight of witnessing from a distance once again, so many young lives cut short, and another large tribe of grieving families engulfed by the unthinkable. May ALLAH fortify them in this hour of need. Ameen.

 

My thoughts now revolve around a little armchair analysis of why such a tragedy occurred (on a deeper level), and what the response will be, both here and abroad, in the days ahead. I vividly recall how in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing the Clinton-Gore administration, with bi-partisan support in Congress, passed a repressive piece of legislation called the Omnibus Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (aka, "The Crime Bill"), which among other things eroded Habeas Corpus and opened the door for the government's use of "secret evidence" in immigration and deportation proceedings.

 

At the end of the day while the Muslim community was not responsible for that terrorist attack, we nevertheless paid a large part of the price for it; both on the propaganda front, and as the secret evidence provisions (within the bill) were selectively and increasingly used against immigrant Muslims. The rest, as they say, is history.

 

Insha'Allah (God willing), I will have more to say on this later. For now, I'd like to share a few reports and commentaries that I find of particular interest on this latest crime against humanity. These are as follows:

 

1. Anders Breivik a Christian Terrorist?, by Mark Juergensmeyer 

2. Peter King still targeting only Muslims in terror hearings, by Joan McCarter

3. Norway Massacre: Breivik manifesto attempts to woo India's Hindu nationalists, by Ben Arnoldy

4. Norway Killer Claimed to be Anti-Muslim and Pro-Israel, by JTA
5. Israelis Debate on the Web: Did Norway Get What It Deserved? By J.J. Goldberg  (Perhaps the most interesting and revealing of them all)

I would simply say in closing that while Muslims had nothing to do with the commission (or even the incitement) of the twin tragedies that took place in Norway, there are demonic forces that will nevertheless attempt to manipulate this tragedy against us. We should not become fearful and reactive; we should instead become resolute and proactive.

 

As an example, we already had a proactive mobilization in mind for Washington, DC, for Saturday, September 10th. Our niyyah (intention) for this much needed "Peace Rally" has not changed; if anything, what just happened in Europe underscores the need for it!

 

The struggle continues...

 

El-Hajj Mauri' Saalakhan

 

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Anders Breivik a Christian Terrorist?

By Mark Juergensmeyer

The similarities between suspected mass killer Anders Behring Breivik and Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh are striking.

Both were good-looking young Caucasians, self-enlisted soldiers in an imagined cosmic war to save Christendom. Both thought their acts of mass destruction would trigger a great battle to rescue society from the liberal forces of multiculturalism that allowed non-Christians and non-Whites positions of acceptability. Both regretted the loss of life but thought their actions were "necessary." For that they were staunchly unapologetic. And both were Christian terrorists.

Their similarities even extend to the kind of explosive used in their actions. Both used a mixture of fuel oil and ammonium nitrate fertilizer which Breivik said he needed for his farm operations. The farm, it turned out, was rented largely because it was a convenient place to test his car bombs.

And then there is the matter of dates. McVeigh was fixed on the day of April 19, the anniversary of the Waco siege. Breivik chose July 22, which was the day in 1099 that the Kingdom of Jerusalem was established during the First Crusades.

· TThe title of Breivik's manifesto, which was posted on the internet on that day, is 2083; the date that Breivik suggested would be the culmination of a 70-year war that began with his action. Yet 70 years from 2011 would be 2081—why did he date the final purge of Muslims from Norway to be two years later, in 2083? I found the answer on page 242 of Breivik's manifesto, where he explains that on 1683 at the Battle of Vienna, the Ottoman Empire's military was defeated in a protracted struggle, thereby insuring that most of Europe would not become part of the Muslim empire. The date in Breivik's title is the 400th anniversary of that decisive battle, and in Breivik's mind he was recreating the historic efforts to save Europe from what he imagined to be the evils of Islam.

The threat of Islam is a dominant motif of his 1500-page manifesto, 2083: A European Declaration of Independence. The writing of a manifesto is a major difference between Breivik and McVeigh, who was not a writer; instead McVeigh copied and quoted from his favorite book, The Turner Diaries, a novel by neo-Nazi William Luther Pierce under the pseudonym Andrew Macdonald.

