Dutch debate Wilders’ responsibility for Norway terrorist attacks

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Geert Wilders extremistDiscussion has started in the Netherlands about the influence Geert Wilders had on the Norwegian bomber Anders Beyring Breivik, since he praises the Dutch anti-Islam politician 30 times in his manifesto. Whether it’s fear of polarisation or political correctness, Dutch political parties seem to be inclined to protect Wilders.

Democrat MP Boris van der Ham called it an “idiotic reflex” to link Wilders with the massacre, while Socialist Party leader Emile Roemer said it was unwise to point the finger at Wilders. “If a murderer quotes me tomorrow does that make me responsible too?” he asked.

Historian Dirk-Jan van Baar has an answer to that: “I would say Wilders is not legally guilty. But as a politician he must be perfectly aware that there is such a thing as political responsibility. And he would undoubtedly have pointed that out if the killer had been a Muslim.”

Freedom Party leader Wilders can hardly be said to have kept a low profile in recent years when it comes to, say, hate-preaching imams and their effect on Muslim terrorists. He has also had harsh words to say about the Norwegian Labour Party, which was the target of the attacks. In a speech he gave in Rome in March this year, Wilders accused left-wing multiculturalists of cheering at every new sharia court or mosque. He claimed Europe would fall if it was stupid enough to believe that all cultures were equally valid and there was no reason to fight for its own culture.

On 1 May – Labour Day – he sent a tweet directed at Dutch Labour Party leader Job Cohen: “Congratulations, Job, on the 65th anniversary of the Arab Party. You gave the Netherlands mass immigration and imported countless no-hopers and criminals.”

On Tuesday Geert Wilders announced that he was “repulsed” by Breivik and that the violent actions of a psychopath were “a slap in the face for the worldwide anti-Islam movement”. Job Cohen welcomed Wilders’ statement but also had a comment:

“Wilders has now distanced himself, but I think it’s good to realise that your words do have an effect – and that goes for all politicians including Wilders. They can influence people and play a role in all kinds of ways. There is no way Wilders can be held responsible for this in any sense, but he [Breivik] uses the same rhetoric as Wilders does.”

Wilders rejects all attempts to link his ideology and that of Breivik. He claims the left is trying to make political capital out of the tragedy. However, speaking in parliament, he has himself linked remarks by his political opponents with potential terrorist attacks.

Green Left MP Tofik Dibi has now requested a parliamentary debate with Prime Minister Mark Rutte about xenophobia in the Netherlands. He believes the Freedom Party is largely responsible for channelling resentments in the Netherlands and he wants to discuss the similarities between Breivik’s ideas and attitudes which are prevalent in the Netherlands, for instance in Freedom Party circles.

RNW, 27 July 2011

South Shields man who waged hate campaign against Muslims is remanded in custody

Posted on by Bob Pitt

John WhiteA churchgoer who left pork products outside a mosque during a hate campaign against Muslims has been remanded in custody.

John White left rashers of bacon outside and other such products at worshippers’ homes.

Newcastle Crown Court heard despite the distress caused to the members of the Jam-E-Masjid mosque, chairman Mohammed Miah has told police he bears no grudge. Judge Christopher Prince said Mr Miah has shown “great humanity and sensitivity” in his attitude and should be commended for taking such a view. But the judge said White, who lives near the mosque and has attended a church in the same street for over 30 years, must remain in custody until he is sentenced in September.

White, of Homestall Close, South Shields, had been caught on CCTV carrying out the hate attacks in January and confessed when arrested. But when his case reached court he falsely claimed the police had forced his confession and pleaded not guilty. White was due to be tried by a jury but before the hearing started he informed his lawyers he would be changing his plea and admitted five charges of religiously aggravated harassment, alarm or distress.

Judge Christopher Prince told White: “These are very disturbing offences. You have committed offences that amount to a campaign which demonstrated hostility towards Muslims. Such foul discrimination is offensive to all right minded people, regardless of their religious beliefs.”

Stuart Graham, defending, said White has sought help with his mental health for many years and psychiatric evidence may be a feature of mitigation that could result in a non-custodial sentence. Mr Graham asked that White’s bail be renewed as there has been no further trouble since the incidents.

