“The left’s wet dream has materialized.”
Thus a close friend described the terrorist atrocity in Norway.
Indeed, a blond hair, blue-eyed terrorist bombed government buildings and then gunned down scores of children at a youth camp run by Norway’s ruling political party.
“Now,” said my friend, “the left will crow about Christian terrorism, proof positive that Islam is not the problem.”
My response is rooted in common sense, the ability to detect and identify patterns in behaviour. Human and historical trends tend to follow tight scenarios that rarely deviate from their pre-determined plot points.
For instance, in the past year there have been over 10,000 Islamist acts of terrorism across the globe. Each act uses Islam, Koran, hatred of Jews and the West as religious justification.
All across the Muslim world homosexuals have been tortured and murdered in untold numbers because of their sexual orientation.
Genital mutilation of women in the Muslim world is an everyday occurence, as are honor killings, forced marriages, and the stoning of women who have been raped.
When an Islamist terrorist attack takes place, Islamist gangs rush to claim responsibility. Further, there is a ghoulish eruption of celebration and justification in the Muslim world.
Not a single responsible group in the West is celebrating the Norwegian massacre.
There is a clear pattern of jihadist murder and terror in the Islamic world with a majority of otherwise peaceful Muslims silent in the face of endless and unspeakable atrocities.
No such pattern of barbarity manifets itself in the Judeo Christian world.
Ninety-three Norwegians have been murdered by Anders Behring Breivik, a lone gunman whose manifesto runs 1,500 pages, a huge chunk plagiarized from the ravings of the Unibomber, Harvard graduate Ted Kaczynski.
Breivik also justifies the slaughter of innocents by drawing from church teachings—which, as far as I know, were abandoned by the church centuries ago.
But Breivik also references Shakespeare, Immanuel Kant, John Locke and John Stuart Mill. And since Breivik identifies himself as a Darwinian and not a Christian, his use of ancient Christian doctrine is nothing less than murderous cynicism.
Of course there are two references to Israel in the manifesto so, naturally, the slaughter is the fault of the Jewish State and the evil Jews. This lunatic notion will spread across the Arab Muslim world with the speed of a prairie fire.
Of course, when I first heard about the Norwegian atrocity I, along with every sane person in the world, assumed it was another case of Islamist terrorism.
That the terrorist labels himself a warrior against Marxist culture is an aberration.
There is no world-wide pattern of this form of terrorism.
The blame game across the blogosphere and the dinosaur media is drawing parallels to Timothy McVeigh, but once again, McVeigh was not Christian. In fact, he was a self-proclaimed pagan.
Even if McVeigh or Breivik were Christain, would this point toward a murderous religious or philosophical fault line in the Christian world?
I think not.
Anders Behring Breivik is an evil man—Seraphic Secret recognizes good and evil—who, according to Norwegian law, can look forward to a spectacular show trial, and then the enviable comforts of a Norwegian prison for the maximum sentence of, I believe, 21 years, which works out to about 82 days per life.
There is no death penalty possible for this human monster, because Norway is, um, civilized.
So Breivik will be released when he’s about 52 years old.
This is nothing less than the triumph of evil and the enabling of evil by a naive state whose fate, I believe, is to be consumed in the next fifty years, by Caliphate Muslims—not, mind you, by some mythical right wing Christian conspiracy dreamed up for the convenience of the politically correct left.
Rhetorical question:
Does no one in Norway carry a firearm? On the whole island where the majority of the slaughter took place was there not one security guard who was packing? Or is Norway one of those progressive cultures where only police and bad guys carry weapons.
Robert,
You are correct. There is no pattern of Christian extremist teachings by a group involved here. That’s the difference. Christianity doesn’t have a “branch” teaching violence like Islam does. This is a twisted INDIVIDUAL who took it upon himself to kill and maim others.
John Guardiano has a good post at The American Spectator about this very subject.
Peace and comfort upon those who are hurting in Norway.
Shalom,
PJ
Believe it or not, I spoke to somebody who thought that Breivik, may he rot in hell, shot up the Summer camp because it was co-educational.
Robert–
I just love the stuff you write. The Power and presence you bring to these issues requires greater exposure. Keep up the good work. Only David Frum and Conrad Black bring the discourse up to this level. Sadly, Black was sandbagged.
Some points
Such was the shock and horror of the events on Utoya island, I have not detected any satisfaction or sense of vindication being expressed from people on the left.
I was generally annoyed at how in the hours before it became clear what type of terrorism it was, people were so clearly hoping that this was one form of terrorism over another. Michelle Malkin was the worst. She began tweeting straight away when news of the bomb first emerged. She started a trend entitled #standwithnorway which was very active. However when it became clear it was a case of domestic terror she stopped tweeting on the subject and the trend phased out. Presumably she was no longer standing with Norway.
The 21 Years thing is flying around the internet but according to a Norweigan friend of mine it is only a tabloid line. He will obviously never get out. Norway is not restricted by EU membership and as a former military man he may be charged with treason.
Gun ownership is high in Norway, higher than most European nations. The island of Utoya is tiny, about the size of 3 football fields. The kids didn’t have a chance unless they swam for it.
