Oslo Bombing and Utøya Shootings

[Middle-aged Europe]

However, I did suspect Al Qeada--I thought Qadaffi did it.

That's a bit of a contradiction.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Regarding the politics, what strikes me as bizarre is that based on the comments I've seen he does not appear to be that radical. He seems more like an average member of the conservative wing of a conservative party in Scandinavia. It's strange how you can go from there to slaughtering people.

He wasn't even from the conservative wing, at least socially.  The Progress Party was opposed to same sex marriage and he listed himself as being "pro-gay."  Bizarre. 

From what I understand, calling him a "Nazi" is definitely a misnomer. Apparently, he sees Muslims as a menace to society and he blames the left-wing government for the fact that Muslims live in Norway.

While he's probably not the only right-winger to see it that way, he seems to be the one out of 10,000 people who actually shoots people over it. People work in mysterious ways.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Regarding the politics, what strikes me as bizarre is that based on the comments I've seen he does not appear to be that radical. He seems more like an average member of the conservative wing of a conservative party in Scandinavia. It's strange how you can go from there to slaughtering people.

He wasn't even from the conservative wing, at least socially.  The Progress Party was opposed to same sex marriage and he listed himself as being "pro-gay."  Bizarre. 

From what I understand, calling him a "Nazi" is definitely a misnomer. Apparently, he sees Muslims as a menace to society and he blames the left-wing government for the fact that Muslims live in Norway.

While he's probably not the only right-winger to see it that way, he seems to be the one out of 10,000 people who actually shoots people over it. People work in mysterious ways.

Part of what is so weird is the fact that he didn't set out to kill Muslims (which he could easily have done). Instead he wanted to kill Social Democrats because he held them responsible for policies he thought detrimental to the country.

I find it much weirder that he tried to fight "Islamization" of Norway by carrying out acts very similar to that of Islamic terrorists. That's like fighting Nazis by gassing Jews. But maybe he's just a major hypocrite.

[Middle-aged Europe]

^^

The irony is, it's probably quite similar from what you would find in an Islamist manifest.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Who calls himself "Parasite" anyway??

[Middle-aged Europe]

For example I don't think Germany gives a higher sentence than 15 years for any crime, but in this case he could receive 15 years for each crime and a sentence of over a thousand years which would certainly qualify as life.

No, maximum sentence in Germany is life imprisonment. However, you can receive a parole after 15 years or later. Statistically speaking, the average murderer serves around 20 years in prison or so. And there's no such thing like combining prison sentences to a thousand years.

Of course, there's the institution of preventive detention, which means you can be locked away indefinitely, perhaps even forever. Legally, it's important to point out that a life sentence is supposed to punish a criminal, while preventive detention is supposed to protect society from the criminal even after his sentence has expired. So a court order for preventive detention doesn't depend on the crime, but on the presumed likelihood that the criminal is going to commit his crime again after being released from prison.

Its for the same reason that civil rights advocates don't like preventive detention very much. You're being kept in prison for a potential future crime and not for a crime you've actually committed. The current form of preventive detention was also ruled unconstitutional recently and the government basically has to come up with a better law now.

The number of people kept in preventive detention usually amounts to a couple of hundreds nation-wide (448 in 2008, according to German Wikipedia).

[Middle-aged Europe]

Conspiracy theorists are going to have a field day with this one.  We have Breivik's free masonry connection, and also in his manifesto, assuming it is his, it is apparently very pro-Zionist. He speaks of solidarity with Zionist brothers etc., and this was at least one driving force for his anti-islamic views.
   It does seem that he was primarily against non-white moslems, and I wonder if he ever explicitly spoke out against non-whites in general?  I do believe that most far right, racist terrorist attacks by white groups usually target non-whites directly,  and don't go after 16 year old blond girls as a way to strike a blow against multi-culturalism, even if the girl in question had a leftist parent.  
   Down the road it will also be intresting if the debate about the death penalty or longer sentences for murders in Norway gets started.  But, could it be applied retroactively.  I for one hope so.

On the contrary, his "Order of the Temple" is open to anyone of any race, according to the "manifesto."  He wasn't racist, just incredibly anti-Muslim.

Article 97 of the Norwegian Constitution prohibits ex post facto laws, in criminal cases.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ex_post_facto_law#Norway

In 2032, Breivik gets out of jail.    Maybe they drop him off in Iran.

Yeah, he describes himself as a "cultural nationalist", and not an ethnic nationalist. Which means he probably accepts any Muslim of Arab, African, Asian or other descent who's willing to convert to Christianity.

Which is similar to the principle under which al-Qaeda operates, of course.

[Middle-aged Europe]

I can see the Progress Party in Norway suffering bigtime.

The question whether it will have any longer lasting impact on the party's rhetorics. Tone it down or you'll be seen as inciting violence?

[Middle-aged Europe]

But reality has shifted sufficiently that you cannot mindlessly apply the same old models to the new situation.  And, this time, the pundits who reveal themselves to be most out of touch may well be precisely those right-wing critics of immigration and Islam who took the lead after 9/11."

While there are certainly problems with the integration of (Muslim?) immigrants into European society, the self-proclaimed "Islam critics" in the mold of Geert Wilders, the FPÖ and others were the least likely to actually solve these problems. In fact, they make a realistic, solution-oriented debate much harder.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Does it even matter?

A pure decrease in immigration isn't necessarily a solution, just like an purely numerical increase in immigration is necessarily a cause for any problems.

[Middle-aged Europe]

I know it's wrong to even remember that this man exists, but... well... Glenn Beck may actually have sunk to new depths in his quest for publicity.

A new low, but not too surprising.  Party youth wings are largely unknown in this country, and the best known is the Hitler Youth, with Komsomol a distant second.

I suppose organizations like this don't have a lot of members then?

http://www.republicanteens.org/


Ironically, they list Glenn Beck's "Arguing with Idiots" and "Common Sense" on their "Books to Own" page: http://www.republicanteens.org/tar_book_club

[Middle-aged Europe]

Well, the NPD has finally weighed in on this one and they basically accused the "mainstream" parties of hypocrisy:

While Germany's political elite tends to "celebrate" the anniversary of the failed assassination attempt on Hitler on July 20, 1944, Breivik's actions are now suddenly supposed to be bad for some reason.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Although I'm more amused by the NPD's attempts to board (late) the Antiislamic Racism train without throwing its Antisemitic baggage overboard.

The NPD basically wants to deport all Muslims back to the Arab world, so that these Muslims can destroy Israel.