Christian terrorism

Christian terrorism comprises terrorist acts by groups or individuals who claim Christian motivations or goals for their actions. As with other forms of religious terrorism, Christian terrorists have relied on idiosyncratic or literal interpretations of the tenets of faith – in this case, the Bible. Such groups have used Old Testament and New Testament scriptures to justify violence and killing or to seek to bring about the "end times" described in the New Testament, while others have hoped to bring about a Christian theocracy.

United Kingdom

In 2005 the US Government banned Sinn Fein from fundraising following White House anger over the IRA’s continuing involvement in crime at the same time as the terrorist threat level in the U.K was raised to “substantial”.

England

The early modern period saw religious conflict resulting from the Reformation and the introduction of Protestant state churches in each country. The Gunpowder Plot was a failed attempt to blow up the Palace of Westminster, the English seat of government. Peter Steinfels characterizes this plot as a notable case of religious terrorism.

The IRA had regarded bombing English targets as militarily and symbolic, they were responsible for attacks in England over decades, starting in 1939 then a new campaign commenced after Bloody Sunday, 1972. The IRA never attacked Scotland or Wales.

Northern Ireland

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Some scholars, such as Steve Bruce, a sociology professor at the University of Aberdeen, argue that the conflict in Northern Ireland is primarily a religious conflict, its economic and social considerations notwithstanding. Professor Mark Juergensmeyer has also argued that some acts of terrorism were "religious terrorism... - in these cases, Christianity".:19-20 Others, such as John Hickey, take a more guarded view.Writing in The Guardian, Susan McKay discussed religious fundamentalism in connection with the murder of Martin O'Hagan, a former inmate of the Maze prison and a reporter on crime and the paramilitaries. She attributed the murder to a "range of reasons," including "the gangsters didn't like what he wrote". The alleged killers claimed that they killed him for "crimes against the loyalist people".

The Orange Volunteers are a group infamous for carrying out simultaneous terrorist attacks on Catholic churches.

In 1999 Pastor Clifford Peeples of the Bethel Pentecostal Church was convicted of offences under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and sentenced to ten years imprisonment after being found in possession of hand grenades and a pipe bomb intended for use against Catholics. Pastor John Somerville, an associate of Peeples, had previously been convicted under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and had received a life sentence for his part in the Miami Showband massacre. RUC chief constable, Ronnie Flanagan dubbed Peeples and his associates "the demon pastors" – specialising in recounting lurid stories of Catholic savagery towards Protestants, and in finding biblical justifications for Protestant retaliation. Other notable individuals convicted for terrorism offences include Pastor Kenny McClinton, a convicted murderer who once advocated beheading Roman Catholics and impaling their heads on railings, and Billy Wright, a Born again Christian preacher who became one of the most feared paramilitary figures in Northern Ireland before being assassinated whilst incarcerated in prison.

India

Tripura

The National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), a rebel group operating in Tripura, North-East India, has been described as engaging in terrorist violence motivated by their Christian beliefs.  It is classified by the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism as one of the ten most active terrorist groups in the world, and has been accused of forcefully converting people to Christianity. The insurgency in Nagaland was originally led by the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN), and it is continued today by a faction named "NSCN–Isaac Muivah", which explicitly calls for a "Nagalim for Christ". The state government reports that the Baptist Church of Tripura supplies arms and gives financial support to the NLFT. In April 2000, the secretary of the Noapara Baptist Church in Tripura, Nagmanlal Halam, was arrested with a large quantity of explosives. He confessed to illegally buying and supplying explosives to the NLFT for two years. The NLFT has threatened to kill Hindus celebrating the annual five-day religious festival of Durga Puja and other religious celebrations. At least 20 Hindus in Tripura have been killed by the NLFT in two years for resisting forced conversion to Christianity. A leader of the Jamatia tribe, Rampada Jamatia, said that armed NLFT militants were forcibly converting tribal villagers to Christianity, which he said was a serious threat to Hinduism. It is believed that up to 5,000 tribal villagers were converted to Christianity by the NLFT in two years.

In August 2000, a tribal Hindu spiritual leader, Shanti Tripura, was shot dead by about ten guerrillas belonging to the NLFT who said it wanted to convert all people in the state to Christianity. In December 2000, Labh Kumar Jamatia, a religious leader of the state's second largest Hindu group, was kidnapped by the NLFT, and found dead in a forest in Dalak village in southern Tripura. According to police, rebels from the NLFT wanted Jamatia to convert to Christianity, but he refused. A local Marxist tribal leader, Kishore Debbarma, was clubbed to death in Tripura's Sadar (north) by militants belonging to the Biswamohan faction of the NLFT in May 2005. He was dragged away at gunpoint by a group of NLFT militants. His body was found with multiple head injuries in a roadside ditch in the Katabon area.