But the Judge refused and told White: “It appears to me there is a substantial risk you are, at the moment, in a volatile and unpredictable state of mind and it seems to me if you are suffering from a psychiatric disorder it would be rash of me indeed to release you back into the community when there continues a risk you might behave in this way or launch into another campaign.”

Northern Echo, 27 July 2011

See also Daily Mail, 27 July 2011

Posted in UK

‘Counter-jihadism’ and terrorist violence

Posted on by Bob Pitt

In the wake of the attacks, Fjordman, Geller, and other prominent counter-jihadists have condemned Breivik’s actions and argued that they have never condoned violence. However, their dystopian fantasy world – in which the white Christian martyrs of Eurabia are constantly subjected to rape and murder at the hands of bloodthirsty Muslims – clearly provided what former CIA officer Marc Sageman has described in The New York Times as “the infrastructure from which Breivik emerged”.

Øyvind Strømmen analyses Anders Breivik’s roots in the “counter-jihad” movement.

Foreign Affairs, 27 July 2011

Lennon’s lie exposed (but not by Jeremy Paxman)

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Daryl Hobson with Lennon and Carroll

One of the claims made by EDL leader Stephen Lennon (“Tommy Robinson”) in that appalling softball interview by Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight was that he knew nothing of Daryl Hobson, the EDL member who had revealed links between the EDL and Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik. Lennon dismissed Hobson as just some “random” member of the EDL’s Facebook page.

Unsurprisingly, given Lennon’s record of lying, it turns out that relations between Daryl Hobson and the EDL leadership were rather closer than that. Here, courtesy of Hope not hate and Expose, are photos of Hobson with both Lennon and EDL co-leader Kevin Carroll.

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Belgian mosque vandalised

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Vandals broke into the Alaadin mosque at Marchienne-au-Pont on Monday evening. They pulled down two Belgian and Turkish flags and tore them, before destroying some movable objects. According to several witnesses who saw the youth running away, an ambulance siren must have frightened these unwanted visitors.

“We have complained to the local police in Charleroi who assured us that an investigation would be carried out”, said Coskun Beyazgül, spokesperson for the Diyanet of Belgium, which includes 67 of the country’s mosques. “At the time of the tragic events in Norway and given the Islamophobic tendencies of the perpetrator, this attack on the Alaaddin mosque worries and saddens us. We therefore firmly condemn this act, hoping that the economic crisis in Europe does not degenerate into a social crisis. We therefore expect the authorities to take the necessary preventive measures to preserve social cohesion.”

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EDL supporter: Breivik’s a ‘hero in the war on Islam’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL supporters on Facebook were confused over how to respond to the Norway atrocity.

“How sick are these animals to randomly shoot kids at a summer camp for christ sake,” said the EDL’s Facebook account. But this was before the real killer was known. Before long, there was a reappraisal of the slaughter.

The EDL Jewish Division, on learning that the summer camp had discussed Palestine before the attack, posted “Ah, that explains the man’s actions.” It added, “This exposes the scum for what they are!”

Another supporter, “Michelle Miley”, wrote: “gimme a break. anders is a hero in the war against islam”.

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Advice to the Norwegian government following the Oslo terrorist attacks

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Richard Jackson, professor of International Politics at Aberystwyth University and an expert on terrorism and political violence, offers some advice to the prime minister of Norway.

Your security forces should start by immediately profiling young, white Christian men, especially if they have blonde hair (the Oslo bomber, Anders Behring Breivik, was blond; it could be a factor). Call them in to their local police stations for in-depth questioning, and stop them randomly at airports and train stations. They should be quizzed on how often they go to church, what websites they visit, what books they read, whether they are members of nationalist groups, and what beliefs they hold. They should be carefully monitored for signs of increasing religiosity and any and all political involvement in demonstrations, protests or letter writing. They should also be made to state their religion before boarding an international flight.

In some cases, where there is insufficient evidence to prosecute, it may be necessary to indefinitely detain individual Christians who are deemed to pose a threat to national security, until such a time as they can be safely released back into the community. Control orders may then be necessary to keep tabs on their activities.

