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Right Wing Terrorism in Norway- Coverage from an American Person





As news of the terrorism in Norway unfolds, I find myself with some many things to say that I would rather not say anything. Im too touched, too pissed, too hot. I feel I do have a responsibility to the readers of this blog to make sure that facts are printed. There certain things that are so big that recounting them seems trivial and not saying anything seems too cold.
I read many sites, but I wanted something different from me and everyone else since everything is being said. I will post about this story the following way: Will post from someone that feels like I do.It is written by a young man with a lots of things in common with me. As I read his recount, its like reading my own words. He and I are not alike in many ways, but for this occasion we are tuned to the same electrical waves. adamfoxie*
Here is Ben Tegland:

"On Friday, just before 3:30pm in Norway one of the worst acts of terrorism in recent history began with explosions. A car bomb had been placed near a government building in central Oslo. Nearly two hours after the bombs we detonated in Oslo the attacker showed up on the island of Utøya, dressed as a police officer and he began shooting teenagers at a summer camp. The gunman killed at least 84 people on the island.
Within an hour of the initial blast in Oslo media was already asserting Islamic terrorists as the likely suspects responsible for the attack. It was not an unreasonable allegation considering the history of terrorism in the last decade. Since 9/11 there have been several terrorist attacks: Bali, Madrid, London, and Mumbai. All attacks carried out by Muslim extremists, but it turns out the attacks were not carried out by Al-Qaeda or any other Muslim factions.
The attacks were carried out by a 32-year-old Norwegian, named Anders Behring Breivik.
According to Breivik’s facebook page, he is a conservative Christian. The police released a statement saying Breivik posted on websites with Christian fundamentalist tendencies. CBS News quoted Sveinung Sponheim, Norway’s national police chief, saying Breivik’s internet postings “suggest that he has some political traits directed toward the right, and anti-Muslim views, but whether that was a motivation for the actual act remains to be seen.”
It turns out that the perpetrator of these heinous acts was an anti-Muslim, right-wing, fundamentalist Christian.
Officials are quick to hedge their statements of fact about his religious and political affiliations with statements linking his actions to a deranged mind rather than a deranged ideology. CBS news also quoted an unnamed police official who “said the suspect appears to have acted alone in both attacks, and that ‘it seems like this is not linked to any international terrorist organizations at all . . . It seems it’s not Islamic-terror related, this seems like a madman’s work.’”
So if a radical Muslim kills it’s an act of Islamic terrorism, but if a radical Christian kills it’s the act of a madman?
There both madmen, there is no question about that, but this monstrous attack was just as politically and religiously motivated as any act of Islamic terrorism. Breivik started had a Twitter account with a single message posted last Sunday saying: “One person with a belief is equal to the force of 100,000 who have only interests.” Beliefs can be dangerous, especially if they are not based in reason and logic.
This was an act of right-wing Christian terrorism, as the death toll continues to climb, may we never forget the importance of rational thought. Not all Christians are terrorists, but some are . . . and as I think back to political rallies in the United States where right-wingers showed up with rifles, asserting their right to bear arms at a public gathering, it frightens me to be reminded that  extremism can be extraordinarily close to home."


About Ben
My name is Ben Tegland. Quick and dirty version, I grew up Pentecostal. Went to Bible college, got my pastor license. After doing all of that, I gave up on the faith before taking a pastor job. Now I’m an irreligious former Christian making up for lost time.
For those interested in a little bit more information about me, here is a series of blog posts I wrote about my ex-Christian testimony.

Feel free to contact me, whether you are an atheist, Christian, or indifferent.  I would love to hear from you.
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