{"id":13719,"date":"2011-08-01T12:00:35","date_gmt":"2011-08-01T11:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=13719"},"modified":"2018-10-13T11:39:58","modified_gmt":"2018-10-13T10:39:58","slug":"norway-the-victim-norway-the-perpetrator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2011\/08\/norway-the-victim-norway-the-perpetrator\/","title":{"rendered":"Norway the Victim. Norway the Perpetrator."},"content":{"rendered":"

Anders Breivik was driven by a calling to save christianity–catholic essentially–from a European civil war with islam.\u00a0 Islam enters Europe on roads paved by multiculturalism, built by social democrats–like the Workers’ Youth League (Arbeidernes ungdomsfylking, AUF<\/em>) at Ut\u00f6ya.\u00a0 Dialogue with an implacable, fanatic enemy is impossible.\u00a0 Violence against government quarters, and massacre of young supporters, however regrettable, was necessary.\u00a0 Norway, Europe needed a wake-up call to return to its origins.<\/p>\n

These three crazy articles of faith found an evil terrorist carrier?\u00a0 Oh yes, but those words serve as a road sign, “no further thinking needed”.\u00a0 That is not the way to handle a catastrophe, only a lazy, easy, way out.\u00a0 Instead we have to ask trying questions:<\/p>\n

Is there something to it?\u00a0 What does this remind us of?\u00a0 And how do we prevent a repeat (a coup in the USA may be very close)?<\/p>\n

Of course there is something to it.\u00a0 There are acts of war in Europe, by islamists, by islamophobes.\u00a0 They feed into each other.\u00a0 A society open to immigrants, and basically tolerant, is vulnerable.\u00a0 And there will always be fundamentalist carriers of deep intolerance, however tolerant may be the rest of society; be they loners or well linked.\u00a0 Problematic.\u00a0 But not more than a reasonably competent police–open or secret–can handle; a commodity Norway does not seem to have. Maybe the heads of the police directorate and of the security police should have resigned by now? Or, if not, have been invited to do so?<\/p>\n

But these are small ripples on the tsunami that hit Norway, like whether or not Breivik cooperated with one or two more “cells”.\u00a0 The next question is worse: what does this remind us of?<\/p>\n

Yes, this neo-fascism is reminiscent of nazism, with culture instead of race, multiculturalism instead of miscegenation, anti-islamism instead of anti-semitism.\u00a0 Very old figures in European thought, and not only in Europe.\u00a0 An updating of an old, bad, story.<\/p>\n

But there is another answer that will now cause tremors deeper than the massacre itself in the Norwegian body politic: it reminds us of ourselves<\/em>.\u00a0 Breivik becomes a mirror reflecting ourselves.\u00a0 Had he been darker skinned with a beard—let’s stop there.\u00a0 But he was light-skinned, blond, blue-eyed, christian.\u00a0 We see ourselves.\u00a0 And looking more closely we see Norwegian sharp shooters and gunners in tanks, with the sickening idea that democracy serves as a license to kill in Afghanistan, and for massive bombing by Norwegian bombers in Libya.\u00a0 The acts are disturbingly similar.\u00a0 Not easily processed.<\/p>\n

By what theory-ideology-manifesto does Norway do this?<\/p>\n

“When NATO goes in we go in, when NATO goes out we go out.” “When the UN Security Council so mandates–.”\u00a0 Authoritarianism, hiding under the top of US-Europe.\u00a0 And what theory do they have?<\/p>\n

Not merely a European but a world civil war, Bernard Lewis’ clash of civilizations wrongly attributed to Samuel Huntington.\u00a0 Dialogue is impossible, the Taliban–like Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda–are autistic terrorists, living in their bubbles.\u00a0 Violence is regrettable–and there may be collateral damage–but necessary.\u00a0 From a failed state they want to conquer the world.\u00a0 Build a new state, like Norway with democracy and civil society.\u00a0 And Breivik?<\/p>\n

European civil war=world clash of civilizations; AUF=Taliban?; violence is necessary, become like me-us.\u00a0 Depressingly similar. If one is crazy, so is the other.\u00a0 If one is terrorist so is the other.\u00a0 Breivik hides under God and History; Norway under NATO and UNSC.\u00a0 A comfort for the bereaved anywhere who lost their beloved ones?<\/p>\n

There will be thunderous the two are entirely different!<\/em> to deafen that little inner voice saying maybe not that different.\u00a0 But some will have the heart to reach out to the bereaved–by Norwegian bullets and bombs–in muslim countries, and see the Norwegian prime-foreign-defense ministers’ faces next to Breivik’s in the mirror.<\/p>\n

A deep victim-perpetrator double bond is a deep trauma.<\/p>\n

What to do?\u00a0 Let the hypocrisy surface, take it in, take it on.\u00a0 With two road-signs guiding us: one dialogical, one theological.<\/p>\n

Democracy is the setting, and multi-party election every four years is only a minor part.\u00a0 Better information<\/em>; less Murdoch, more diversity. More transparency<\/em>: no major foreign policy decision in parliament behind closed doors, escaping challenges!\u00a0 Premises, not only conclusions, please!\u00a0 What do decision-makers know, what is their theory?\u00a0 Do they know muslim versions of past, present and future?\u00a0 What were the alternatives?\u00a0 Did the parties do their job, not only moralizing and critiquing, but having constructive ideas?<\/p>\n

More dialogues<\/em>, meeting, exploring, and challenging a Breivik, exploring the consequences of his thinking, using Golden Rule or Kant or Ten Commandments or Sura 8:61 or the 8-fold path; whatever; not lazy self-righteous tolerance celebrating freedom of expression.\u00a0 Beware: those people are well prepared, hard-working.\u00a0 Be the same.<\/p>\n

Reach across borders to muslim countries, badly hit by the West in the last centuries.\u00a0 Reflect.\u00a0 Repent.\u00a0 Listen.\u00a0 Solve. Do not kill.<\/p>\n

Theology is the knowledge of God, different at different times and spaces.\u00a0 The cultures we talk about are religions.\u00a0 Search, and you will find jewels in them all; focus on them, see the gems in the eyes of your next, let him see yours.\u00a0 Dialogos, theologos<\/em>.\u00a0 We are mourning, in churches, some in mosques–how about mourning together? The mezquita<\/em> in C\u00f3rdoba, with muslim service on Fridays, christian on Sundays, joint services on Saturdays?\u00a0 And in the Hagia Sophia<\/em> in Istanbul, building on Erd\u00f6gan-Zapatero Alliance of Civilizations?<\/p>\n

Whites and blacks worked together in Southern USA at great risks; moving the USA forward.\u00a0 Show islamophobes, like Breivik, in Oslo, in Washington, and islamists, that dialogue and cooperation are possible. Invite them to join.\u00a0 Moving the world forward.<\/p>\n

* For solutions West-Islam see <\/em>50 Years: 100 Peace and Conflict Perspectives, chapters 81-90; for going beyond religious divides see (with Graeme MacQueen)
\n<\/em>Globalizing God: Religion, Spirituality and Peace, both TRANSCEND University Press, 2008, www.transcend.org\/tup<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dialogos, theologos. We are mourning, in churches, some in mosques–how about mourning together? The mezquita in C\u00f3rdoba, with muslim service on Fridays, christian on Sundays, joint services on Saturdays? And in the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, building on Erd\u00f6gan-Zapatero Alliance of Civilizations? Whites and blacks worked together in Southern USA at great risks; moving the USA forward. Show islamophobes, like Breivik, in Oslo, in Washington, and islamists, that dialogue and cooperation are possible. Invite them to join. Moving the world forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13719\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}