Community | July 26, 2011 | 13 comments

Killings in Norway Spotlight Anti-Muslim Thought in U.S.

source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/25/us/25debate.html?_r=2&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha22

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Vierotchka
The man accused of the killing spree in Norway was deeply influenced by a small group of American bloggers and writers who have warned for years about the threat from Islam, lacing his 1,500-page manifesto with quotations from them, as well as copying multiple passages from the tract of the Unabomber.

In the document he posted online, Anders Behring Breivik, who is accused of bombing government buildings and killing scores of young people at a Labor Party camp, showed that he had closely followed the acrimonious American debate over Islam.

His manifesto, which denounced Norwegian politicians as failing to defend the country from Islamic influence, quoted Robert Spencer, who operates the Jihad Watch Web site, 64 times, and cited other Western writers who shared his view that Muslim immigrants pose a grave danger to Western culture.

More broadly, the mass killings in Norway, with their echo of the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City by an antigovernment militant, have focused new attention around the world on the subculture of anti-Muslim bloggers and right-wing activists and renewed a debate over the focus of counterterrorism efforts.

In the United States, critics have asserted that the intense spotlight on the threat from Islamic militants has unfairly vilified Muslim Americans while dangerously playing down the threat of attacks from other domestic radicals. The author of a 2009 Department of Homeland Security report on right-wing extremism withdrawn by the department after criticism from conservatives repeated on Sunday his claim that the department had tilted too heavily toward the threat from Islamic militants.

The revelations about Mr. Breivik’s American influences exploded on the blogs over the weekend, putting Mr. Spencer and other self-described “counterjihad” activists on the defensive, as their critics suggested that their portrayal of Islam as a threat to the West indirectly fostered the crimes in Norway.

(much more at link)
  1. groups:
    Community,   World News,   Human Rights
  2. tags:
    Terrorism,  Society,  Racism,  International News,  6 more
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13 comments // Killings in Norway Spotlight Anti-Muslim Thought in U.S.

  • Arizona_Huey
    • 0
      Arizona_Huey  

    • Real journalism, both print and video, died a long time ago. It use to be investigate all of the facts first before exploding something over the air and keep your personal opinions, beliefs, and prejudices out of it!!! Now, nothing is out of bounds and nobody seems to have an iota of a brain or the common sense to realize they are injecting their opinion into a story that could have real impacts.

    • 10 months ago
  • Milieu
  • moodyblue
    • +3
      moodyblue  

    • I find it funny, and kind of pathetic, that the majority of Muslim haters are Christians.. let's be honest. The two religions are not all that different.

      When a Muslim does something, it's a stain on ALL Muslims. When a Christian does something, it's just an isolated incident and in no way reflects on ALL Christians or Christianity.

      I get so disgusted with certain members here, and every other political site I visit, because it's always the same. The brown folks are bad and are terrorist looking to destroy us! I could maybe give them a little slack because it's obvious they don't have the intelligence to be reasonable. However, when they choose to be willfully ignorant, when they choose to use the bible as both weapon and shield, when they choose to wallow in their bigotry while turning a blind eye to a very real threat - They deserved to be called what they are and I will no longer bite my tongue.

      They are the worst kind of American - Ignorant and arrogant.

    • 10 months ago
  • Milieu
  • Valence
  • maasanova
    • 0
      maasanova  

    • So the New York Times is decrying the fact that Muslims have been unfairly targeted since 9/11, but are now suggesting that white people (they just use the blanket smear "right-wing") be unfarily targeted now in the same way?

    • 10 months ago
  • Milieu
    • 0
      Milieu  

    • Vierotchka, how could you post this?

      You know perfectly well that screaming Hate Speech is only intended to get people to think. Nobody in their Right Mind would ever actually act on that hate speech........................................................woopsie.

    • 10 months ago
  • Vierotchka
  • artemis6
  • XOXMSperfect
    • 0
      XOXMSperfect  
    • artemis6:

      compassion and respect unfortunately have no place in religion. Religion has been around since (depending on which religion one follows it varies) for some the dawn of time, and even now thousands of years later were still fighting over something as trivial as a "you're wrong I'm right" mindset. There will never be peace between religions because war is written into its dogma. both the bible and the Koran have sanctions on war and/or killing. Religion isnt about peace and love, its about blindly committing yourself to an omnipotent being and following their word, regardless of how it affects others.

    • 10 months ago
  • Vierotchka
    • +5
      Vierotchka  

    • An old Cherokee told his grandson, "My son, there is a battle between two wolves inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, jealousy, greed, resentment, inferiority, lies, & ego. The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy, & truth." The boy thought about it, and asked, "Grandfather, which wolf wins?" The old man quietly replied, "The one you feed.".

    • 10 months ago
  • artemis6
    • +2
      artemis6  
    • Vierotchka:

      I told my son this too . Yet more is needed . A basic empathy , respect for life , and an understanding that there are many ways to do one thing any as many different people to do it .

    • 10 months ago
  • Vierotchka
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