The macabre killing of 93 people by a right-wing fanatic in Norway is the worst attack carried out in that country since the second Great War. Traumatised Norwegians mourn the death of the unsuspecting souls who did not have the slightest clue of the doomsday.
After this, things will never be the same for the Norwegians. The horrifying scenes of blood and wail have left a deep scar on the national psyche of the peaceful nation.
The 32 year old Anders Behring Breivik, who is now under police custody, surprised many by justifying his acts. In his first comments, after giving himself up to the police, made public through his lawyers, he said although the killing was 'atrocious' it was 'necessary'. We'll learn more from his deposition in the court.
Investigators are planning to burrow deep into his beliefs and come out with a concrete outline of his actual profile, other than the one posted on the facebook. It is important to know what exactly he wanted to achieve.
Till now, it is an act of a single man. There has been no evidence of multiple involvements as yet. Only time will tell the remainder of the story. Although outside links are not downplayed by political experts.
He may have acted alone in this operation, but most likely inspired by 'extreme rightists' scattered across Europe. We have to wait till his depositions and intensive police findings that have got underway.
A witness to the massacre, Adrian Pracon, who escaped his bullets, said, he walked around calm and controlled and randomly shot at the crowd without showing any sign of thrill.
What were his political beliefs? From boyhood he grew with a deep hatred towards multi-culturism of the lefts and of the Muslims. He hated "cultural Marxists" and wanted a "crusade" against the spread of Islam. He called himself a 'nationalist' and harbored a deep resentment against the immigrants, who he thought enjoyed benefits of his state without deserving them. A staunch believer in right politics he planned to create a far right nationalist party, mainly to set up a counter force to deal with the “violent Marxist organizations that he believed terrorized the politically conservative”.
Breivik was a member of the Progress Party, albeit for a brief period, between 1999 and 2004. But he left the party blaming it for embracing
'multiculturism'. It was after walking out of the party, that his 'independent extreme views' took shape. All these years he worked alone. But he kept contacts with far right group members in several countries of Europe. He discussed political ideologies and strategies with them. We might have more information on them in future.
What spurred him to commit such a cold blooded massacre? Is it only his dogmatic political thinking that led him to this blood letting? Why did he have to kill those innocent young people attending a youth camp of their party?
If Breivik is calling himself a nationalist it is like vindicating the aphorism that patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. The macabre massacre he unleashed is the most degenerated form of exerting rancour on his own co-religionist compatriots. He appears to be a modern re-incarnation of Adolf Hitlter.
Breiviks gruesome acts only substantiate the conventional wisdom of Europe that far right circles in that continent are getting intolerant and more confrontational. This is a dangerous phenomenon that powers in Europe and the world could ill-afford to ignore. Home-grown terrorists are hardly visible before they commit the most dangerous acts in their own yards.
However, people taking recourse to terrorism must be told that 'act of terrorism has little to do with politics or beliefs; it is a senseless and criminal act, not justifiable by any reasoning.
It is important that the First World democracies address the problems posed by the 'far right extremists' and 'Christian fundamentalists' in their countries. They harbour intense hatred and grudge against the immigrants and minorities and their religious belief. They also target those who believe in democracy and protect the rights of the immigrants and minorities.
This is no secret. They have made it known through the media, through public rallies and through attacks and killings.
