I’m still having a hard time wrapping my mind around how much of a tragedy the Norway terrorist attacks are. 92 people are confirmed dead, 85 of which are youth ages mostly between the ages of 16 and 22. They were at a camp trained to foster future leaders of Norway. Many jumped into the water in an attempt to escape the shooter’s indiscriminate bullets, many to no avail.
What human being does something like that?
But instead of mourning this tragedy, the American media is already falling all over itself to blame Those Evil Muslims. Unsurprisingly, Fox News was one of the first to claim that the horrifying terrorist attacks in Norway were by Muslim extremists. This is despite the fact that the main suspect that’s in custody is a right wing extremist, fundamentalist Christian, and Islamophobe.
And if that’s not enough? The O’Reilly Factor directly juxtaposed the Norwegian attacks with the legal victory of the Park 51 New York City Islamic Center.
Wow, how subtle.
It’s despicable how the media turns a tragedy into an exercise in irrational finger pointing. There are plenty of rational, fact-based reasons to criticize Islam – fabricating connections to every terrorist attacks is not one of them.
But the other annoying point? When it’s an Islamic extremist, the attacker is a religious terrorists. When we find out it’s really a Christian extremist, he’s suddenly a madmen who doesn’t represent other members of that faith.
Double standard much?
My thoughts go out to all of the people of Norway. If I have any Norweigan readers, I hope you and your families and friends are safe.
This is post 17 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.
I noticed how, when it became clear that the culprit was in fact, awhite European Christian extremist, the narrative immediately changedfrom Grand Jihadist Conspiracy™ to that of a “crazedlone gunman”. I guess only white Christians are capable of individual actions, and the rest of us are borg. Also, rashly blaming mental illness for this monstrosity without any evidence insults me, as a person with multiple mental illnesses.
Wingnuts after an act of Islamist terrorism: “Why won’t moderate Muslims condemn these acts? I haven’t checked whether they do or they don’t, but until news of such a condemnation pierces my field of confirmation bias I will assume all Muslims support terrorism.”Wingnuts after an act of wingnut terrorism: “Ah ha ha, now hang on, this guy was probably a liberal, or a Muslim plant, because he believes things No True Wingnut would ever believe, and you’re trying to censor us saying the same things he said, which is really a blood libel…” (goes on for hours)
FYI, “Anders Behring Breivik has admitted responsibility for attacks in Norway – AFP”http://twitter.com/#!/tweetmin…
The fact that the media is blaming Islam just legitimizes Islamic Terrorist groups, regardless of who did it. That is actually what they want…
“I guess only white Christians are capable of individual actions, and the rest of us are borg. Also, rashly blaming mental illness for this monstrosity without any evidence insults me, as a person with multiple mental illnesses.”Excellent points, both of them.
“It’s despicable how the media turns a tragedy into an exercise in irrational finger pointing. There are plenty of rational, fact-based reasons to criticize Islam – fabricating connections to every terrorist attacks is not one of them.But the other annoying point? When it’s an Islamic extremist, the attacker is a religious terrorists. When we find out it’s really a Christian extremist, he’s suddenly a madmen who doesn’t represent other members of that faith.Double standard much?”This, exactly.
I love the mental gymnastics FAUX goes through after he was found to be a Christian extremist. It went from ‘See ! Those Muslums are so evil’ to ‘Oh his personal beliefs dont matter’. Can you say whiplash boys and girls?
Wow. I hadn’t read about the death toll – horrible. These events always cause terrible cognitive dissonance for Christian, right-wingers. They trot out every defensive reaction in the book.
I was interested to see what rapture ready (http://rr-bb.com/showthread.ph… had to say about this. Like many, they initially responded presuming that this was Islamic in origin. subsequent news that the attacker was a right wing Christian was dismissed in the following manner:
Of course many moderate Muslims claim that Islamic terrorists are not true Muslims but that’s obviously a completely different thing…
Muslims are violent! They’re so violent they made a good, god-fearing Christian turn violent!
