The lethal son of Islamophobes
European commentaries would have been dominated by portraits of a psychopath who perpetrated a monstrous crime for rather inexplicable motives. The manifesto documents the formative influences from prophets of hate on both sides of the Atlantic and shows linkages with anti-Muslim, anti-left and, above all, anti-immigration groups that practice violence to out-match that done by Europe’s right wing anti-immigration political parties. The state apparatus is mostly committed to the war against al Qaeda and the surveillance of small groups of ‘radical’ Muslim immigrants. A relative tolerance of neo-Nazi and white extremist groups has given them space to grow into a menace not only for Europe’s Muslims but also for the host states themselves.
Breivik represents the point of total horror that the tolerant European states never expected to see; they associate violence only with the “other”, the Muslims under al Qaeda’s influence. Consider the two main elements of the crusade that Breivik undertook. First and foremost, he wanted to fight the immigrants’ demographic “aggression”. He saw an Arab-Muslim takeover of Europe. In 2002, while in England, he revived the Knight Templars to save western civilisation from this dark fate. In his so-called “Declaration of European Independence”, the final climactic battle would have to be fought in 2083, i.e., 400 years after the Ottomans were turned away by a united Europe. Secondly, his ire got concentrated on the “Marxist culture” of the European left that created political parties that accepted immigrants and hoped either to integrate them or let them work and flourish under a policy of multiculturalism.
Every single sub-theme of Breivik’s writing echoes vast bodies of underground and rightwing journalism that has rapidly expanded in Europe. Breivik’s apocalyptic act to punish his own country is clearly linked with the policies of the ruling Labour Party that was guilty of opening the door to immigrants and treating them humanely in terms of education and employment. Worse still, the Labour Party was not dismissive of Palestinian rights for which it had faced occasional criticism from Israel.
Recently, three top leaders of Europe — David Cameron, Angela Merkel and Nicholas Sarkozy — have turned their back on multiculturalism with the exclusive French dream of integration perishing in the harsh realities of the banlieues (in French-speaking areas, suburbs of a city) as the state remained obsessed with head scarves rather than the socio-economic issues of unemployment, housing and a general sense of deprivation among the migrant Muslim community. The fact of the matter is that the fear of demography is greatly exaggerated.
According to Timothy M Savage (of the Office of European Analysis at the US State department), there are 15.2 million Muslims in the original pre-expansion EU. France has 5 million, Germany 4 million, the UK 1.6 million, Italy 1 million and Netherlands over 880,000. Austria, Belgium, Greece and Sweden have Muslim populations each ranging between 300,000 and 450,000. In the new EU member states, the entire Muslim population is estimated at 290,000 out of which Cyprus alone accounts for 200,000. The overall demographic profile of Europe does not justify paranoid reactions. With these figures, the conjuring up the nightmare of ‘Eurabia” must be rooted in a visceral rejection of the ‘other’, hyped up by the media and exploited by right-wing parties for electoral purposes.
The entire world shares the grief of the Norwegian people who have paid a huge price for their lofty ideals. But there had been no lack of danger signals. The day Geert Wilder’s party won 15.5 per cent of the vote in 2010 elections in the Netherlands, European governments should have sat up and discarded the myth that that fascism in Europe died for ever in 1945. The wars of Yugoslavia were a frightening reminder of atavistic urges in human communities. The electoral gains of extremist parties show that fringe elements of today can stake a claim to mainstream politics tomorrow. Europe needs to do something about the hardening of religious, ethnic and racial prejudices on its soil.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 1st, 2011.
COMMENTS (54)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
1722586547-0/Untitled-design-(73)1722586547-0-165x106.webp "article")
1732326457-0/prime-(1)1732326457-0-165x106.webp "article")
@Tanvir Ahmad Khan: So you refuse to learn. Pot calling kettle .. is a small phrase ... the better one may be "The King Cobra calling a Rat Snake .. POISONOUS !" . You want overseas Pakistanis to prosper and what about those leaving in Pakistan? . Also do you think you had thrown a protective shield around those "overseas Pakistani" by accusing the west? . You only prove to be from the creed of Hafis Saeed and Junaid ... and nothing more ...
