Norway attack – and Islamophobic reaction!

Anders Behring Breivik radical right terror suspect. Nope - not a Muslim!

Well – here’s another “I told you so!” Yep – I knew that it was just a matter of time before the radical right in Europe launched a terrorist attack. I actually thought it might be against a mosque or some other Islamic center.

The suspect that is now under arrest in Norway for detonating a carbomb outside of a government building and gunning down teens (80 dead!) at a Labor Party dressed as a policeman camp – is a radical right nut job who railed against Islam and the Leftist government. (Sounds a bit like Wilders?) Anders Behring Breivik is described blond haired and blue-eyed Norwegian who is — well – not a Muslim.

In online debates marks Anders Behring Breivik as well read, and one with strong opinions about Norwegian politics.  He promotes a very conservative opinions, which he also called nationalist.  He expresses himself strongly opposed to multiculturalism – that cultural differences can live together in a community.

Breivik has had many posts on the site Document.no, an Islam-critical site that publishes news and commentary.

In one of the posts he states that politics today no longer revolves around socialism against capitalism, but that the fight is between nationalism and internationalism.

Anders Breivik Behring has also commented on the Swedish news articles, where he makes it clear that he believes the media have failed by not being “NOK” Islam-critical [VG Nett -original in Norwegian].

So – this is, as in the Netherlands, not a act of terrorism because Anders Behring Breivik is not a Musilm? Yep – this is really NOT an act of terrorism. Nope, not in Apeldoorn in 2009 by ethnic Dutchman Karst Tates with 8 dead and 10 injured or the April 2011 mass shooting in Alphen aan den Rijn with 7 killed, 16 wounded by ethnic Dutchman and PVV voter, Tristan van der Vlis. Nope – keep in mind that the only “terrorist attack” in the Netherlands was the murder of Theo van Gogh…

Now – in the wee hours of this attack, we had the usual Muslim blame game. And, this game of Blame-the-Muslims was not confined to just to ignorant bloggers and the usual Islamophobic suspects. I have seen writers and journalists that profess to have “expertise” in counter-terrorism engage in the Blame-the-Muslims game too. [See this - Why do They Hate Us?!  Yes why does the radical right hate a free and tolerant society so much? ]

The problem with “terrorism experts” and some counter-terrorism studies. There are two main types of literature in counter-terrorism studies. The first focuses on what makes a counter-terrorism program successful. This type of literature takes in many case studies of successful programs, in Cold War Europe, The IRA in Ireland, the ETA in Spain. The basic elements in a successful counter-terrorism include productive.

The second form of literature is largely post-911 and focuses in an Islamophobic (yes – I’ll say that!) direction on “what muslims believe, what factions of Muslims, devout Muslims as terrorists” and uses stupid terminology, like “moderate muslims.” Many “counter-terrorism experts”  are of those post-911 types that believes that we “must place exclusive focus” and even security pressure in Muslim communities. The reality is that home grown terrorism in the US is likely to come from the radical right. The Guardian’s Peter Beaumont has it right:

One thing is certain, however and that is the perception in Norway’s security services that Islamist terrorism is a bigger threat than the almost unheard domestic terrorism, despite the existence of far right and anarchist groups who of late are alleged to have improved their international contacts.

Yep – but after 80 people have been killed, its a safe bet they will go back to chasing the ghosts of jihad. The sad truth is that Western security and intelligence don’t want to know the reality: The terrorist threat comes from the radical right and chasing the ghosts of jihad is a waste of resources!   This especially includes the Dutch AIVD – who have a counter-terrorism framework that is blatantly Islamophobic and justified on the van Gogh “terrorist attack.”

As you readers know, back last April, a young Dutchman took several weapons and shot up a mall in a small town out side of Amsterdam (7 killed, 16 wounded). In 2009, another ethnic Dutchman believed to be involved in right-wing extremism, rammed his black Honda through a crowd watching the Queen’s Day parade in Apeldoorn (8 dead and 10 injured). Yet - the “only” terrorist attack that took place in the Netherlands was the murder of Theo van Gogh (which was arguably NOT a terrorist attack!). The reality is that Europe, including the Netherlands, has a growing radical right problem – and it is about time to END the exclusive focus and pressure on Muslim communities – and focus on the REAL security threats from the radical right on both side of the Atlantic!