You should also put churches under surveillance and monitor the sermons preached and the views expressed by parishioners, as well as any nationalist political parties or groups like the so-called Viking swimmers (they clearly have nationalist tendencies and the ice-swimming may be a kind of paramilitary training). Universities should be encouraged to report the expression of any extreme nationalist or Christian viewpoints, and should discourage Christian fundamentalist speakers from visiting their campuses. Right-wing and Christian fundamentalist websites should be blocked, and new laws should be passed which ban glorifying or promoting extreme nationalism and Christian fundamentalism.

It is also clear that you will need to set up a government-funded counter-radicalisation programme with moderate nationalists and liberal Christian leaders to try and deflect young white men in the Christian and nationalist communities from turning to extremism. Preachers should be encouraged to speak out against fundamentalism and nationalism, and to demonstrate their loyalty to Western values. It is clear that nationalism and Christianity are the conveyor belts of violent extremism; non-violent Christian fundamentalism leads directly to violent fundamentalism and terrorism.

richardjacksononterrorismblog, 23 July 2011

After Oslo, right-wing group accuses thousands of American Muslims of being a part of a ‘fifth column’ that has ‘infiltrated’ the US

Posted on by Bob Pitt

CNS MB network

Days after a Norwegian terrorist allegedly motivated by a fear of Muslim infiltration killed 76 people, a Florida group took to Capitol Hill to accuse thousands of American Muslims of being a “fifth column”. Its presentation, a link analysis compiled from “open source” material, is collected into a database and brought to Washington by an influential Congressman.

An obscure nonprofit called Citizens for National Security compiled a “database” of “almost 6000 individuals and almost 200 organizations” in the United States linked in some way to the Muslim Brotherhood, the influential 80-year old Egyptian Islamic group.

These individuals and organizations “form a fifth column movement, a subversive movement intended to help undermine the United States as a secular government, as a Judeo-Christian society”, said Peter Leitner, one of the founders of Citizens for National Security. Leitner identified himself as a retired federal employee who used to perform “counterterrorism-type analysis”.

Citizens for National Security would not name any individual listed in the database, which it maintains is compiled exclusively from “open-source” material. Asked by Danger Room who would have access to it, Leitner said it would be available to “someone in the government [or] law enforcement”. U.S. intelligence and Homeland Security agencies have recently warned about the rising threat of “lone-wolf” homegrown terrorists, which al-Qaida is trying to inspire.

But U.S. citizens don’t need to have been charged with any crime to be mentioned in the database, he said, only “connected” to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is not a banned organization inside the United States.

To release the database to private citizens would be “irresponsible”, Leitner said, but he aggressively rejected any association between his research and the rampage allegedly committed by Anders Behring Breivik in Norway on Friday. In a sprawling online manifesto, Breivik accused European elites of acquiescing to a campaign of Muslim infiltration that threatened European civilization.

Breivik believed that “there was a certain type of threat” and might have been “correct”, Leitner said, but Breivik was a mere “lunatic”. “Having situational awareness of your condition,” Leitner said, “is in no ways inimical to national survival.”

Citizens for National Security released its accusation in the basement of the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill, thanks to the patronage of Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), who blessed the group’s work. West, an Army officer whose career ended after he fired a gun at the head of an Iraqi detainee, said the group’s research “is about the protection of each and every American citizen”.

Wired, 25 July 2011

See also Matt Gertz, “Fox doesn’t even know who they’re using to smear Muslims”, Media Matters for America, 25 July 2011

Norway gunman Anders Breivik’s chilling message to Britain’s far-right

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL anti-Islam placards

Mass killer Anders Breivik told Right-wing extremists in Britain to “keep up the good work” as he plotted his double atrocity in Norway. He was in contact with supporters of the English Defence League days before Friday’s bombing and shooting spree in which 76 people, most of them teenagers, were killed.

Breivik was told he would be welcome at their UK demonstrations, to which he replied: “I hoped so: it’s our common struggle against the islamofascists.” Breivik used an internet pseudonym to communicate with supporters of the EDL and told them: “You’re a blessing to all in Europe.”

His contacts with the EDL, in which he spoke of going to football matches in Bradford, were revealed today by anti-fascist organisation Searchlight. Pressure grew on David Cameron to announce a clampdown on far-Right groups.