Assam

In Assam, the Manmasi National Christian Army (MNCA), an extremist group from the Hmar tribe, were charged with forcing Hindus to convert at gunpoint. Seven or more Hmar youths were charged with visiting Bhuvan Pahar, a Hindu village, armed with guns, and pressuring residents to convert to Christianity.They also desecrated temples by painting crosses on the walls with their blood. The Sonai police, along with the 5th Assam Rifles, arrested 13 members of the MNCA, including their commander-in-chief. Guns and ammunition were seized.

Orissa

See also: Religious violence in Orissa.

In 2007 a tribal spiritual Hindu monk, Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati, accused Radhakant Nayak, chief of a local chapter of World Vision, and a former Rajya Sabha member from Orissa in the Indian National Congress party, of plotting to assassinate him. The Swami also said that World Vision was covertly pumping money into India for religious conversion during the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, and criticized the activities of Christian missionaries as going against tribal beliefs. In 2008, he was gunned down along with four disciples on the Hindu festive day of Krishna Janmashtami by a group of 30–40 armed men. Later, Maoist terrorist leader Sabyasachi Panda admitted responsibility for the assassination, saying that the Maoists had intervened in the religious dispute on behalf of Christians and Dalits. The non-governmental organization Justice on Trial disputed that there had been Maoist involvement, and quoted the Swami as claiming that Christian missionaries had earlier attacked him eight times.

Norway

The 2011 Norway attacks were two attacks against the government and civilian population, and a political summer camp in Norway on 22 July 2011. The first was a bomb explosion in Regjeringskvartalet, the executive government quarter of Oslo, at roughly 15:26, outside the office of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and other government buildings. The explosion killed seven people and injured several others. The second attack occurred about two hours later at a youth camp organized by the Workers' Youth League (AUF), the youth organization of the Norwegian Labour Party (AP), at the island of Utøya in Tyrifjorden, Buskerud. At least one armed gunman disguised as a policeman opened fire at the campers, killing 68 attendees.

Anders Behring Breivik has been arrested for the attacks.

Romania

Orthodox Christian movements in Romania, such as the Iron Guard and Lăncieri, which have been characterized by Yad Vashem and Stanley G. Payne as anti-semitic and fascist, respectively, were responsible for involvement in the Bucharest pogrom, and political murders during the 1930s.

Spain

The Spanish Inquisition was a so-called religious cleansing, directed by Spain's Queen Isabella. Spanish Jews were the main victims of this 300-year stretch of torture and butchery. The history of catholicism in Spain led to the formation of Guerrilleros de Cristo Rey.

Uganda

The Lord's Resistance Army, a cult guerrilla army engaged in an armed rebellion against the Ugandan government, has been accused of using child soldiers and committing numerous crimes against humanity; including massacres, abductions, mutilation, torture, rape, porters, and sex slaves. A quasi-religious movement that mixes some aspects of Christian and Islamic beliefs with its own brand of spiritualism, it is led by Joseph Kony, who proclaims himself the spokesperson of God and a spirit medium, primarily of the "Holy Spirit" which the Acholi believe can represent itself in many manifestations.LRA fighters wear rosary beads and recite passages from the Bible before battle.

United States

The End. Victoriously slaying Catholic influence in the U.S. Illustration by Rev. Branford Clarke from Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty 1926 by Bishop Alma White published by the Pillar of Fire Church in Zarephath, NJ.

Beginning after the Civil War, members of the Protestant-led, Ku Klux Klan organization began engaging in arson, beatings, cross burning, destruction of property, lynching, murder, rape, tar-and-feathering, and whipping against African Americans, Jews, Catholics, and other social or ethnic minorities.

They were explicitly Christian terrorist in ideology, basing their beliefs on a "religious foundation" in Christianity.  The goals of the KKK included, from an early time on, an intent to, "reestablish Protestant Christian values in America by any means possible," and believe that "Jesus was the first Klansman. Their cross-burnings were conducted not only to intimidate targets, but to demonstrate their respect and reverence for Jesus Christ, and the lighting ritual was steeped in Christian symbolism, including the saying of prayers and singing of Christian hymns.  Many modern Klan organizations, such as the Knights Party, USA, continue to focus on the Christian supremacist message, asserting that there is a "war" on to destroy "western Christian civilization.

