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![]() The additional problem with Breivik is that allegedly he is insane. Does this not make him a terrorist? Or does it make him an insane terrorist? Disregarding the question of guilt and responsibility, one can assume that Breivik held certain ideas of Islamophob extremism. In his manifesto, he clearly describes the rationale for his deed, which is to save Europe from being taken over by Muslims and Marxists. His ideas, while apparently created under psychotic influence, where formed and shaped in exchange with other rightwing individuals, through the use of online discussion forums as we know. So, even if he was probably psychotic while he pursued with his attacks, he followed ideas which were – and are – present in the wider population. A similar case happened recently in Germany. The German authorities are pursuing it well, and it seems as if finally the German state will decide to act against the right-wingers within with more determination. However, even on the European level, right-wing terrorism is oftentimes silently accepted and even ignored. When Europol publishes its report, right-wing terrorism mostly doesn’t feature highly. This could be due to underreporting from the member states police chefs, and would be a sign for a soft approach taken towards rightwing extremism. The reason why Breivik wasn’t discussed more in European society and in the framework of a war against terrorism – while clearly being a terrorist in the traditional meaning of the term – is that he belonged ‘to us’, and he did not fit the image of rather leftwing radicalism but in fact opposed it. He therefore fought ‘on our side’ against whom we perceive the potential enemy to be. Have we all moved into a state of mind predicted in Huntington’s ‘Clash of Civilisations’, or is this a sign of underlying racism still present in European societies? Let us just imagine Breivik was a Muslim, and he would have justified his deed with the need to struggle against Western capitalism, instead of Islam and Marxism. The debate about the need to strengthen counterterrorism policies would have been fueled anew, we would be engaged in a lengthy discussion about immigration laws, profiling and monitoring. The intelligence services and police would receive a boost of popularity. All this did not happen because we consider Breivik to be ‘one of us’. It is disturbing to think that one of us could do something as horrible as he did. Dr. Cornelia Beyer is a lecturer in Security Studies Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Hull
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