That Anders Behring Breivik
was in some way ‘mad’ will probably turn out to be quite undisputable. Nothing
else, surely, can explain how he turned his extreme political and religious
views into valid and justifiable reasons for murdering 93 innocent people.
We will, however, have to
study closely where he received his political and religious convictions from –
central to which seems to be his fear of the Islamification of Europe – and
that process, I suspect, will prove to be an uncomfortable experience for some.
Evidence of this is already available in those who have suggested a conspiracy
to add a conservative Christian identity to Breivik’s Facebook page (see link here).
It is too early to speak
with much certainty about this terrible episode and a rush to judgement at this
point would possibly be disrespectful to those who have suffered so much. But
one point must be made over a fact that cannot be denied. When the story of
this atrocity was first emerging – and with 24 hours news and the internet the story
emerged very quickly indeed – there was a widespread assumption in the UK media,
and possibly further afield, that this attack was carried out by Islamic
terrorists. Even the so called progressive media outlets were suggesting that
this was the probably the case.
Could this suggest that it
isn’t Islamification that is the problem in Europe but Islamophobia?
