Soon after the bomb that he had planted in the government headquarters in Oslo went off, Anders Behring Breivik, 32, arrived in the island of Utoeya dressed as a policeman, armed to the teeth, and opened fire on unsuspecting youths attending a summer camp. The incessant firing claimed 86 young lives. Breivik claims to have committed the heinous acts to preserve the “sanctity” of a Christian Europe and avenge those that he believed were Islamist terrorist sympathizers.
This is an incident that can best be approached by not reading too much into it. There is always a tendency among the media and the intellectual circle to interpret such incidents through a political lense or give meaning to it when there is none. This is simply an exceptional happening carried out by a person who can best be described as a psychopath. Following the killings, there have been calls to tighten the security in the country, one of the world’s most open societies. It is a country where the royalty and the politicians mix freely with the public and move around in the streets with almost no security. But we do not see why the act of one sociopathic person should change all that. Norway should not lose its innocence.
There is a crucial lesson too that we need to draw from the Norway attacks. As soon as the news of the first attack came to the fore, everyone from the media to the intellectuals to the common people started linking it with international terrorism, particularly al-Qaeda, which was not the case as has been found. It shows how unfair Islamophobic discourses on terrorism are. Nepal was quick to extend its condolences to Norway and that is what is expected of a civilized society. We at Republica also pray for the souls of the departed, wish for a speedy recovery of the injured and express our heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families.
Related story
JSS volleyball competition concludes in Norway
