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….
But he also says there 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. …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.
…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 sympathised 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. … — (July 25)
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