Left Made Anders Behring Breivik Do It!

A European anti-Muslim blogger observes, 'It is clear that Anders Behring Breivik is one of us.'"

Steve Hynd tweets “Counterjihadist blogger admits: ‘It is clear that Anders Behring Breivik is one of us.'”

The link went to a site of which I had never previously heard, Islam Versus Europe, and a blogger of whom I’d never previously heard calling himself Cheradenine Zakalwe and a Saturday post titled “Why the Left Shouldn’t Gloat about Anders Behring Breivik.

Steve buried his lede. Admitting that Brievik’s “opinions are virtually identical to my own and those of most people in the Counterjihad movement. He accesses the same websites and information sources that most of us do, and he has exactly the same concerns about the Islamification of Europe” is damning but defensible. And can have all manner of views and think that the solution is enacting public policy changes through the democratic process and work towards that end using one’s powers of persuasion.

Instead, Zakalwe essentially says lefties gave Breivik little choice:

Reading through Anders Behring Breivik’s comments on the document.no website, it’s clear that he was on the verge of giving up on democracy. (Most of the comments were posted in late 2009, some in 2010; the latest was in October 2010.) That’s what drove him to despair and to an act of apocalyptic violence. He felt there was a conspiracy among the media and political elite to suppress any derogatory information about Muslims or mass immigration. And, of course, he was right. He dwelt on instances of Muslim rioting that were being ignored by the mass media. And he was right about that too. The media does tend to ignore Muslim wrong-doing for as long as humanly possible, then when it becomes too extreme to be ignored, describes the perpetrators as “Asians”, “Islamists”, “les jeunes”, etc. Breivik made the point that democracy only works in an information environment that is honest.

He was particularly struck by the Andrew Neather revelations about the Labour government’s conspiracy to flood Britain with immigrants in order to “rub the right’s nose in diversity.” The left rubbed Breivik’s nose in diversity and he rubbed theirs back in blood. Well done Neather. Well done Blair. Well done Rusbridger.

It is the left-wing that is responsible for this outrage, not the right-wing. This act of violence is the consequence of a deranged political elite attempting to demographic re-engineer an entire continent against the wishes of its people; exploiting imperfections in the democratic system so that the people are never allowed a real choice; passing laws to criminalise free speech so that honest discussion is scarcely possible any more; and a media conspiracy (embodied in laws or informal agreements like the NUJ Guidelines on Race Reporting) to systematically suppress information about the negative consequences mass third-world immigration, and particularly the Muslim component of it, is having on Europe.

Emphases mine.

If there’s such a thing as hate speech, this surely qualifies. In much of the developed world, including the UK, Germany, and Canada, it’s illegal. In the United States, it is not.

Naturally, I prefer the US approach. First, I’m leery of political leaders getting to decide what speech is permissible and what isn’t; the natural consequence is to outlaw speech that harms their own interests. Second, I’d frankly rather have this kind of thing see the light of day rather than take place underground.

But . . . damn.

 

FILED UNDER: Democracy, Environment, Uncategorized, , , , , ,
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Chad S says:

    Instead of an honest discussion about the influence of bloggers like Robert Spencer or Pam Geller, its now about trying to blame the left for “forcing” him to kill 90 people(mostly children)? Disgusting.

  2. James Joyner says:

    @Chad S: We’re having that discussion. See, for example, my morning post “Blaming Extreme Rhetoric for Extreme Acts.” My sense is that this fellow thinks Geller and Spencer are too soft on the cause. Indeed, they’re not on the blogroll.

  3. steve says:

    James- How well do you think what this guy said would be received at popular right wing sites like Red State or American Thinker?

    Steve

  4. PD Shaw says:

    I personally wouldn’t consider this hate speech, for which I would reserve such gems as advocating violence against a person or group. But I do think strict speech codes do feed into this sort of conspiratorial wold view of grievance that Zakalwe either suffers from or . . . maybe even enjoys.

  5. Chad S says:

    @James Joyner: I don’t think that there’s a direct line to be drawn, but there is an influence.

  6. chris says:

    @steve: Wow! Someone tries to shift the blame of 90+ innocents being slaughtered… and all you care about is how a “right leaning” sites would receive the rant. Really? Seriously? I think you need to take a step back and really think about how shallow and pathetic that comment was. Sheez!

  7. ponce says:

    The fringe right wingnuts are always the real victims. Always.

  8. Hey Norm says:

    Nothing suprising here.

  9. DC Loser says:

    This is the same twisted logic Hitler used to blame the Jews for him starting WWII. Plus ca change, plus reste le meme.

  10. JKB says:

    Interesting premise and likely a bit close to the truth. By stopping a real debate those feeling disenfranchise turn to violence. But more importantly by inhibiting the naming of the real subset of Islam that is at war with the West, the Left does not make things more peaceful but risks terrible violence against the innocent as the frustrations move from the real murders to the group.

    A lesson here would be not to screw down the lid so tight but leave some pressure valves open to avoid disaster.

  11. For the Gellars of the world, I’d just like to point that this is what an actual terrorism apologist sounds like.

  12. An Interested Party says:

    Interesting premise and likely a bit close to the truth.

