A Norwegian Contrast: The Prime Minister and the Killer

It would be hard to imagine any politician anywhere in the world who faced a devastating mass horror with the calm dignity and compassion as that shown in recent days by prime minister Jens Stoltenberg. Not once did he demand that the killer must be punished. That was not his concern. Nor did he assume that it was the concern of those who had suffered irreparable losses. His concern was support and reassurance.

However, no doubt like everybody else, Stoltenberg must be wondering what kind of man could have done this, and how to deal with him. By now Stoltenberg and the rest of the world know quite a lot about Anders Behring Breivik. His manifesto tells us a great deal. We know that he is a Christian fundamentalist who is convinced that the world is gradually being taken over by Muslims whom he fears and detests. Members of the Labour Party, whose children he massacred on Utoya Island, he hates even more than Muslims, because he thinks they are soft on them. He slaughtered their children and not the children of the frequenters of an Oslo mosque. He had prepared his actions carefully for a long time, convinced he was acting for the greater good, just as fundamentalist Christians are preparing for Armageddon, the battle in which thousands are killed in a battle between the Messiah and the Antichrist.

Are all fundamentalist Christians insane? Or all fundamentalist fanatics? Are only those who commit atrocities to pursue fundamentalist aims insane? Assuming that Hitler was clinically insane and certifiable, was Dr. Goebbels? So far it seems that Breivik acted alone. But there cannot be any doubt that he is not the only fundamentalist Christian in his neighbourhood, whether he had the help of others or not, and that many are capable of doing what he did.

Even in idyllic Norway Islamophobia pollutes the air and he acted the way he did because he breathed that air. The immigrant societies of North America are better equipped to deal with the problem than Europeans are. Serial killers on our continent act for different reasons.

The judicial system will decide whether or not the man is insane. For us it is safe to say, while waiting for a decision, he is evil.