McVeigh's beloved novel explains his motives in a matter eerily similar to the writings of Breivik in his 2083 manifesto: he thought that liberal politicians had given in to the forces of globalization and multiculturalism, and that the "mudpeople"—non-White, non-Christian, non-heterosexual, non-patriarchal males—were trying to take over the country. To save the country for Christendom the righteous White, straight, non-feminist Christian males had to be shocked into reality by the force of an explosion that would signal to them that the war had begun. These were McVeigh's ideas from The Turner Diaries, but they were also Breivik's.

"The time for dialogue is over," Breivik writes on page 811 of his manifesto. "The time for armed resistance has come."

The enemy of this imagined cosmic war were "the cultural Marxist/multiculturalist elites" whom he regarded as the "Nazis of our time," intent on "leading us [White Europeans] to the cultural slaughterhouse by selling us into Muslim slavery." Breivik says, threateningly, to the "multiculturalist elite" that "we know who you are, where you live and we are coming for you."

The manifesto is an interesting and eclectic document, something of a scrapbook of everything from his instructions for small-scale farming to a syllabus for a course on revolution that he'd love to see taught (complete with extensive bibliography that includes authors such as Immanuel Wallerstein, Theda Skocpol, and Eric Hobsbawm, and recommends as a textbook the book, Theorizing Revolution, written by my colleague at Santa Barbara, John Foran). It also includes theoretical and historical overviews of European history and political ideas, and an attempt to explain Muslim ideas and Islamic history, skewed in such a way to make it appear as if this major religious tradition were a single ideology eager to control the world.

The manifesto also includes a how-to manual for the creation of terrorist devices and acts of terrorism themselves—a manual not unlike the "Army of God" handbook created by Christian anti-abortion activists, most likely penned by Lutheran pastor Michael Bray. It advises on costumes that might be worn in order to avoid detection (including a policeman's uniform).

Perhaps the most interesting section is Breivik's day-by-day accounts of the weeks preceding the July 22 bombing and massacre, a chronology that ends with this matter-of-fact statement: "I believe this will be my last entry. It is now Fri July 22nd, 12.51."

Moments later he posted the 1500-page book on the website before allegedly driving to downtown Oslo to detonate the bomb that killed 7 and shattered major buildings containing the offices of the ruling political party. Afterwards he reportedly donned the policeman's uniform to gain entrance to the liberal party's youth camp where he coldly murdered over 80 of the young people in a rampage that lasted more than an hour.

Like McVeigh, he thought that this horrible dramatic action would bring a hidden war into the open. Like many modern terrorists, his violent act was a form of performance violence, a symbolic attempt at empowerment to show the world that for the moment he was in charge. The terrorist act was a wake-up call, and a signal that the war had begun.

Behind the earthly conflict was a cosmic war, a battle for Christendom. As the title of Breivik's manifesto indicates, he thought he was recreating that historical moment in which Christianity was defended against the hordes, and Islam was purged from what he imagined to be the purity of European society.

Breivik meticulously detailed what he expected to be the historical trajectory of this war through four stages, culminating in 2083. He expected that the forces of multiculturalism would be tough, and would resist the efforts to combat it. "It will take us up to 70 years to win," Breivik writes on page 811, but adds that "there is no doubt in our minds that we will eventually succeed."

In the final phase, the civil war between the evil multiculturalists and the righteous few, a series of coup d'etats throughout Europe will overthrow the liberal forces. Then, finally "the deportation of Muslims" will begin, and European Christendom will be restored.

Is this a religious vision, and am I right in calling Breivik a Christian terrorist? It is true that Breivik—and McVeigh, for that matter—were much more concerned about politics, race and history than about scripture and religious belief, with Breivik even going so far as to write that "It is enough that you are a Christian-agnostic or a Christian atheist (an atheist who wants to preserve at least the basics of the European Christian cultural legacy (Christian holidays, Christmas and Easter))."