Today Searchlight told how Breivik, who posted his messages as “Sigurd Jorsalfare”, a 12th century King of Norway who led one of the Crusades, wrote a series of chilling posts. Only a few days before Friday’s attacks the messages to EDL supporters stopped as he began the final countdown to his massacre.

Searchlight’s editor Nick Lowles: “This proves conclusively Breivik was in contact with the EDL, shared their aims and objectives and expressed a desire to join them on their demonstration. It is quite clear that the Home Office now need to classify the EDL as an extremist Right-wing organisation and to devote similar resources to monitoring their activities as they would other extremist groups.” The EDL has previously said that it has no official contact with Breivik.

In the online messages Breivik wrote: “To you all good English men and women, just wanted to say that you’re a blessing to all in Europe, in these dark times all of Europe are looking to you in search of inspiration, courage and even hope that we might turn this evil trend with Islamisation all across our continent. Well, just wanted to say keep up the good work it’s good to see others that care about their country and heritage.”

In another posting Breivik claims he visited Bradford with a friend “some years ago”. He wrote: “I’ve seen with my own eyes what has happened to england, i was in bradford some years ago, me and a friend walked down to the football stadium of bradford, real ‘nice’ neighborhood, same thing in the suburbs of London.”

One EDL supporter then wrote to Breivik: “Bravo, admire your views and courage. no surrender and welcome.”

Searchlight also said that a millionaire computer engineer living in north London is a backer of the EDL. Alan Lake, 45, has admitted providing funds to the organisation and is alleged to have referred to the Norwegian massacre on a far-Right forum earlier this week saying: “The chickens have actually come home to roost.” Mr Lake could not be reached for comment today.

MPs today called on the Government to investigate Breivik’s links to the EDL. Breivik is reported to have met leaders of the EDL in March last year when he apparently came to London for the visit of Geert Wilders, the Dutch Right-wing politician.

Daryl Hobson, who organises EDL demonstrations, said Breivik had met members of the group. There are also reports that he attended two EDL marches in the UK last year, one in Newcastle and one in London.

Evening Standard, 26 July 2011

Paul Ray, meanwhile, has been suggesting that the Englishman who Breivik described as his “mentor” is none other than the EDL’s Alan Lake. It is true that Lake does have a penchant for calling for his political opponents to be killed (see here and here), though he appears to be advocating state executions rather than acts of individual terrorism. Whether that subtle distinction is clear to the people he inspires, however, is another question.

Update:  See also “Anders Behring Breivik had links to far-right EDL, says anti-racism group”, Guardian, 26 July 2011

Update 2:  And “EDL supporter: Breivik’s a ‘hero in the war on Islam'”, Socialist Worker, 26 July 2011

Berlusconi ally praises Norway killer’s ideas

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mario Borghezio
Mario Borghezio at a rally organised by the German far-right organisation Pro-Köln

An ally of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has triggered a storm of protest after he described as “excellent” some of Norwegian terrorism suspect Anders Behring Breivik’s ideas.

Mario Borghezio, a European Parliament member for the anti-immigration Northern League, said he agreed with Breivik’s “opposition to Islam and his explicit accusation that Europe has surrendered before putting up a fight against its Islamisation.”

Borghezio told the host of talk radio programme La Zanzara that he did not agree with Breivik’s use of violence, nor with the “Protestant” Norwegian’s “anti-Papist” stance. But he said that “some of the ideas (of Breivik’s) are good, in certain cases even excellent.”

The Northern League is the junior partner in Berlusconi’s conservative government.

The centre-left opposition called for Borghezio to resign from the European Parliament. “It is a matter of shame for all of us that a representative of the ruling coalition made apologetic remarks about one of the cruelest acts of terrorism,” said the Democratic Party’s David Sassoli and the Italy of Values party’s Niccolo Rinaldi, both European parliamentarians.

Times Live, 26 July 2011

Update:  See also “Ex-Berlusconi minister defends Anders Behring Breivik”, Guardian, 28 July 2011

Northern League MP and former minister Francesco Speroni is quoted as saying: “I’m with Borghezio. I don’t think he should resign. If [Breivik’s] ideas are that we are going towards Eurabia and those sorts of things, that western Christian civilisation needs to be defended, yes, I’m in agreement.”