During the twentieth century, members of extremist groups such as the Army of God began executing attacks against abortion clinics and doctors across the United States. A number of terrorist attacks were attributed to individuals and groups with ties to the Christian Identity and Christian Patriot movements, including the Lambs of Christ. A group called Concerned Christians were deported from Israel on suspicion of planning to attack holy sites in Jerusalem at the end of 1999, believing that their deaths would "lead them to heaven. The motive for anti-abortionist Scott Roeder murdering Wichita doctor George Tiller on May 31, 2009 was a belief that abortion is criminal and immoral, and that this belief went "hand in hand" with his religious beliefs.

Hutaree was a Christian militia group based in Adrian, Michigan. In 2010, after an FBI agent infiltrated the group, nine of its members were indicted by a federal grand jury in Detroit on charges of seditious conspiracy to use of improvised explosive devices, teaching the use of explosive materials, and possessing a firearm during a crime of violence.Terrorism scholar Aref M. Al-Khattar has listed The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord, Defensive Action, The Freemen Community, and what Al-Khattar called "the Christian militia that supported Timothy McVeigh", as groups that "can be placed under the category of far-right-wing terrorism" that "has a religious (Christian) component. However, some[who?] claim that McVeigh himself was not a Christian, including McVeigh himself.

In a congressional hearing about radicalization in U.S. prisons, in 2005 Sheila Jackson Lee stated that investigators needed to analyze Christian militants in America because they too might try to “bring down the country.

Motivation, ideology, and theology

Christian views on abortion have been cited by Christian individuals and groups that are responsible for threats, assault, murder, and bombings against abortion clinics and doctors across the United States and Canada.

Christian Identity is a loosely affiliated global group of churches and individuals devoted to a racialized theology that asserts that North European whites are the direct descendants of the lost tribes of Israel, God's chosen people. It has been associated with groups such as the Aryan Nations, Aryan Republican Army, Army of God, Phineas Priesthood, and The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord. It has been cited as an influence in a number of terrorist attacks around the world, including the 2002 Soweto bombings.

'Christian terrorist' Coming to term?

As Norwegians prepare over the coming days to bury scores of the dead from terror attacks on a youth camp and the government's headquarters, an aggrieved nation vowed it wouldn't let its proudly open society also fall victim to the massacre.

The first funerals of the 77 killed in the attacks 10 days ago took place Friday—those of two Muslim teenagers from immigrant families who, in many ways, embodied the evolving face of Norway that an anti-immigrant extremist said he sought to assault with the attacks.

As a Muslim imam and a Lutheran minister led the casket of one of them, Bano Rashid, an 18-year-old Iraqi Kurd who had come to Norway with her family in 1996, mourners spoke of a passionate young woman who aspired to become a Norwegian parliamentarian one day. Earlier on the rainy day of the attacks, friends said, Ms. Rashid had lent her rubber boots to former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, who had spoken just hours before at the Labor Party youth camp she and others were attending.

In his eulogy for Ms. Rashid, Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere also lamented an irony that many in Norway have struggled to come to terms with since the tragedy:

"As refugees...you arrived in Norway, looking for protection and safety. And yet you have been hit by what is most absurd and most brutal right here in our home, in safe Norway," he said. "It is not understandable."

In the days since Norway's worst peacetime atrocity, political leaders, police and ordinary Norwegians have been re-examining the openness that for so long has marked this nation's society and its security policies.

During the first reports that someone had detonated a car bomb and then opened fire at a youth camp in Norway, many assumptions clicked into place.

"In all likelihood the attack was launched by part of the jihadist hydra," Thomas Joscelyn, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, wrote within hours on the Weekly Standard website.

The massacre was actually committed, police say, by a blond Norwegian. As Breivik's 1,500-page manifesto emerged, calling for violence to rid Europe of non-Christians and those he deemed traitors to Christian Europe, some seized on the religious aspect of his delusions.

Mark Juergensmeyer, editor of the book "Global Religions: An Introduction" and a sociology professor at UC Santa Barbara, wrote an essay likening Breivik to Timothy McVeigh, the American who killed 168 people in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. It was the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil until 9/11.

McVeigh and Breivik were both "good-looking young Caucasians, self-enlisted soldiers in an imagined cosmic war to save Christendom, and both were Christian terrorists," Juergensmeyer wrote.