But much the same can be said about Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and many other Islamist activists. Bin Laden was a businessman and engineer, and Zawahiri was a medical doctor; neither were theologians or clergy. Their writings show that they were much more interested in Islamic history than theology or scripture, and imagined themselves as recreating glorious moments in Islamic history in their own imagined wars. Tellingly, Breivik writes of al Qaeda with admiration, as if he would love to create a Christian version of their religious cadre.

If bin Laden is a Muslim terrorist, Breivik and McVeigh are surely Christian ones. Breivik was fascinated with the Crusades and imagined himself to be a member of the Knights Templar, the crusader army of a thousand years ago. But in an imagined cosmic warfare time is suspended, and history is transcended as the activists imagine themselves to be acting out timeless roles in a sacred drama. The tragedy is that these religious fantasies are played out in real time, with real and cruel consequences.

Courtesy: http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/politics/4910/is_norway%E2%80%99s_suspected_murderer_anders_breivik_a_christian_terrorist/

Mark Juergensmeyer is Professor of Sociology and Director of Global and International Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the winner of the Grawemeyer Award for his book Terror in the Mind of God (UC Press). He is the editor of Global Religions: An Introduction and is also the author of The New Cold War? Religious Nationalism Confronts the Secular State and Gandhi's Way: A Handbook of Conflict Resolution, both from UC Press.

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Peter King still targeting only Muslims in terror hearings

by Joan McCarter
Mon Jul 25, 2011 at 05:30 PM PDT.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/25/998530/-Peter-King-still-targeting-only-Muslims-in-terror-hearings?via=blog_

There's a policy response the United States needs to consider in the wake of the Norway mass murders, and that's acting on an already recognized threat that has been ignored for political reasons.

In 2009, when the Department of Homeland Security produced a report, "Rightwing Extremism," suggesting that the recession and the election of an African-American president might increase the threat from white supremacists, conservatives in Congress strongly objected. Janet Napolitano, the homeland security secretary, quickly withdrew the report and apologized for what she said were its flaws.

Daryl Johnson, the Department of Homeland Security analyst who was the primary author of the report, said in an interview that after he left the department in 2010, the number of analysts assigned to non-Islamic militancy of all kinds was reduced to two from six. Mr. Johnson, who now runs a private research firm on the domestic terrorist threat, DTAnalytics, said about 30 analysts worked on Islamic radicalism when he was there.

The killings in Norway "could easily happen here," he said. The Hutaree, an extremist Christian militia in Michigan accused last year of plotting to kill police officers and planting bombs at their funerals, had an arsenal of weapons larger than all the Muslim plotters charged in the United States since the Sept. 11 attacks combined, he said.

Homeland Security officials disputed Mr. Johnson's claim about staffing, saying they pay close attention to all threats, regardless of ideology. And the F.B.I. infiltrated the Hutaree, making arrests before any attack could take place.

While staffing levels in DHS for domestic terrorism might be in dispute, Napolitano's response to right-wing criticism following the 2009 report is not. The report was withdrawn, and DHS had essentially gone quiet on the issues of right-wing domestic terrorism.

The extremists on the right wing, however, haven't held back. One of the primary critics of that 2009 report was Rep. Peter King, who said at the time, "[Napolitano] has never put out a report talking about look out for mosques. Look out for Islamic terrorists in our country. Look out for the fact that very few Muslims come forward to cooperate with the police."

In the wake of the Norway attack, King is keeping up his anti-Muslim drumbeat. Despite these revelations of right-wing terrorism, Rep. Peter King (R-NY) — who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee — has announced that he will continue his series of investigations focusing exclusively on Islamic terrorism and will not widen them to include other forms of terror[....]

As ThinkProgress noted at the time of his first hearing examining exclusively the radicalization in Muslim communities, there have been almost twice as many terror plots from non-Muslims than Muslims in the United States since 9/11.

King cannot and should not be the primary voice on the issue of terrorism in our government, and now is a particularly good time for the administration and for other members of Congress to combat his bigotry.

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Norway massacre: Breivik manifesto attempts to woo India's Hindu nationalists

Norway massacre: Breivik manifesto attempts to woo India's Hindu nationalists

Norway massacre suspect Anders Behring Breivik's manifesto invites Jewish groups in Israel, Buddhists in China, and Hindu nationalist groups in India to contain the spread of Islam.

