Massacre in Norway: the threat of Islamophobia and violent, right wing politics
What
motivated Anders Behring Breivik to kill over 90 people in Norway? His
actions can only be understood in the context of rising Islamophobia and
the far right, argues Dave Stockton
Anders Behring Breivik , the perpetrator of the horrible massacre in
Oslo is believed to have acted alone. His lawyer has revealed that he
was motivated by hatred of the Norwegian Labour Party and its youth
organisation – which he saw (wrongly) as Marxists. Reports suggest he
was “a Christian fundamentalist with a deep hatred of multiculturalism,
of the left and of Muslims” (Guardian).
In short he was motivated by class hatred against the labour
movement. But the focus of his murderous rage was actually his belief in
an Islamic takeover of Europe – he thought that the Labour Party was
being too soft on Islam. This mania is not the sole preserve of
individual ultra-rightists nor of fascists like the EDL in Britain
(whom he admired and contacted). In fact Islamophobia – the latest
avatar of imperialist racism - is the stock in trade of at least
popular tabloids in Britain and many other countries. Millions read this
stuff day after day.
The Mail, the Express, the Sun, the Star, all regularly pump out
stories that suggest a massive influx of Muslim immigrants that are in
some way supposed to be threatening “our” Christian, tolerant,
democratic culture. A decade of such propaganda has fostered the
development of the EDL and its campaign against an “extremist Islamic”
takeover of Britain.
It should be no surprise that if the millionaire media subjects
millions to these noxious ideas, a few thousands will take to the
streets to try to intimidate Muslims (or people they think are Muslims).
Nor should it be a surprise when individuals like Breivik, or tiny
groups of such people, resort to indiscriminate terrorism such as what
took place in Oslo and on Utøya.
Attacks on multi-culturalism by
world leaders such as Angela Merkel, coupled with the insistence by the
Pope that the European Union defend its Christian heritage by excluding
Muslim countries like Turkey, have all played to the hysteria of a
Muslim takeover that the far right take to its logical conclusion.
But the expressions of sympathy
and indignation from ruling class politicians against terrorism are
hypocritical. In Libya, Afghanistan, Pakistan today their armed forces
are carrying out equally savage, but far more sustained,
terrorist attacks on innocent people, young people, mothers and their
children. That warplanes or even unmanned drones can do it at a distance
does not make the horror unleashed on its victims any less than that
suffered in Oslo, nor the grief of their families any less devastating.
At best these receive a perfunctory apology if they cannot hide the fact
that their victims are civilians not “terrorists.” In many cases of
civilian deaths in Afghanistan the imperialist soldiers have refused to
apologies at all.
The British and Norwegian governments are part of Nato and as such
are either carrying out attacks or giving them logistical support. It
is an intrinsic part of “our” imperialist culture –that the sufferings
of Europeans are individualised and humanised in the media whereas those
of Muslims in the Middle East are not. That this is combined with
paeans of praise to European or Western society’ values of tolerance, to
our open society, to our humanity is truly sickening. . Even the
horrific Israeli slaughter of 1,400 inhabitants of Gaza was always
“balanced” by equal focus on the 11 Israeli victims of rockets.
None of this offsets in any way the sympathy with the young victims
at the youth camp on Utøya or the civil servants in the government
offices in Oslo. The killer intended it as an attack on working class,
internationalist and progressive values – represented by the fact that
the youth on Utøya had just been discussing solidarity with the
Palestinians. But the values attacked, and the values we must defend,
are most definitely not shared by the governments of Nato –nor for that
matter by the leaders of the British and Norwegian Labour Parties who
continue to support atrocities like those carried out by “our” forces in
a or Afghanistan.
They are the values of international solidarity – with Muslim
communities under attack in Europe, with the countries of the Middle
East under attack for their oil wealth, with the Palestinians struggling
for the right to statehood against the Zionist settler states and its
US and EU backers and in defence of the right to return of millions of
their refugees to their homeland. To this must be added the real values
of defending the labour movement and its democratic rights against the
far right but also of exposing the respectable racists and Islamophobes
in the media and in the political parties of Europe that give these
ideas “the oxygen of publicity.”
This includes the need to organise our own stewards, our own
security, our own defence against the far right who will aim to use the
crisis to rally ever more enraged people to their ranks
Last but not least the labour movements of Europe, faced with the
rise of Islamophobia – the modern day anti-semitism in the present
capitalist crisis – needs to combat it every step of the way. We must
not give it an inch by debating “the failure of multiculturalism” or the
supposed refusal of Muslim communities to integrate.
Short URL:
http://www.workerspower.co.uk/?p=1553
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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