Norway terrorist & Europe growing right wing hate

Think of Norway and what do you imagine? Oil. Fjords. Pine trees. Above all, a sense of peace. A country that has unostentatiously done good with its wealth. Not now. Images of violence currently define Norway on television screens worldwide. More than 90 people have been killed in Norway in a bomb attack on the Prime Minister's Office in Oslo, followed by an assault on a Norwegian Labour Party summer camp for young people.
The clean streets of Oslo are covered in glass and debris. The glorious little island of Utoya is now forever branded with the horror of the mass slaughter. And for me, a personal shock. I have worked closely with the Norwegian Labour Party and the Prime Minister's staff since Jens Stoltenberg formed a government in 2005.


Norway will survive this. A crisis always reveals and this one has shown just how strong and eloquent a leader Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg actually is. Just as New York's former mayor Rudy Giuliani became the leader he always had the potential to be in his response to 9/11, so Stoltenberg has found a public voice and tone to match the gravity of events. His lines are pitch perfect: "We are a small country, but a very proud one. Nobody can bomb us to be quiet. Nobody can shoot us to be quiet. Nobody can ever scare us from being Norway."
Migration is a fact of human existence that has spread culture and civilisation, access to resources, knowledge and wealth, as human beings have moved from hostile region and environment to more habitable environment, where they have access to resources, security and comfort.


This was a key process that led to the evolution of nations and people. Migration therefore promotes development and advancement of civilisation, knowledge and socio-cultural interaction if properly managed. But since the emergence of the concept of defined national frontiers, there have been several measures and approaches taken by countries to secure their borders, protect themselves and their resources from outsiders, yet migration remains a potent force for the spread of civilisation, socio-cultural and economic development.


Equally worthy of mention is the fact that migration is an essential part of humanity as the phenomenon of people moving outside their national borders to other countries have provided a strong push for promotion of trade and development. With the end of the cold war, scholars and researchers believe that migration will be one of the hottest political issues of the next 15 years in Europe and America given the dwindling state of global economy.


Experience has shown that politicians and racial bigots often use migration as their most potent weapon to gain popularity by heaping the blame on their failures on migrants. The Tea Party in the US has become a rallying point for Americans promoting hate ideology and supremacist tendencies. The attacks on Nigerians and other Africans in South Africa is a case to mention here.


In Europe, there is a rising wave of ultra right political philosophy. The anti-migration sentiment, originally started as a fringe ideology of the right wing parties being relegated to the back ground.


Even though there is a general sense that globalisation has come to stay and that Europe, at least among the governing elites, share economic interests with the rest of the world, views from the likes of Jean Marie Le Pen, which were repugnant in the 1990s, have gradually become mainstream ideas in France, and other European countries.


The resurgence of nationalist feeling has been against migrant, notably Arab/Muslims as well as blacks. Multiculturalism is seen as an accommodationist ideology which should not have a footing in fortress Europe.


Akinyemi, who spent over 25 years in Austria, said the idea of fortress Europe as an exclusive European continent for white people is under threat from globalisation. “Today, they see globalisation as a concept that could lead to Europe being swapped by immigrants and especially Arab Muslims who have been seen as irrational and potential terrorists”, the university don said.


Apart from the economic crisis ravaging Europe, political and religious violence has become the identity of the political face of Islam. The proposed European jihad is to counter what is coming from the Muslim world. The end of the cold war has narrowed down ideological differences, but we now have what Samuel Huntington identified as the clash of civilization. Faith inspired terrorists espouse opposition to the Western culture and value system.


The Boko Haram sect, the Taliban in Afghanistan/Pakistan, the Al-Qaeda and many other fundamentalist religious groups view Judeo-Christian faith as a legitimate target for Islamic jihad. They have seen the superpowers as responsible for all the world’s wrongs and suggested that it was the obligation of all Muslims to mobilize to remove the superpowers from the global arena. All these redefined concept of martyrdom provided the basic justification of suicide on religious grounds. In conclusion, Breivik may be pointing to a clash of civilization.