It’s worth pointing out that many of the so-called Islamic Terrorist Groups are Middle Eastern Terrorist Groups with a political agenda (eg. Al Qaeda), that just happen to be Islamic as a matter of course (ie. demographic necessity).
Similar in England too; even before he was identified, a liberal paper had speculated heavily that muslims were involved. I’ll shortly be moving to Norway; a friend comforted me with “don’t worry, it wasn’t a terrorist attack, he was Norwegian” people make me sad.
I for one am not surprised by anything they say or do, ever on FOX NOISE…lie, cheat, inflame, create fear, distort the facts….These so called Christians have no compassion for their fellow man….Maybe the Murdoch scandal will finally take some of the wind out of their sails…
You all forget how to actually tell an “activist” from a terrorist: http://28.media.tumblr.com/tum…(Yes, that was snark!)
“Wow, how subtle.”Please permit me to be blunt. These are not people who know the first thing about subtlety. Or irony. Or hypocrisy. Note how Fox shows a clip of O’Reilly pounding on the guest that he must show “sensitivity”, but have no problem blaming Muslims for anything that irritates them.
Of course, just as this terrorist is not just christian, even al-qaida-connected suicide bombers are not just muslims. Poverty, social pressure, limitations of freedom and, as Christopher Hitchens said, a repressed sexuality are as powerful motivators as religios fervor.Or, in this case, isolation, paranoia, a strange kind of in-group – longing and, yes, conservative political leanings. But of course, the complex machinations of the human being are not very adaptable for one-minute news-segments.Always wait for the coverage, one week later. Keeps the blood-pressure under control.
I guess it’s not terrorism when xtians do it.kudos to Jen for pointing out the double standard.
The question that Fox News, Laura Ingraham, and all other right wing mouthpieces have to answer is where are all the left-wing socialist Kenyan Moslem madmen that commit mass murder to further the cause of imposing Sharia-inspired Health Care on our Freedom Fries.
You have at least one norwegian (not “norweigan”, though that is a common mistake) reader, who is counting herself very lucky, here. My boyfriend is working in one of the buildings that got hit by the bomb, but he was working from home this day. Love your blog, absolutely agree with the disgusting behaviour of the american news.
Jen, I love the writing, but you’ve got a parallel structure error between the first and second paragraphs. The statement “What human being does something like that?” is preceded by “Many jumped into the water in an attempt to escape the shooter’s indiscriminate bullets, many to no avail”, giving the first statement the vibe of “what kind of person jumps into the water to save themselves?” Sorry for being nit-picky; I can’t really help it (I’m taking college level English in high school). I can’t blame you though, what with the blogathon’s demanding schedule. Anyway, I agree with your point about the double standard regarding the media’s perception of religious influence on terrorist actions.
Damn! I read that entire thread, and I’ve seen cognitive dissonance before, but I think this is the first time it’s ever given me whiplash.One of my favourites, particularly that last sentence…”It’s amazing to me how liberals scream “tolerance!” of Muslims and not painting them with a broad brush as terrorists, yet today I’m seeing many painting all Christians with that broad brush because of the actions of one who is probably more Neo-Nazi then Christian fundamentalist. Such a double standard.”And then someone starts straying from the groupthink…”Reading this thread made me think… What if the islamic terrorists weren’t real muslims? What if the terrorists ushered in a new age of persecution for muslims? Even if they are lost, they are not so lost as many others (such as atheists). Perhaps there is some insight to be gained from this”Only to be struck down with this…”Maybe some guy was faking it when he strapped a bomb to his chest, and yelled ‘Allah Akbar’ while killing 30 people. So, I don’t think they are any less lost than an Athiest, we are all condemned without Jesus. Remember as a muslim their #1 goal is to bring jihad to this world, so they can bring about the coming of their ‘saviour’.”I particularly love that coming from someone who is a member of a group whose number one goal is to bring their “saviour” back for a “Second Coming”.