By Ben Arnoldy, Staff writer / July 25, 2011

New Delhi

 

The Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik writes in a manifesto that he acquired some 8,000 e-mail addresses of "cultural conservatives" not just across Europe but North America, Australia, South Africa, Armenia, Israel, and India – ensuring scrutiny of anti-Muslim groups far beyond Europe.

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Mr. Breivik's primary goal is to remove Muslims from Europe. But his manifesto invites the possibility for cooperation with Jewish groups in Israel, Buddhists in China, and Hindu nationalist groups in India to contain Islam.

 

"It is essential that the European and Indian resistance movements learn from each other and cooperate as much as possible. Our goals are more or less identical," he wrote.

In the case of India, there is significant overlap between Breivik's rhetoric and strains of Hindu nationalism – or Hindutva – on the question of coexistence with Muslims. Human rights monitors have long decried such rhetoric in India for creating a milieu for communal violence, and the Norway incidents are prompting calls here to confront the issue.

 

RELATED Man accused in Norway attacks 'acted with intent of terror' – judge

"Like Europe's mainstream right-wing parties, [India's] BJP has condemned the terrorism of the right – but not the thought system which drives it. Its refusal to engage in serious introspection, or even to unequivocally condemn Hindutva violence, has been nothing short of disgraceful," writes senior journalist Praveen Swami in today's edition of The Hindu.

 

"Liberal parties, including the Congress, have been equally evasive in their critique of both Hindutva and Islamist terrorism," he adds.

 

Last week, Breivik detonated a bomb in downtown Oslo and opened fire at a youth camp of the ruling political party, killing at least 76 people. He reportedly said in court today that the rampage was "marketing" for his manifesto, "2083: A European Declaration of Independence."

The manifesto

Breivik's 1,500-page manifesto calls preserving traditional European culture by cutting it off from immigration from the Muslim world. While he is against setting up a Christian theocracy, he envisions a revival of Christendom, where the church helps unify Europeans around a shared cultural identity.

 

In the manifesto, Breivik references India dozens of times. He included a five-page paper written by a man named Shrinandan Vyas that argues the Muslim invaders committed a "genocide" of Hindus in the Hindu Kush region of present-day Afghanistan. Efforts to track down Mr. Vyas have failed.

 

Invasions by Muslims into South Asia did include bloodshed, but use of the term "genocide" is highly controversial.

 

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http://www.forward.com/articles/140300/

Norway Killer Claimed to be Anti-Muslim and Pro-Israel

By JTA

Published July 25, 2011.

The confessed perpetrator in the attack in Norway that killed scores of people espoused a right-wing philosophy against Islam that also purports to be pro-Zionist.

Anders Behring Breivik is charged with detonating a car bomb outside Oslo's government headquarters, which houses the office of Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, and of shooting and killing an estimated 68 mostly young people at a political summer camp on nearby Utoya Island. The July 22 massacre reportedly was the the worst attack in Norway since the end of World War II.

In numerous online postings, including a manifesto published on the day of the attacks, Breivik promoted the Vienna School or Crusader Nationalism philosophy, a mishmash of anti-modern principles that also calls for "the deportation of all Muslims from Europe" as well as from "the West Bank and the Gaza Strip."

According to the manifesto, titled "2083: A European Declaration of Independence" and published under the pseudonym Andrew Berwick, the Vienna School supports "pro-Zionism/Israeli nationalism."

Breivik listed numerous European Freedom Parties and neo-Nazi parties as potential allies because of their anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim stance, and mentioned that right-wing populists like Dutch politician Geert Wilders "have to condemn us at this point which is fine. It is after all essential that they protect their reputational shields."

Among the potential allies he listed for Germany were the three largest neo-Nazi parties – the National Democratic Party, Deutsche Volksunion and Republikaner. In Holland, Wilders' Freedom Party topped the list, and the British National Party topped a long list of potential supporters in the United Kingdom.

European right-populist parties increasingly have been waving the flag of friendship with Israel, as well as expressing vehement opposition to Europe's multicultural society.

Last month, after it emerged that German-Swedish far-right politician Patrik Brinkmann had met in Berlin with Israeli Likud Party lawmaker Ayoub Kara, who is deputy minister for development of the Negev and Galilee, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman wrote to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanding that Kara be prevented from making further trips abroad. According to Ynet, Lieberman accused Kara of meeting with neo-Nazis and causing damage to Israel's image. Brinkman said he had reached out to Israeli rightists hoping to build a coalition against Islam.

In postings on the website Document.no that appear to be by Breivik, the poster pondered whether one could "accept the moderate Nazis as long as they distance themselves" from the extermination of the Jews.

The words of right-wing populist politicians "are dangerous, it allows them to radicalize," Hajo Funke, an expert on right-wing extremism in Europe and the Holocaust at Touro College Berlin and the Free University Berlin, told JTA in a phone interview.

"It is a tactical viewpoint of the rising populist right-wing to use this kind of identification, or forced identification with Israel, to be accepted," he said. "They say, 'Our enemies are not any more the Jew … the real enemy as you can see all over the world is Islam, and not only Islam, but the Islamic person.' This is the new, great danger."

Stephan Kramer, general secretary of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told JTA that "in the recent years we have witnessed the phenomenon of radical rightists proclaiming their sympathy for Jews and their support for Israel, also in Germany," adding that "In many cases, it is clear that this is no more than a PR maneuver to create an air of respectability."

"Whatever 'support' for Israel Anders Behring Breivik may have had in his abominable mind, it is not any kind of support we want," Kramer said.

One day after the attack, members of Norway's small Jewish community gathered at the Synagogue of Oslo to pray for the survivors.

"We also pray that the authorities will be less naive on security issues and threats," businessman Erwin Kohn, newly elected head of the 750-member Jewish community, said in a telephone interview from Oslo.

Kohn added that it appeared that no one in the Jewish community was injured or killed in the attack, but "we are affected just the same as the Norwegian society in general."

On the reports about Breivik's online postings, he offered his concerns.

"You have many others who are in the same ballpark, being scared of multiculturalism," Kohn said, adding that Breivik's alleged pro-Zionism is a sham. "We don't need such friends, we don't need such friends."

Serge Cwajgenbaum, secretary general of the European Jewish Congress, in a call from France said that Breivik "is not pro-Israel – he is anti-Muslim.

"It is a national catastrophe," he said, "and we share the sadness of the sorrow of the families."

German journalist Ulrich Sahm reported on the pro-Israel Israelnetz.com website that many of the youths who survived the massacre said they thought the killer, dressed as a police officer, was simulating Israeli crimes against Palestinians in the occupied territories. They believed that "the cruelty of the Israeli occupation" was being demonstrated to them, Sahm wrote.

Meanwhile, Israel on Saturday night condemned the attacks in Oslo.

"Nothing at all can justify such wanton violence, and we condemn this brutal action with the utmost gravity," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "We stand in solidarity with the people and government of Norway in this hour of trial, and trust Norwegian authorities to bring to justice those responsible for this heinous crime."

Israeli President Shimon Peres called the king of Norway, Harald V, to express condolences. "Your country is a symbol of peace and freedom. In Israel we followed the events over the weekend in Norway and the attack on innocent civilians broke our hearts. It is a painful tragedy that touches every human being. We send our condolences to the families that lost their loved ones and a speedy recovery to the wounded. Israel is willing to assist in whatever is needed," Peres said, according to his office.

The king thanked Peres for his phone call and for the expression of Israeli solidarity.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas visited Norway last week and was told that Oslo will recognize Palestine, but not immediately.

While much attention in Norway has been focused on the threat of Muslim extremism, the threat from the far right was generally considered to have abated.

Kohn noted that anti-Semitism in the country remains a serious problem. A recent study of 7,000 Norwegian teens showed that more than half of youth of all backgrounds, whether Christian or Muslim, use the word "Jew" as an expletive.

Anecdotally, Kohn said, "one-third of the Jewish kids in our schools have experienced harassment … but not from one specific group."

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http://blogs.forward.com/forward-thinking/140297/

 

July 24, 2011, 7:58 PM 

Israelis Debate on the Web: Did Norway Get What It Deserved?