On your final cheap shot about Norway being taken over by Islam. I think this is an utter fantasy and hardly an appropriate time to kick a US ally when it’s down. Immigration is a difficult issue and often controversial. Americans know this, the US has 20 million illegal aliens last I heard. You’re hardly in a position to tell Europe how to do it right. Furtermore, as you well know the Dutch, French and Swiss governments have all taken robust action recently to prevent the Islamification of their countries, action that the US has yet to take.
Ted
“I have not detected any satisfaction or sense of vindication being expressed from people on the left.”
See the New York Times Editorial
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/25/us/25debate.html?_r=2&hp
They immediately put the blame on Robert Spencer, claiming that since he was quoted by Breivik, he was the cause.
This is far less causality than when Muslim murderers and terrorists quote the Quran, and the actions of Muhammed as justification for their violence, yet the Times have never made any reference to Islamic teachings as a source.
On the other hand …
The Huffington Post has an article about ‘fundamentalism:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/terry-kelhawk/norwegian-terror-are-fund_b_907954.html
“But of fundamental importance are the foundational teachings. Look back to the roots — not the recent spin or politically correct version. What do the primary the source documents say? Are practices based on the principles?
…
Does a creed or religion in its most fundamental source document, its holy book, teach a violent manifesto? I’m not saying do they record violent deeds, but rather, do they teach promoting the religion by force? Do the lifestyle and teachings of its leader or prophet encourage violent enforcement of the belief? ”
Can we document a violent manifesto of world domination by whatever means necessary as taught by Jesus Christ, Moses or Buddha from the source documents of these faiths?
The blogger stops short of the incredibly clear answer,
Yes, The Quran not only justifies it, it exhorts its followers to do so, and is interpreted by generations of imams, until the present day, as laudable Muslim conduct.
I’m not very familiar with the range of people writing for the Huffington Post, but this blogger seems to be defending Christianity, while tactfully just hinting who the real ‘religious’ fundamentalists are,
so I grant you, the response from the left is far better than what I expected.
Ted:
The NY Times in a huge headline labeled Breivik a “Christian extremist.” This false meme is being repeated all over the liberal media and is being done in order to minimize Islamist terrorism and spread the illusion that so-called Christian extremists are as dangerous as Muslim extremists.
Further information can be found at News Busters.
And this disgusting piece from Roger Cohen at the New York Times.
I have not seen Michelle Malkin’s tweets so I can’t comment.
Let’s say Breivik spends his entire life in a Norwegian prison. Is that justice? I believe not. The absence of the death penalty minimizes the sanctity of innocent lives murdered.
Norway, it is true, has high gun ownership, but citizens are not allowed concealed carry permits. And the laws of ownership are so stringent that getting to your gun, assembling and loading the darned thing takes far too long under critical conditions where seconds are the difference between life and death. Thus, the bad guys are at a distinct advantage.
To be fair, Norway is not used to terrorist violence and are simply not prepared for such acts of random slaughter. That the police could not get to the Island for over an hour because of the lack acess to a helicopter is, however, quite disturbing.
Jihadists have identified Norway as the easily penetrated Northern terminus to Europe. I take these people very seriously. What you consider “robust” measures in England, France and Switzerland are to the committed and ruthless jihadist merely petty annoyances to be swatted away like so many flies.
Hitler’s dream of wiping out Europe’s Jews was dismissed as fantasy by everyone including most Jews.
Todays’ fantasy is tomorrow’s genocidal reality.
Ted, I don’t know about her tweets because I’m not on twitter. But looking at her post on this story, I don’t think Malkin made any declarations that this was definitely a jahadist attack. As a matter of fact, if you had tried to get a bet that it wasn’t a Muslim attack you would have had a tough time getting anyone to take that bet without giving big odds.
Guns may be plentiful in Norway but wasn’t there a Keystone Kop quality to the police not being able to get to the island sooner? And all those guns in the country and none on the island. Even in Boy Scout camp there were some adults that had access to guns. And the camp was down the road from a police firing range.
And the U.S. will never take the steps that France, Switzerland or the Dutch have taken unless the First Amendment is amended and that’s as likely as me performing Jesus Christ Superstar in Medina. And whatever the Dutch have done wasn’t enough to protect a politician like Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
I saw an article yesterday pontificating about how this represents the new face of pro-Israel, Christian terrorism by people who have shown no radical leanings. Notice the marks they hit: Israel is to blame, meaning: Jews; Christians are to blame; and the ones supposedly at fault are not the nutjobs, but just your everyday Jewish and Christian folks, who have never popped up on police radar.
So this guy reads Mark Steyn or Bruce Bawer and decides the answer is to go out and kill his political enemies? It will work the same as McVeigh’s great plan did. A lot of people agreed with McVeigh about the ATF and FBI but they were just as horrified as anyone else at the deaths in Oklahoma City and thought the death penalty was too easy on him. Of course unlike McVeigh, Breivik will be free as a bird in time to have his mid-life crisis. Bill Ayers and his despicable wife must be having a good chuckle.
It is impossible to see a movement of people agreeing with Breivik carrying out additional acts of terror as a means of getting the country to deport all muslims from Norway. Like Oklahoma City, it will be a one-off. Compare to Munich and the unending string of terrorist acts after 1972. Liberals like to compare these terrorists to freedom fighters in the American Revolution and call for Israel to leave the “occupied territory”. Somehow I doubt Janeane Garofalo will call Breivik a freedom fighter or that Bill Maher will speak glowingly about how brave he was to kill those kids to their face instead of dropping bombs on them from 20,000 feet.