    I was wondering who would be the first person to actually share with us that he/she agrees with the idea that this tragedy is somehow the fault of the left (this is hardly surprising coming from JKB)…I’m sure there are others who agree with this line of thinking…

  13. Ron Beasley says:

    “Instead, Zakalwe essentially says lefties gave Breivik little choice:”

    So if you don’t agree with conservative policy some crazy conservative will kill you and that’s OK.

  14. WR says:

    @JKB: Oh goodie. JKB comes out in sympathy with the mass murderer, apparently because he’s white and his victims weren’t sufficiently hostile to the brown folk.

  15. Lit3Bolt says:

    @Ron Beasley:

    That’s pretty much the gist of it Ron.

    The fact that conservatives from both sides of the Atlantic are rushing to defend a terrorist’s ideology is outrageous. And yet because the killer is a white Christian conservative, he will not be tortured for information and we will give him and his supporters and sympathizers every single benefit of the doubt and law.

    The fact that we have hundreds of Muslims still locked up in Gitmo while Anders Brevik has access to a lawyer, a trial, media exposure of his ideas, and media figures rushing to the defense of his ideology is incredibly damning of our society.

    The Right is now officially full of terrorist sympathizers. This is not gloating or schadenfreude and I am not using it for political advantage. It is fact. They are condemned by their own words and actions.

  16. JKB says:

    @WR: @An Interested Party:

    Isn’t your pony tired of doing the same trick over and over?

    Please, to change things up, try to offer original thought via critical analysis of a topic rather than personal attacks based on poor comprehension.

  17. cian says:

    But here’s the thing- Europe isn’t being over run by Muslims and the vast, vast majority of people don’t believe this either, just the nuts on the far right of everything sane. There is uncertainty for sure, anger at what is happening to their economy, vague fears that things are not how they were, and all these nagging questions are being exploited by the European equivalents of US nut jobs like Gaffney, Geller, Beck, Moynihan, Limbaugh etc, etc, etc.

    Breivik’s manifesto could just as easily have been written by any of the above, and while none of the above would dream of carrying out such an action, they are feeding those who would.

  18. sam says:

    @JKB:

    But more importantly by inhibiting the naming of the real subset of Islam that is at war with the West, the Left does not make things more peaceful but risks terrible violence against the innocent as the frustrations move from the real murders to the group.

    Well, shit, our own home-grown Zakalwe: “It’s all the “Left’s fault.”

    Pathetic.

  19. Rob in CT says:

    JJ,

    The beauty of free speech is that it allows (indeed, encourages) people like this Zakalwe to display their awful beliefs to the rest of us. It’s not all roses, of course, but like you I think it’s the best approach.

    In that spirit, I’m voting up JKB’s post. It should be seen.

    JKB – this terrorist had plenty of outlets. He lived in a very free country, albeit with one whose laws on speech are more restrictive than ours, but he also clearly had access to the internet & used it. He had a relief valve. It didn’t work.

    The USA, a place where we venerate free speech to the point of tolerating all sorts of vicious crap (Phelps, for instance), has had instances of politically-driven domestic terrorism. The Weathermen are the Lefty example. McVeigh is the RW example. We have all the escape valves we can, but sometimes people are still going to do awful, awful things.

  20. Alex says:

    If you want to see Americans making this same sort of bankrupt argument, just look at Ann Coulter’s new book where she says:

    More important, abortion clinic violence should not be filed under ‘Political Violence’ at all. It should be filed under ‘Things Liberals Won’t Let Americans Vote On.’ […] When there is no legal process for pro-lifers to pursue to outlaw abortion – unlike every policy liberals violently protest – some pro-lifers will inevitably respond to lawlessness with lawlessness. […] Thus, abortion clinic violence is more akin to the Tiananmen Square protests in Communist China than any liberal riot in America. Want to stop violence at abortion clinics? Repeal Roe and let Americans vote.

  21. Rob in CT says:

    I had, blissfully, forgotten about her. Ugh.

  22. Barb Hartwell says:

    I can`t stand her either. The woman is vile.

  23. An Interested Party says:

    Isn’t your pony tired of doing the same trick over and over?

    Well, the pony is tired of seeing the same horse$hit over and over again…oh, and my comprehension is just fine, thank you…your words betray exactly what I interpreted them to mean…

  24. OzarkHillbilly says:

    just look at Ann Coulter’s new book where she says:

    @Alex: You read it so we don’t have to.

  25. Barry says:

    @JKB:

    JKB says:

    “Interesting premise and likely a bit close to the truth. By stopping a real debate those feeling disenfranchise turn to violence. ”

    No, it’s that people like you can’t deal with not having your way, so you turn to violence.

  26. noname says:

    I’m watching a movie I was hoping never to come back.
    Norway brought it back.

    It’s not a Islam issue, it’s a pure COMMUNISM issue.
    It’s a come back of the Cold War.
    The communist don’t have any God. Not even Allah.
    Their god is the party activist.

    Norway imported Iranians and these guys hijacked their Left Party.
    On that island there was a pure communist meeting.
    Who doesn’t believe his ears or eyes should find out more about Ali Esbati.
    Something extremely evil is happening in that country.
    As I said, it’s not an anti-Islam issue:

    It’s a pure anti-communism issue.

  27. Eric Florack says:

    This is the same twisted logic Hitler used to blame the Jews for him starting WWII. Plus ca change, plus reste le meme.

    Kinda like Obama blaming Republicans for his FAIL, huh?