@aliza and KM. Thank you so much for putting the perspective right. Since writing this piece I have gone through much comment in the mainstream respectable newspapers in UK, USA and Continental Europe and I find that my comment was in perfect harmony with it. What can one do with the WEST IS BEST BRIGADE? It should ponder on the fact that my piece was also an elegy for the Norwegian victims and I spoke also of Norway's lofty ideals for which it suffered at the hands of a racist xenophobic Norwegian. As to Pakistanis who become ashamed of their roots, I met several during my tours of duty in London, Bonn, Paris, Dublin, Prague, Helsinki and Moscow and of course in travels abroad. Emigration is a tough call and there is hard struggle. It leaves sharp edges behind. The struggle includes finding a place in insular Western societies. Also there is justifiable disillusionment with Pakistan. In the above postings I see a lot of self-destructive rage. It is so intense that some may even derive masochistic pleasure from what the neo-Nazis do to them. When we urge Western governments to curb racism and anti-Muslim propaganda we are actually trying to save them from the fate that Muslims once met in Spain. We want overseas Pakistanis to prosper. They do so much to keep Pakistan afloat in the current crisis which is partly of our own making.
@Cynical: cos we muslims are wrongly represented...two french journalists got caught and sent to jail before their french embassy officals came to their rescue and what was there crime making fake terrorist interview vedios...they paid some muslim people with beards to take guns in their arms and enchant death to america....well no doubt journalists would go to any lengths to make up a good in fashion story...
"As long as I have read or listened to Schiff, he has flatly stated that decoupling is not an instant event and that initial declines in U.S. stock markets would be matched with market declines in other world markets. Schiff believes that foreigners will, however, eventually eschew the U.S. dollar and stop financing U.S. consumption. Instead, he believes foreign governments and investors will invest in their own domestic consumption and economies. If you understand that foreigners do indeed finance our consumption and debt, you know that his theory has merit" written in an article by Richard Shinnick...now even your own people telling you that you have eaten others peoples hardwork....i dont understand why Europeans still are with Americans when they know if they want to as they have the neccessary tools and resources to tame muslims towards them as they are already sick of Americans...by tame i dont mean u rule us i mean to say you can come and take our lands resources instead of Americans...and i personaly would prefer bristish or europeans over americans cos still got some family values and other cultural values left in them.
KM - you are so right. It is appalling that readers have totally failed to grasp the message of this piece which is perfectly sound in its arguments. The Murdoch led tabloids in England, for instance, have successfully created hate and fear in the eyes of the poorly read public that has become addicted to cheap scandals and naked women on page 3 (note few Brits for instance read quality papers such as the Guardian or Indepdendent and prefer the Sun and the News of the World - thank the Lord, the latter has met its own ugly ending thanks to phone hacking etc). As to the Pak-Brit chap who feels ashamed of his roots, you are a sad case indeed. I pity you poor boy - rediscover yourself.
Arifq's newtonian physics also has no applicability here...if at all the islamic world has been under perpetual attack in the western media which is controlled by Murdoch types. Read Chomsky's amazing pieces on how 'match-fixed' the western (mass) press is.
The point the author appears to be making which was lost on the WEST IS BEST brigade above is that there are forces at work which are trying to make the lives of Muslims in Europe very, very difficult and these extremist voices are extremely dangerous - as when they manifest themselves in horrific acts such as those we witnessed in Norway. It is a wake up call, not a 'we are better than you' exhortation. And just because Pakistan is in a mess does not mean we are gagged from making a comment about events outside out borders! how silly indeed!
Aliza
its amazing how west can play the world like a pupit and still come out to show themselves as victims .... being an economist i know for a fact that all the productive happened in Europe and all the benefits of that hardwork was taken and enjoyed by americans...actually americans loot europeans of there hardwork...but same europeans want the money back nd cant say a word against america but i think its time europeans tell america enough is enough and if europeans shake hands with muslims they can benefit more then they can benefit from america its america that got them in this global crisis...american banks failed cos they were lending to much too risky loans...not europe...then why europe??? and muslims can switch to european products as well ask european countries to dig oil from there country not america....europeans are way more valued oriented like us then american where there is no family values left n no moral values...they have become truely animals scavengers
@Jameel: "You can’t have one rule for yourself and another for others." That is not true! Every Muslim thinks he is special and he is allowed this right! @Noor Nabi: "The Norway incident deserves unconditional condemnation as do all similar acts perperated in the name of any religion anywhere in the world. " Norway incident was not perpetrated in the name of , but against one religion, Islam. It wasn't perpetrated against Hinduism or Judaism or Buddhism or Jainism! Ask yourself, why? When we have answer to that question, we will make progress!
