"Across Europe, the left has been forming alliances with Muslim groups to fight fascism and racism..

[pampango]

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/07/2011723135619293955.html

It is significant that the target of the Norwegian "madman" appears to have been the left-leaning Labour Party, both in Oslo and on the island where the shootings took place. Across Europe, the left has been forming alliances with Muslim groups to fight fascism and racism of all kinds...Anyone who claims therefore, that the perpetrator's "right-wing traits" and "anti-Muslim views", or even links with "Christian fundamentalist" websites are irrelevant is trying to draw a veil over the unacceptable truths of such "traits" and expecting us to believe that right-wing ideology is incapable of prompting someone towards such criminality.

Of course, that idea is nonsensical. Right-wing ideology was behind the Holocaust; it has been behind most anti-Semitism and other racism around the world; the notion of Europe's and Europeans' racial superiority - giving cultural credibility to the far-right - gave rise to the slave trade and the scramble for Africa leading to untold atrocities against "the Other"...

We dismiss this "madman" as a one-off "not linked to any international terrorist organisations" at our peril. If nothing else, history has shown us that such ideologies are trans-national across and beyond the West, with catastrophic effects on the rest of the world. We have been warned.

Interestingly, this criminal is described by one unnamed Norwegian official as a "madman". He may well be, but this is one way that the motivations for heinous crimes can be airbrushed out of the story before they have the chance to take hold in the popular imagination. ...If we allow this to happen, we will be doing the world a great disservice, not least because the new right is on the rise across the West - and Oklahoma was proof that its followers are capable of immense destruction.

[RC]

1. This needs more kicks so more people will see it.

rec's won't do it.

[Karenina]

3. . .

[JoeyT]

2. Yeah, and if you want an example of the racism that needs to be fought

look no further than how rapidly "Muslim terrorist murders innocents!!! Shock! Horror!" morphed into "Meh. Lone nut. Nothing can be done." once they saw a picture of him. The second it's shown the guy is a white right-winger it's downgraded from an act of terrorism into mass murder.

[Scuba]

4. K & R