Norway: Anders Behring Breivik and right-wing extremism on trial

Anders Behring Breivik, the man behind the 22 July 2011 massacre in Norway appeared in court this morning to stand trial for the cold-blooded killing of 77 people -  mostly teenagers - last summer. The man whose name is now synonymous with right-wing extremism, appeared in court this morning, stone-faced, defiant and showing no remorse for masterminding and executing what has been called "Norway's worst peacetime massacre."

The defiant 33-year-old right-wing extremist appeared in court and pleaded not guilty at 10:25am Oslo time. He acknowledged the killings but said he will not plead guilty because he was acting in "self defence."

Before entering a not guilty plea, Breivik said he does not recognize the court because it gets its mandate from political parties that support "multiculturalism" - echoing his fight against multiculturalism.

In today's trial, all the names of the victims were read out with a graphic description of how they were killed or wounded.

As I watched Breivik's first day in court this morning (see photo), I imagined the pain families of victims and survivors of his deadly rampage will have to endure throughout the trial. Listening to the names of the victims and how they lost their lives was very disturbing. Breivik showed no emotion when the prosecutor read out the names of victims of his carnage, but he appeared to shed tears when his propaganda video was aired in court.

However, there is hope that Anders Breivik will bear the full weight of the law for his "monstrously horrendous" acts - especially after results of a second mental assessment released on 10 April 2012 concluded that he was mentally competent at the time of the massacre (contrary to an initial conclusion that Breivik suffers from paranoid schizophrenia). Besides, his plea of self-defense makes no sense. Commonsense tells me that you can't attack and kill a bunch of unsuspecting unarmed kids in a summer camp in peacetime and successfully claim self-defense. Reports show that Breivik's actions were premeditated over a long period of time.

According to Breivik, the killing was in a bid to save Europe from "Islamic colonization" - a phrase widely used by right-wing extremists across Nordic and Western Europe as a justification for anti-immigration and Islamophobic sentiments.

Across Europe, many right-wing political parties share Breivik's tough stance against Islam and multiculturalism.

For example, in Finland, the Perrussuomalaiset (True Finns) espouse "traditional Finnish cultural values" as opposed to multiculturalism; in Denmark, the Danish People's Party (DPP) is anti-islamist and wants to ban immigration from non-western countries; in Sweden, the Sweden Democrats (SD) has close ties with Denmark's anti-Islamist DPP; in the Netherlands, there's the Dutch Freedom Party led by a fervent anti-Islamist. [Source]. The list goes on.

Analysts have said that Anders Breivik will use this high profile trial as a platform to promulgate his toxic anti-Islamist and anti-multiculturalism views. Regardless of what happens during the trial, I'm confident that justice will be served.

Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) provides that:

"In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the right, in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practise their own religion, or to use their own language."

It follows that the ICCPR obligates States parties to allow many cultures to co-exist in society.

Norway and other countries that have ratified that ICCPR have an obligation under international law to protect religious, ethnic or cultural minorities from right-wing extremists and nationalists who seek to "assimilate" or terrorize linguistic, religious or ethnic minorities. From a legal (international human rights law) standpoint, immigrants from so-called "non-western" countries and other minority groups have the right to maintain and enjoy their own cultures while undergoing integration into society in a receiving country. They must not be forced to give up their culture, language or religion. On the other hand, minority groups must not force their culture, language, religion or way of life on the majority in the receiving country.

If it is found that Breivik was mentally stable during the 22 July massacre, he faces a sentence of 21 years in prison, which could be renewed to keep him imprisoned for life [Source] - locked away from the public he terrorized on that fateful summer afternoon.

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Massacre in Norway and growing Extreme Right-Wing Populism in Nordic Countries

First Published in: Dunia Magazine

As the good people of Norway try to make sense of the gruesome 7/22 massacre that left at least 76 people dead and 96 injured, there is rising concern about the recent surge in right wing populism in Norway and other Nordic countries – Finland, Denmark and Sweden – where anti-immigration sentiments and islamphobia could also turn deadly.

Last Friday, a Norwegian man, 32 years old, changed his country forever when he detonated a bomb in a state building in Oslo, the main city of Norway, killing at least 7 people. A few hours later, according to the Norwegian police, the same man went on a shooting spree in Utoeya, an island just outside Oslo, killing mostly teenagers.

You would think that after such a massacre, the killer would turn the gun on himself and take his life, but the killer in this case was arrested alive and as of the time of this writing, is in police custody. The killer, identified as Anders Behring Breivik, told police that he orchestrated the massacre but is not criminally responsible.

He appeared in court on Monday, 25 July 2011, calm and ”unaffected,” and did not plead guilty to killing 76 people. The defiant Anders attempted to justify his monstrous action by arguing that the goal of the twin attacks was to ”save” Norway from ”Maxist and Muslim colonization.”

This extreme stance expressed in a deadly fashion by Anders Behring Breivik is shared by a growing number of people in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. The past couple of months have seen a surge in support for extreme right-wing views in these countries.

In Sweden, an extreme right political party, Sweden Democrats (known in Swedish as ”Sverigedemokraterna”) that promulgates xenophobia and islamophobia won seats in parliament for the first time since the party was founded in 1988. The party secured 20 out of 349 seats during the historic September 2010 parliamentary election that changed Sweden’s political landscape. This right-wing political gain came a few months after a group of neo-Nazis staged an anti-mosque demonstration in Gothenburg – Sweden’s second city, on Sunday  11 April 2010.

The September 2010 victory for extreme right populism in Sweden set the stage for extreme right gains in neighboring Finland.

In April 2011, an extreme right party in Finland, True Finns ( known as ”Perussuomalaiset” in Finnish), made significant gains in parliament – winning 39 out of 200 seats, despite the fact that the party supporters and representatives make no secret of their hard-line stance.

On the first day in parliament following the April 2011 election, for instance, a parliamentarian representing  the True Finns made outright derogatory and racist comments on camera against Muslims and Africans. He used a well known and unacceptable racist word to refer to African asylum seekers and mimicked a Muslim call for prayers.

In Denmark, the story is not different. The Danish People’s Party (known as ”Danks Folkeparti” in Danish) kicks against immigration, multi-culturalism and the ”Islamification” of Denmark.

It is worth highlighting that Norway’s confessed mass killer, Anders Behring Breivik, reportedly shares the same views as Finland’s True Finns, Sweden’s Sweden Democrats and Denmark’s Danish People’s Party and all three parties are becoming increasingly and disturbingly popular in their respective countries.

As a matter of fact, a poll published by Helsinki Sanomat, a national daily news outlet in Finland, on 25 July 2011 showed that support for the True Finns has continued to grow, reaching 22.7 per cent after the April 2011 election, while the National Coalition Party has dropped to second place with 21.1 per cent.

Incidentally, the poll was published on the day Anders Behring Breivik, the confessed killer who shares the views of the True Finns, went on a shooting spree in neighboring Norway – in a bid to ”save” Europe from Muslim immigrants.

Make no mistake - the surge in anti-immigration sentiments, islamophobia and extreme right-wing populism in the Nordic countries is real. Urgent steps must be taken to ensure that extreme views promulgated by  increasingly influential right-wing political parties and individuals do not turn deadly.

The right to hold and express opinions is a fundamental human right. However, this right should not be exercised in a manner that infringes the rights and freedoms of others.

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