@Author
Brevik feared Pakistanisation of Norway and not Islamisation. So may be he is guilty of Pakistanophobia and not Islamophobia
Now that even China is talking about Islamic terrorists trained in Pakistan, shall we find a term other than Islamophobia.Please.
@Dan:
That's exactly the case. How many Christian mullahs do you see routinely calling for other’s heads like the fatwas issued by mainsteram Muslim mullahs against Muslims and non-Muslims alike?
@let there be peace: you are trying to define terrorism in a way that only suit your agenda, i.e. if a Muslim kill a single person then he is an Islamic terrorist (to malign Islam) but if Anders Behring Breivik kills 100 he is only a killer. And if you think Anders Behring Breivik was not inspired by religion, just read his manifesto. And the most important thing is that if someone get inspirations from his own wrong interpretation of Islam then he himself is responsible for his wrong doing and not Islam.
Can Everyone please stop jumping the Author's bones?
Nowhere has he made a comparison between the situation Europe and the situation in Pakistan so stop drawing parallels telling him he is no one to criticize.
What he is plainly trying to outline is the basic structure of the anti-Muslim or anti-immigrant sentiment that is beginning to brew in Europe. And he is advising the authorities to sit up and take notice because it si better if they do and avoid a situation that Pakistan is facing today (because what did Pakistan do in the begining? Ignore the implications of the West's funding of the right wing for its own purposes).
It is good advice and a good summary of a sentiment that is counteracting the muslim extremist faction....and whether we blame the writer or point fingers at him for daring to say EU can avoid an ugly situation (which the muslim countries couldnt)........we can always fight the external factors more easily...it is the internal fabric of ethnic hate or extremism (whether muslim extremism or anti-muslim extremism) that once out of hand becomes impossible to tackle.
There are economic and international policy-related reasons for the religious war lines that we ssee drawn today between the East and the West and further hate propoganda or hate-policies wont help.
Its good enough to say "give the West a break" but its a rather lame statement. If the Norwegian terrorist (notice the use of this word) couldnt give his own country 'a break', why would a deprived immigrant?
We can either hate allw e want or throw a sour pie at the Author for daring to advise EU when he is form Pakistan and a Muslim but lets face it, the only hope left is with people who dont categorize every action in line with the writer's demogrphic or religious origins.
One gentleman up there even proclaimed that the all of this hate sentiment will die once Pakistan alone(not even Afghanistan or Iran or Saudi Arabia or Yemen) starts to care about tis ethnic minorities and crushes the right wing.
The right wing is not that easy to crush. If it cant be doen in Norway, then it is even more complex to do in countries like Pakistan.
@Adil: Anders Behring Breivik and such criminals do not claim to be inspired from their religious texts, especially the texts that are direct word of god and hence cannot be modified. While doing acts of violence/terrorism they are not doing it with conviction that this is what their god wants them to do and is going to reward it with heaven and houris. If they do, feel free to call them christian/hindu/budhist terrorists.
@Cynical: I don’t think they have to go back to Europe and UK. They have over the period integrated seamlessly into and with those countries you have reffered to and....... Europeans went to non European lands not as refugees but as invaders. they have exploited local populations and their resources. Bad analogy.
@andleeb: if all the Muslims/blacks/browns leave Europe and go back, do the Caucasians leave Australia, New Zealand, America, Canada, South-Africa, and go back to Europe and UK? Black/Brown/White people are races. Islam is a religion. You are trying to misuse genuine issue of racism to serve your Islamic cause. Bad analogy.
@ET moderators my comments are totally relevant to the article and do not violate your guidelines.
@Cynical: you have forgot one important point, the problems like Palestin, Iraq, Afghanistan, and libya where west is a strong party are mostly linked to muslims. thats why west has no issue from Indians, Chinese or all other people but in most cases exclusively from muslims.
@andleeb
Now you have taken a different trajectory. The issue was not about White vs. Black or Brown. All races have a part of their history that can be painted black. (for e.g. in our subcontinent there are history of untouchability (hindu caste system), jijiya tax (imposed by muslim rulers on non muslims, burning of buddhist monestries by hindus and looting/destroying hindu temples by muslims. None of these perpetrators were white. They were our very own browns, who can claim a morally higher platform than the whites. History is a continuous process, it alway has a 'previous' chapter and then there is a 'next chapter'. Let's not get into that.
Now more to the point, I think the issue at hand is about 'migration' and 'immigrants', and by extention about their conduct in their adopted country.
And in that context, the 3 reasons I mentioned against your suggestion of reverse migration of whites from their adopted countries still hold it's ground. You didn't contest it, but tried to divert into another territory. There is this thought provoking question from someone at another blog and I quote him verbatim:
"However it is high time the MUSLIM world start thinking why is that the WEST has no issue from INDIANs , SRILANKANz, Chinese and all other people who are also part of the WESTERN world but its only WE , who are in the NEWs for all bad reasons."
Think over. (and please, don't look at it through white vs. black/brown prism. Because it's not.)
@Zac: dont try to make illogical humor. All who kill innocent people are terrorists; either they are Muslim, Christian, or Hindu. But,
if a Muslim do a crime and labeled as a Muslim terrorist then same terminology should be followed for others. Otherwise Muslims are right in thinking that they are being terrorized as a whole by linking their religion with terrorism.
@andleeb:
You have plenty made up for it in genocides in East Pakistan and Balchistan.
Islam itself has a history of salvery. Some Ulema say slaves and londis are still acceptable in Islam. All the religious apartheid that is state enforced currently in Pakistan is slavery.
What’s you point? You can’t have one rule for yourself and another for others.
What Mr foreign secretary needs to focus his energies on are many more terrorists that are being produced in his own backyard. Astonishingly he does not have time for them.
Schools in Pakistan training Afghan youths to act as suicide bombers
@cynical : Oh yes, I forgot that the genocide against Native Indians or Aborigines never took place. Oh,slavery in USA... didnt happen. And I thought it was only Pakistanis who didnt learn history? Or what the whites did in Rhodesia or SA? As for religion, did you know that the indentured Indians had to convert to Christianity by force in Trinidad or else they were denied houses, Hindus got paid half as much as converts. Wake up.. the west is not as "white" as you make it out to be
Islamophobes in the West, eh?
What do you call the people living in Pakistan who are also afraid of suicide bombers, target killings, places of minorities and "wrong" sects being blown on continuous basis. Are they Islamophobes too?
It is mind boggling to see how you guys always find a way to point fingers at others rather than look in the mirror! Simply unbelievable..
Mr. Tanvir, have you ever considered asking yourself the question - Why Islamophobia is on the rise?
I believe the writer could not be serious when writing this particular piece. If he is then he needs to re-evaluate this knowledge of how we as muslims view others before judging them. Being of Pakistani descent and having spent most of my life in UK I have never felt like a second grade citizen. I have even seen old churches being converted into mosques. However when visiting Pakistan and seeing how the local Christians are treated in that country, I honestly wish feel ashamed that my parents are from Pakistan.
The Muslims in Europe first need to integrate into society, learn to work instead of living on social assistance/ state khayrat and educate themselves so that even the ones who have low paying labour jobs can better themselves. The reality is that most "immigrants" to Europe are not legal migrants but asylum seekers who had to smuggle themselves into these European nations and then ask for asylum. By nature such people are tricky and cunning in order to smuggle themselves through different customs and countries illegaly. We all know there is no open immigration to Europe which are fully settled countries so these so call Muslim immigrants are already beating the system when they show up on the shores without a passport claiming asylum.
@thomas and @goggi
Agreed!
@andleeb
"I mean if all the Muslims/blacks/browns leave Europe and go back, do the Caucasians leave Australia, New Zealand, America, Canada, South-Africa, and go back to Europe and UK?"
