IN referring to the carnage in Norway as the worst crime seen in the country since the Second World War, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg has highlighted the sheer scale of the tragedy. On Friday a bomb ripped through government buildings in Oslo, killing at least seven people. Shortly afterwards a gunman on the island of Utoeya opened fire on young people attending a summer camp organised by the Labour Party, which has ruled Norway since the Second World War, killing more than 80. It is feared that the death toll from both the attacks will rise further in the coming days. The scale of the massacre, and the calm detachment with which survivors say the Utoeya shooter operated, is terrifying. The world has seen deadly shootings before but hardly ever one on such a scale.

In police custody is a 32-year-old white Norwegian man. The deputy police chief has said that the police have little information except that found on the suspect’s own websites, “which is that it goes towards the right and that it is, so to speak, Christian fundamentalist”. Reportedly the man also described himself as a Christian and conservative on the Facebook page attributed to him. Some analysts are likening the Norway attacks to the carnage perpetrated by Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma City in 1995 that killed 168 people — the work of a lone, disenchanted and home-grown extremist. It is too early to tell whether the Norwegian suspect has links to any group, but one thing is clear: the polarities in the modern world are such that there are extremists of varying ideologies and political leanings. In the West in the wake of 9/11 there has been a linking of terrorism to mainly Al Qaeda and other purportedly ‘Islamic’ organisations. Yet the opposite extreme exists too, and always has. Indeed, it feeds off the growing anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant culture in some countries. In the past some parts of Scandinavia have had trouble with neo-Nazis and white supremacists. If a link is established between such groups and the gruesome tragedy in Norway, Europe must seriously reflect on the causes of such right-wing extremism.

Opinion

Editorial

Taking cover
Updated 09 Jan, 2025

Taking cover

IT is unfortunate that, instead of taking ownership of important decisions, our officials usually seem keener to ...
A living hell
09 Jan, 2025

A living hell

WHAT Donald Trump does domestically when he enters the White House in just under two weeks is frankly the American...
A right denied
09 Jan, 2025

A right denied

DESPITE citizens possessing the constitutional and legal right to access it, federal ministries are failing to...
Closed doors
Updated 08 Jan, 2025

Closed doors

The nation’s fate has been decided through secret deals for too long, with the result that the citizenry has become increasingly alienated from the state.
Debt burden
08 Jan, 2025

Debt burden

THE federal government’s total debt stock soared by above 11pc year-over-year to Rs70.4tr at the end of November,...
GB power crisis
08 Jan, 2025

GB power crisis

MASS protests are not a novelty in Pakistan, and when the state refuses to listen through the available channels —...