Norway Suspect Attacked Multiculturalism

Anders Behring Breivik, 32, charged with killing at least 92 people in a gun and bomb massacre in Norway. (REUTERS/Scanpix Sweden/Handout)


By Johan Ahlander and Victoria Klesty, REUTERS
Courtesy Of "CANOE"

The Norwegian charged with killing at least 92 people in a gun and bomb massacre had belonged to an anti-immigration party and wrote blogs attacking multiculturalism and Islam.

Police said Anders Behring Breivik, detained by police after 85 people were gunned down at a youth camp and another 7 killed in a bomb attack on Friday, was unknown to them and his Internet activity traced so far included no calls to violence.

In comments from 2009-2010 to other people's articles on website Document.no, which calls itself critical of Islam, Breivik criticized European policies of trying to accommodate the cultures of different ethnic groups.

"When did multiculturalism cease to be an ideology designed to deconstruct European culture, traditions, identity and nation-states?" said one his entries, posted on Feb. 2, 2010.

Another entry dated February 16 last year said: "According to two studies, 13% of young British Muslims aged between 15 and 25 support al Qaeda ideology."

Breivik wrote he was a backer of the "Vienna School of Thought," which was against multiculturalism and the spread of Islam.

He also wrote he admired Geert Wilders, the populist anti-Islam Dutch politician, for following that school.

Wilders said in a statement on Saturday: "I despise everything he stands for and everything he did."

NOT KNOWN TO POLICE

Nina Hjerpset-Ostlie, a contributing journalist to the website, said she had met Breivik at a meeting in late 2009. He seemed keen to develop the website as a way to counter what he saw as prevailing trends of multiculturalism.

"The only thing we noticed about him is that he seemed like anyone else and that he had some very high-flying, unrealistic, ideas about marketing of our website," she told Reuters.

She said Breivik was active on the website in late 2009, but became less so during of 2010.

Police searched an apartment in an Oslo suburb on Friday, which neighbors said belonged to Breivik's mother.

"It is the mother who lives there. She is a very polite lady, pleasant and very friendly," said Hemet Noaman, 27, an accounting consultant who lives in the same building in an expensive part of town.

"He often came to visit his mother but did not live here."

Oslo Deputy Police Chief Roger Andresen would not speculate on the motives for what was believed to be the deadliest attack by a lone gunman anywhere in modern times.

"He has never been under surveillance and he has never been arrested," Oslo deputy police chief Roger Andresen told a news conference.

POPULIST PARTY MEMBER

Breivik, who attended a middle class high school called Handelsgym in central Oslo, had also been a member of the Progress Party, the second-largest in parliament, the party's head of communications Fredrik Farber said.

He was a member from 2004 to 2006 and in its youth party from 1997-2006/2007.

The Progress Party wants far tighter restrictions on immigration, whereas the center-left government backs multiculturalism. The party leads some public opinion polls.

A politician who met Breivik in 2002-2003, when he was apparently interested in local Oslo politics, said he did not attract attention.

"I got the impression that he was a modest person ... he was well dressed, it seemed like he was well educated," Joeran Kallmyr, 33, an Oslo municipality politician representing the Progressive Party, told Reuters.

"I don't remember anything special about him ... I don't remember if he had any particular political opinions, he wasn't really a person who took part of political debate."

Progress leader Siv Jensen stressed he had left the party.

"It makes me very sad that he was a member at an earlier point. He was never very active and we have a hard time finding anyone who knows much about him," she told Reuters.

Farber said: "He was a member and had some participation in the local chapter in Oslo but stopped paying his membership dues and ceased being a member in 2006 or 2007."

Breivik was also a freemason, said a spokesman for the organization. Freemasons meet in secretive fraternal groups in many parts of the world.

YOUTUBE VIDEO

A video on the YouTube website promoting a fight against Islam apparently shows pictures of Breivik wearing a wetsuit and pointing an automatic weapon.

The pictures appear at the end of an approximately 12-minute video called “Knights Templar 2083”.

The pictures in the video also appeared on the now closed Facebook page of Breivik, detained after 85 people were gunned down at a youth camp and another 7 killed in a bomb attack on Friday.

A Norwegian discussion website, www.freak.no, also had a link to a 1,500-page book called “2083 - A European Declaration of Independence”.

It was not possible to verify who uploaded the video, which was posted on July 22 by an Andrew Berwick.

The 2083 book is also signed by an Andrew Berwick. The author says within the document that Andrew Berwick is an Anglicised version of Anders Breivik.

NOTE:

I've taken the liberty and posted the YouTube video below: