First of all, thanks to Dr. Gene Edward Veith for linking to my book trailer at his Cranach blog. Much appreciated.
But of course, my thoughts are mostly in Norway today. As I understand it, we don’t have a final death count in the bombings and shootings that happened today. But even if it rises no higher than the 15 or so we read about at the moment, bear in mind that Norway is an extremely small country in population–only about 5 million people. Oslo is by far the largest population center, with less than 900,000 inhabitants. This is huge.
My first assumption was that this was an act of Islamic terrorism. Latest reports say that they think the two incidents are related, and officials are downplaying the Islamist theory because the camp shooter was an ethnic Norwegian. Frankly that’s just the sort of thing I’d expect them to say, considering the European reluctance to connect anything violent with “the religion of peace.” European converts to the religion are hardly unheard of.
A group called Ansar Al-Jihad Al-Alami very quickly claimed responsibility. There have also been security concerns recently, due to the decision of a Norwegian prosecutor to put a “refugee” Iraqi named Mullah Krekar on trial for threatening Norwegian politicians.
It’s not unthinkable that a Norwegian neo-Nazi group would join forces with Islamists.
I’ll apologize if I’m wrong, but I still expect further investigation to discover that this is an act of Islamic jihadism.
I worry about Norway all the time. As a culture, they have drunk deeply at the well of Jean Jacques Rousseau, and their characteristic posture in the world, ever since the Viking spirit emigrated to America, has been one of genial defenselessness.
Rather than apologizing if you’re wrong, would it not be wiser and more generous not to speculate?
But my heart, like yours, goes out to the people of Norway.
Hey. Why leave a comment like that anonymously? You’re perfectly free to say things like this.
Thanks, Phil. I appreciate your graciousness. I chose to post anonymously because I don’t know Lars personally, and I feel vulnerable/uncomfortable posting under my own name.
Well, I understand to a degree. There’s a certain level of anonymity most people have on the Internet. If I go to a site where no one knows me and post something under a name linked to no email or website, then I’m almost as good as anonymous. Someone wanting to track me down because of that comment would have to ask around to see if I was the same person.
Anyway, feel free to continue using your current handle or switch to a name as you prefer. We’d like to see you around here.