In a column for Salon.com, Alex Pareene said Breivik is not an American-style evangelical, but he listed other connections to Christianity. "All of this says 'Christian terrorist,' " Pareene wrote.

Such claims drew strong resistance. "Breivik is not a Christian. That's impossible. No one believing in Jesus commits mass murder," Bill O'Reilly said on his Fox News show.

That makes sense to Joyce Dubensky, CEO of the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding. She said it also makes sense that "millions of Muslims say Osama bin Laden is not a Muslim, that no one who believes in the prophet Muhammad commits mass murder."

"We need to hear Bill O'Reilly, but we also need to hear and understand the voices of the overwhelming Muslim majority around the world who condemn those who are terrorists in the name of their faith," she said.

Arsalan Iftikhar, an international human rights lawyer and author of the upcoming book "Islamic Pacifism: Global Muslims in the Post-Osama Era," said the Norway attacks "proved that terrorism can be committed by a person of any race, nationality or religion.

Europe's Big Oil Sees Output Fall

LONDON - When Europe's major oil companies reported quarterly earnings last week, headlines across national capitals once again excoriated the petroleum giants for soaring profits in the face of consumers anger at high fuel prices.

Yet the profits couldn't mask a trend that continues to trouble Wall Street and corporate boardrooms: Nearly every major oil company reported year-on-year oil and gas output declines, often in the double-digits.

Big Oil is throwing huge resources at the problem with more open embrace of unconventional petroleum developments, high-risk exploration in frontier areas and corporate restructuring. But even if these strategies work in some cases, there is little doubt that anemic petroleum output signals a long-term challenge confronting the sector.
The particulars varied across the sector. BP PLC's (BP) 11% output drop was fueled in part by the continued hit from its reduced activity in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico after last year's disastrous spill. Italian giant Eni's (ENI) production fell 15% due to its disproportionate exposure to war-ravaged Libya. Spain's Repsol YPF SA (REP.MC), whose output fell 17%, was affected by both Libya and the U.S. Gulf, as well as by labor unrest in Argentina. Norway's Statoil ASA (STO) saw a16% output decline largely on production outages and maintenance in its home market in the North Sea.

Oil giants are more vulnerable to operational problems in part because of their declining dominance over key resources. Whereas in 1973, independent oil firms controlled three-quarters of the world's reserves, they hold as little as10% today, according to some estimates. That has forced oil majors to rely to a greater extent on costly unconventional plays such as shale gas, deepwater exploration, and Arctic exploration.
Investment in conventional assets accounted for 63% of the majors' total capital expenditure between 2001 and 2005, research by Wood Mackenzie showed, with this proportion set to fall to 40% between 2011 and 2015.

Most European major oil companies posted a surge in quarterly profits last week, but their results were overshadowed by a trend that continues to trouble Wall Street and corporate boardrooms: Nearly every major oil company reported year-to-year oil-and-gas output declines, often in the double-digits.

Big Oil is throwing huge resources at the problem with more open embrace of unconventional petroleum developments, high-risk exploration in frontier areas and corporate restructuring. But even if these strategies work in some cases, there is little doubt that anemic petroleum output signals a long-term challenge confronting the sector.

Consolidation offers another way forward, yet few expect large corporate mergers between integrated oil giants in light of antitrust concerns and today's high oil prices. More likely is a deal akin to Exxon's purchase of U.S. unconventional gas specialist XTO, a major factor in Exxon's standout 10% rise in production in the quarter. Wood Mackenzie's Simon Flowers predicts more such "infill acquisitions," but says "large-scale acquisition is not likely in the near term."

Another possibility is the flowering of deals between private oil giants and emerging state-controlled firms like Brazil's Petrobras, Russia's Rosneft (ROSN.RS) and China's CNPC. BP's failed share swap and Arctic exploration deal with Rosneft was an example and illustrates the lengths to which companies are prepared to go to gain access to their potentially lucrative reserves.

Wall Street will likely push harder for some sort of tangible action from Big Oil in the coming months. The sector trades at a significant discount to the oil price itself, a factor that could sharpen calls for share buybacks and more special dividends. The recent move by ConocoPhillips (COP) to hive off its downstream business lifted the Texas company's share price and spawned questions for the rest of the sector. But so far, most of Conoco's peers have dismissed the idea as impractical in light of the advantages of the conventional integrated model.

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.