I’ve been reading those forums for a long time (but in limited doses at any one time, just like my ingestion of iocane powder) and I have found that the most interesting dynamic you can see there occurs when someone inadvertently expresses a sane thought, and the subsequent reaction to that. It almost invariably ends with an apology and renunciation by the offender after their devotion to Jesus/literal interpretation of the bible is questioned.
My mom’s family is 100% Norwegian (family name “Jarvis”) but I don’t know any of my relatives over there. The connection is 2 generations and 80 years back. I kind of had vague thoughts about, “I wonder…” but there’s not much I know about my family over there. I don’t even know their politics, which would be an important indicator in this case. Oddly, this feels quite a lot like 9/11 but MUCH less intense for me. My mom & step-dad got a lot of money out of the internet boom (boy, did they sell at the right time). They had a house in connecticut and did business with people in the WTC. There was no reason to think they were in the WTC. I don’t know how often they were there, but probably not more than 10 days a year. But just to set my mind at ease, I called them @ both homes & both cell phones. I drove by their house in town & they definitely weren’t there. They didn’t call back. At first it was not that big a deal. Like I said, odds were low – 1 in 50, maybe? – that they were there and even if they were, a l0t of people got out. But then the days kept going by and kept going by & they didn’t come home & they didn’t call. I called again & didn’t get them. I went past their home again & didn’t get them. 3 days go by and I start to get honestly worried. I start looking at lists of people known to be dead/inside. No mention of them. I start to look at lists of people known to have gotten out, no mention. I look for people in the hospital, thinking one of them is hurt and the other is too busy worrying about a mangled spouse to call. I freak out harder. 5 days. 7 days. 9 days. 11 days. After 15 days my mom calls, happy & healthy. She had been with her husband in Italy & they weren’t able to get home. The cell phone service back to the states had been spotty at first, but they talked to my sister and thought she would tell the family they were okay. Except my sister hates me ever since I came out. So she didn’t call me. Nice, huh? Anyway, the whole time I KNEW there was more likely to be a reasonable explanation than that they were dead. But I didn’t know it and the anxiety just went up & up & up. Anyway, part of me worries about whatever 2nd & 3rd cousins I have over there. But mostly it’s this: I think about what I went through after 9/11 and worry about all those people – THOUSANDS of people – who simply don’t know whether someone they love is dead, is in the hospital for hypothermia after jumping into the ocean, left the retreat for some good food or a walk on a distant beach, but left their phone in a place now cordoned off by the police…whatever…Every death is a tragedy. Every person who has to deal with their shocking, unexpected grief is their own tragedy. But when you combine all those with all the people who experience what I experienced on 9/11 and especially the days after, you get an idea of what mass terror really means. My emotional wounds were serious after 9/11, but my family came home safe and that made my scarf heal very quickly. I don’t have to deal with the lingering damage that is impossible to heal b/c a family member NEVER came home. I don’t mean to say that my “victimization” compares to that of people who loved someone who died. but my experience, I think, says something about how terrorism affects a larger population. How several score of deaths can become thousands, even tens of thousands, terrorized. Although it’s unlikely that those cousins I don’t know were actually killed, it’s much more likely that they are experiencing what I experienced on 9/20, 9/25… And even if they aren’t, all those people who are experiencing the terror and sense of loss (yes, temporary though it was, I felt a loss until my parents came back), THEY are ALL my cousins today.
Thank you.
So, there’s suggestions that this was actually the work of not only a fundamentalist Christian right-winger, but that it was funded by a network of fundamentalist Christians (I’m less clear on whether the claim is that the whole network is right-wing). Now, while the act is despicable and all that, I can see possible good in the resulting discourse.First, the extension of Islamic fundamentalism to all fundamentalism. Peaceful Christian fundamentalists, which are generally acknowledged to exist, will get upset with this. This will facilitate the general point being restricted to violent fundamentalism, which could stop the bizarre singling-out of Islamic fundamentalism, whether violent or not, and get people to talk about whether it’s the fundamentalism or the violence that’s a problem (well, I think people generally agree the violence is a problem – then we can get a conversation about whether fundamentalism in itself is a problem).