By J.J. Goldberg

The Norway massacre has touched off a nasty war of words on the Israeli Internet over the meaning of the event and its implications for Israel. And I do mean nasty: Judging by the comments sections on the main Hebrew websites, the main questions under debate seem to be whether Norwegians deserve any sympathy from Israelis given the country's pro-Palestinian policies, whether the killer deserves any sympathy given his self-declared intention of fighting Islamic extremism and, perhaps ironically, whether calling attention to this debate is in itself an anti-Israel or anti-Semitic act.

The debate seems to be taking place almost entirely on Hebrew websites. There's a bit of bile popping up on the English-language Jerusalem Post site as well (for example, there are a handful of choice comments of a now-they'll-know-what-it-feels-like variety following this Post news article reporting on Israel's official offer of sympathy and aid). In Hebrew, though, no holds are barred. I've translated some of the back-and-forth from the Ynet and Maariv websites below, to give you taste.

The debate exploded aboveground on Saturday in an opinion essay at Ynet (in Hebrew only) by Ziv Lenchner, a left-leaning Tel Aviv artist and one of Ynet's large, bipartisan stable of columnists. It's called "Dancing the Hora on Norwegian Blood." He argues that the comment sections on news websites are a fair barometer of public sentiment (a questionable premise) and that the overwhelming response is schadenfreude, pleasure at Norway's pain. As I'll show below, that judgment seems pretty accurate.

He goes on to blame the Netanyahu government, which he accuses of whipping up a constant mood of "the whole world is against us." Again, a stretch—a government can exacerbate a mood, but it can't create it out of whole cloth. Israelis have been scared and angry since long before this government came in two and a half years ago, for a whole variety of reasons. The government isn't working overtime to dispel the mood, but it can't be blamed for creating it. Finally, Lenchner argues, on very solid ground, that the vindictive mood reflected on the Web is immoral and un-Jewish, citing the biblical injunction "do not rejoice in the fall of your enemy."

His article has drawn hundreds of responses—more than any of the articles he complains about. They fall into four basic categories in roughly equal proportions: 1.) Hurray, the Norwegians had it coming; 2.) What happened is horrible but maybe now they'll understand what we're up against; 3.) What happened is horrible and the celebrations here are appalling; 4.) This article is a bunch of lies, Ziv Lenchner invented this whole schadenfreude thing because he's a lying leftist who wants to destroy Israel.

It's worth noting that at some point late on Saturday several readers found links to Norwegian news sites showing that some kids at the campground where the shooting took place had been brandishing signs a day or two earlier calling for a boycott of Israel. These links were posted (here and here) and the mood quickly got darker—sympathy for the shooting victims dropped fast.

The background to this, as Ynet reported in a news article, is that Norwegian foreign minister Jonas Gahr Store had visited the campsite on Wednesday, two days before the shootings, as he does every year (he was a camper there as a kid) and addressed the group. He was asked from the audience about Palestinian statehood, and he said Norway was looking forward to the Palestinians' U.N. bid, but he wouldn't recognize a Palestinian state before that. He was also asked about boycotting Israel. He said it was a bad idea and would make the conflict worse rather than help bring peace. At some point during the day, some of the campers held up the signs that appear in the photos. Israeli readers seem to have concluded that the pictures show the camp program was anti-Israel and therefore fair game.

Here are some of the responses to Lenchner's article:

15. Almog, Beer Sheva: they have it coming, period. Your article is pointless. Anyone who acts without mercy towards us, there's no reason I should pity them!!!! Let them continue to respect and honor Muslims.

16. Gidon: I never enjoyed any support from Norway all these years when there were terror attacks in Israel just the opposite you bent, corrupt person let them understand that terror is not a solution to anything you self-righteous Jew

54. Roi, Bet Shemesh: Ziv Lenchner you're a leftist!! If you haven't noticed you're a leftist like the rest of the media!!! Enough with the leftist incitement!!! There's no getting away from it Norway was always against the state of Israel it's not new and never will be!! We're not in favor of the attack but to say that maybe they'll understand us better after what happened is entirely legitimate!!!