Norway terror attack exposes deeper anger over immigration

Norwegian police say a suspicious suitcase found on a bus at the central station in the capital, Oslo, poses no danger.
Railway officials said parts of the station were evacuated Wednesday after the abandoned bag was discovered in an area where buses depart for the airport.
Norway is on high alert after a bombing and massacre last week that killed 76 people.
Police on Tuesday began releasing some of the names of those killed — three who were killed in the bomb blast in Oslo and one in the shooting rampage at an island youth camp.
The defense lawyer for the Norwegian man who confessed to the attacks, Anders Behring Breivik, says the case suggests his client is insane.
At a news conference in Oslo Tuesday, defense attorney Geir Lippestad told reporters it was too early to say if Breivik would plead insanity. He said Breivik is not aware of the death toll nor of the public response to the massacre.
While Breivik has admitted responsibility for the attacks, he has pleaded not guilty to the terrorism charges, claiming he acted to save Europe from what he says is Muslim colonization.
Police Tuesday detonated a cache of explosives found at a farm Breivik rented about 160 kilometers north of Oslo. Breivik reportedly used the farm as a cover for ordering the six tons of fertilizer he used to make his bomb.


A country of less than 5 million people, Norway has seen its once homogeneous population change in recent years with new arrivals from Africa and the Middle East. This transformation, in part, drove Anders Behring Breivik, charged with Friday's car bombing and shooting spree that killed at least 76 people in the span of a few hours.


Now, even as this country still grieves for its victims, many say how Norway responds to the attacks could define immigration policy in the future.


Some of his ideas are more commonplace than we’d like them to be,” says Rune Berglund Steen, communication manager for the Norwegian Center Against Racism. "This skepticism of Muslims has become a fairly central topic in Norwegian politics.”


Norway’s second-largest political party in parliament, the Progress Party, has been accused of backing xenophobic positions and Breivik was on the party’s member registry until 2006. The party quickly denounced the attacks and Breivik’s beliefs.


Mr. Steen says most Norwegians have a positive view toward immigrants. For example, he said a recent poll found that about 8 out of 10 Norwegians found it favorable if a child attends a school with mixed ethnicities.


But for Breivik and his ilk, Muslim newcomers here represent a "takeover."


“The problem can only be solved if we completely remove those who follow Islam. In order to do this all Muslims must ‘submit’ and convert to Christianity,” he wrote in his manifesto. “If they refuse to do this voluntarily prior to Jan. 1, 2020, they will be removed from European soil and deported back to the Islamic world.”


Most Norwegians, however, reject Breivik’s anti-Islamic views, preferring to see themselves as a tolerant, peaceful people and Breivik as a backwards extremist.


“It’s the fact that he attacked our multiculturalism,” says Alexander Roine, waiting outside the courthouse where Breivik appeared Monday.


Mr. Roine, an Oslo native whose father came from Tunisia, says Norway is rightly famous for its peaceful, tolerant attitude but conceded older generations are still adjusting to the country’s brisk demographic shift.


“We would think a guy with these views would be like 50 or 60 years old,” he says of Breivik. “This guy was born in a Norway that was already multicultural. He attacked everything this country stands for to the last detail.”


Norway has experienced a steady rise in immigration, like many European countries, with the number of its immigrants doubling since 1995.
Most came for the robust economy, political stability and generous welfare state, settling in dense pockets in Norway’s largest cities. It’s estimated that 11 percent of Norwegians are immigrants or the children of immigrants and about 2 percent of the population practices Islam.

Hurtigruten show set Guinness record

Norwegian cruise line Hurtigruten, in partnership with the Norwegian Broadcast Company, have set the Guinness World Record for “Longest Live TV Documentary” through their 134-hour non-stop broadcast of Hurtigruten’s itinerary across the west coast of Norway.

The footage aired June 16-22 and was watched by nearly six million viewers from 148 different countries three million of which from Norway, comprising almost three quarters of the country’s population.

Tuesday that its nearly six-day show “Hurtigruten Minute by Minute” was approved as the world’s longest live TV documentary ever broadcast. It lasted for 134 hours, 42 minutes and 45 seconds and was a huge hit with viewers both in and outside Norway.

Final ratings numbers show that around 3 million viewers tuned in during the marathon broadcast, or roughly 70 percent of the entire Norwegian population. The show was also watched live by people around the world, who tuned in via NRK’s website coverage.

Rune Møklebust, the NRK program chief responsible for the show, was delighted once again, equating the Guinness honor to the frosting on a cake. He called the Guinness world record a fine addition to “the top of the kransekake,” referring to the special, celebratory cakes in Norway that are built up by rings of soft chewy almond pastry.