[Editorial]
The July 22nd Oslo massacre by a “white Christian fundamentalist” whose political view is reportedly aligned with “rightwing extremism” is one of an unknown number of “politically-motivated” tragic incidents which in fact have continued, though on and off, to take place throughout the modern European history.
However, the Norway case seems far beyond imagination in terms of its indiscriminateness, ruthlessness, viciousness in its merciless killings of several dozens of teenage youths, as if the man had enjoyed the cold-blooded killings for about a couple of hours.
As in many similar cases, his religious fundamentalism through the “black-and-white” Christian dualistic (i.e., extremely simplistic) worldview which is often ended up with political extremism, is also full of racism against non-white groups, particularly the “immigrant population” whose majority numbers are with “Islamic” backgrounds in the case of Europe.
But this sort of scenario is no longer a stranger to the world now.
A 32 year-old Norwegian man’s sociopolitical and religious extremism which seems almost synonymous with the [white] racism is certainly not an isolated case.
It’s indisputably the phenomenal and/or symptomatic case both in US and Europe.
Does it sound new? Is this a new phenomenon or symptom? Or is it really surprising news?
The answer to all that questions is “No!” Why?
For this sort of tragedy which has been much predicted for a longtime is simply one of the latest (could be one of the deadliest thereby most vicious!) incidents.
For this very much predictable tragedy is another mere addition to the already full-blown and well-publicized sociopolitical, religious and mental illness which has been prevalent for decades both in US and Europe where whites are the majority populations.
Is the Christian fundamentalism together with ultra-rightwing (or “neo-con”) political worldviews, of course accompanied by white racism all the time, nothing to do with an extreme form of western capitalism such as the “neoliberal” economic policy which has, as Naomi Klein persuasively argued in her book “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism,” literally “devastated the world economy” including US and most European economies?
Is a “mad” man’s terror bombing against a Norwegian government building and his follow-up indiscriminate massacring of innocent youths in Oslo much different from the US-led NATO’s indiscriminate bombings against both government and civilian buildings, of course also against innocent civilian populations of sovereign nations like Afganistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, and so on?
The Oslo bombing is indisputably an act of terror.
If so, then are the NATO’s indiscriminate bombings which have been continued till this very day (July 27) for 130 days against the sovereign Libya of its leadership, 6.5 million people, and social infrastructure not the same acts of terror?
Many believe so.
According to the July 25th’s China Daily-AFP-Xinhua article, “the United States, the European Union, NATO, and the UK all quickly condemned the [Oslo] bombing.”
If so, then are they going to “condemn” their “bombings” which indisputably constitute for the Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes, and immediately stop their criminal evil activities?
Are they going to admit their unforgivable collective terror acts a “state-sponsored terrorism” which they’d attempted to disguise with the extremely hypocritical rational the so-called “protection of civilians”?
Is this sort of sociopolitical, religious sickness terribly different from the over 40 years of continued crimes against humanity by Israel’s brutal colonial rule against the will of over 5 million Palestinian people?
Very much unfortunately, the answers to all those above-raised questions are “No!”
Dr. Kiyul Chung who is Editor in chief at the 4th Media is also a Visiting Professor at School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua Univeristy.