103. Yossi, the north: Oslo … Maybe they'll learn in Oslo that they're not immune they'll feel what many Israelis have felt and some of them can no longer feel because of the activity of Israelis and Norwegians in Oslo.

104. Ilan, on the stoning of gays [sic]: Anti-Jewish? Have you ever heard of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth? Suddenly a few little Jew-boys have popped up and "invented" a new Torah! Before the Torah is moral it is first of all for survival and the destruction of all enemies! Sing to the Lord for He is highly exalted the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea [Exodus 17:21, after the drowning of Pharaoh's army—JJG]

303. Effie: I feel no sorrow about it!!!! Anyone who doesn't feel the no pain of my people shouldn't ask sympathy for his own pain.

392. We're more unfortunate: Enough demagoguery! The Norwegians and Europe generally are super-anti-Semitic. So 100 people were killed there are 7 billion more people in the world. I don't pity them they're my enemies they hate Israel so they have it coming!!!

393. The whole world dances on Jewish blood. Europe is the same Europe and even more anti-Semitic. The killer is right!!! Europe is defeated, Norwegians are becoming a minority.

458. Very sorry: With all due sorrow they were waving a sign on the island the day before calling to boycott us. So I really don't feeling like showing empathy. Very sorry. If you don't believe me here the link to the lovely picture:

When the first news report appeared Friday on Ynet, the Yediot Ahronot website and Israel's most trafficked news site, comments seemed to run about 3- or 4-to-1 (at a rough eyeball guess) hostile rather than sympathetic. The reported death toll at this point was 11, and the perpetrators were assumed to be Islamic extremists. Here are a few typical comments:

181. Noam: Ha Ha Ha! Europeans, this is your "liberalism"

240. D.A.: Bring the Oslo criminals to justice?

242. Radical Dreamer: Let them eat what they cooked.

243. Just a Person: Speedy recovery to the wounded and condolences to the families.

260. Shai, Tel Aviv: Give Norway back to the Arabs! End the occupation of Norway!

268. Shimon: Good news for Shabbat. So may they increase and learn the hard way.

285. Nir, Hasela Ha'adom: Allow me a few moments of pleasure.

315. Moshe, Haifa: I'm sorry, it doesn't move me. From my point of view, let them drown in blood.

Ynetnews, the English website, carried an English translation of the story. The comments are far more moderate: almost none express outright pleasure, and there's a rough balance between sympathy and sarcasm.

When the news came out on Saturday that the killer was not a Muslim but a right-wing Norwegian nationalist angered at multiculturalism, liberalism and tolerance of Islam, the tone sharpened. Suddenly there was a rush of comments claiming the killer was right and the victims had it coming. Here is Maariv's report on the killer's 1,500 page manifesto, calling for a European-wide uprising to "reclaim" the continent (here, for you English-language readers, is NPR's report on the same document). Maariv's readers piled on.

1. Y.: The best thing to come out of this is that Norway will be divided.

12. Gandi: the boy wanted to send a message. Extreme, yes, but they don't understand anything else.

13. Yossi: To commenter no. 1: You're mentally ill. How can you see anything good the depraved murder of boys and girls think for a minute (if you're capable) what if some of them were your relatives

• To self-righteous Yossi: Coming soon to all the Norwegians. And all the Europeans.

• Y.: My relatives aren't Muslims. It's time for Europe to deal with these Arabs. From my point of view they could kill 1,000,000 of them here too.

• AA: You leftists have to be wiped out too. And it will happen soon. When the economic house of cards comes down, even your shoes won't be left (unlike last time)…

18. Anti-Left: Of course I condemn this terrible murder but in a larger sense he was right!

19. Ron: A freedom fighter for Norway cleared of foreigners…!!! But this time it won't be easy for you … Muslims aren't Jews — who go willingly to death!

• Horrifying but correct, Muslims will teach them a few lessons. They won't go like sheep to the slaughter, but today neither will we!

We also let them piss on us

Read more: http://blogs.forward.com/forward-thinking/140297/#ixzz1TEYYZJ1h

 

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Palash Biswas
Pl Read:
http://nandigramunited-banga.blogspot.com/