I don't think they have to go back to Europe and UK. They have over the period integrated seamlessly into and with those countries you have reffered to and in most cases they literally built a community where there was very little or none before. But most importantly, 1) they do not wear their religion on their sleeves in every possible corner in public gaze. 2) They do not clamour for the rights and privileges that they deny others. 3) They do not abuse the rights and privileges they are granted in their adopted country by working against them, ironically using the benefits of the same rights and privileges.
@Adil
"Agree, they have a point too."
Most sincere thanks for saying this much, at least.
Though I personally think those comments I reffered to have more sense than you probably would like to admit.
Problem with us Pakistanis is we are ready to pass judgement on everybody without looking at our ownself. We are a nation which doesnt consider Dalits and humans are dont consider them in census and write pages after pages of possible persecution in Europe. They forget their thought process is as far removed as Pakistani nation is from reality.We are obscurantist and enjoy a possibility of things going down the gutter. Europe is and will remain a very civil place to live. Europe has evolved through time and knows the value of peace.. we on the other hand believe we can prosper on hate and war and that is what we sow in our ownself, in our nation and in our neighbourhood
Fallacy Of Hasty Generalization.
Description of Hasty Generalization: This fallacy is committed when a person draws a conclusion about a issue or population based on a sample that is not large enough.......................................................................... Example: Person A travels through Town X for the first time. He sees 10 people, all of them children. Person A returns to his town and reports that there are no adult residents in Town X................ Is the criminimal behaviour of this Norwegian European or his outdated manifest representative as a valid sample for The Cross Section Population of Secular Humanistic West Europa?
Mr foreign secretary, here is a news for you; China says Xinjiang attack linked to Pakistan
Even your supposed best friend China is weary of you. If you continue on this process of supporting extremisms at home then there would be no place left to go for Pakistanis.
The extremist thinkers of the West (read: Islamophobe ideologues) are having tough time in describing the brutal massacre of Norway. They are struggling to find suitable phrases to describe this gory incident. Some were quick to attribute the massacre to Muslim terrorists but soon, they had to eat their words. Others described this act as a personal lunacy of a misguided youth. No one was prepared to describe him as a Christian terrorists or at least a Christian extremist; for terrorism, in their enlightened view, is synonymous with Islam alone. Apart from the fact that this crime was provoked in the same manner the acts of terrorism are provoked, it will be interesting to note that those dealing with Muslim extremists are trained about Islam in such a way that they are swayed more by Islamophobic propaganda than truth. Read more at: http://passivevoices.wordpress.com/2011/08/01/the-oslo-butcher-and-the-%E2%80%9Ccomplete-idiot%E2%80%99s-guide-to-understanding-islam%E2%80%9D%E2%80%A6/
it's difficult in pakistan for the very basic reason...Illiteracy and poverty while west there is no such thing as to EDUCATE THE PPL.... howver, i am not saying tht this reliefs pakistan from doing what author asked west to do
Norway paid the price for anti islam propaganda on it's media and publishing of caricature of Prophet (SAW)....if spreading of hate against jews is not allowed in their media then why do they allow such things about Islam. They have spread so much hatred against Islam probably due to fear of of Mass conversion towards Islam in future that their own people became less tolerant of Islam and Muslims thus resulting in such lunatic killing his own people.
I am all for banning immigration into developed countries when they simultaneously stop the exploitation of resources of of developing/ poor countries while sitting in their plush environment. Building wealth by centuries of loot and plunder does not give them the right to demand so.
As regards article, fascism is well and alive in Europe, tu quoque arguments 'first take care of Pakistan' are not going to hide them away.
@Adil:
‘Not All Muslims are terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims’
Let's change that to:
‘Not All Muslims are terrorists but all terrorists are infidels’
Does that make you happy and help rid that PC tool called "Islamophobia"? Finally Muslims are winning!! LOL!
Before you preach to the west can you please fix the Islamic inhumanity in your on backyard? By the way have a look at what your former President has got to say about Muslims and Islam...
"The Muslim Ummah, or the Islamic world, he said was presently living in darkness.
"Today we are the poorest, the most illiterate, the most backward, the most unhealthy, the most un-enlightened, the most deprived, and the weakest of all the human race," he told the delegates.
Musharraf wants to rid Pakistan of extremism
President Musharraf then made a comparison of the economic growth in Islamic countries with some developed countries.
While the collective Gross National Product of the all Muslim countries stands at $1,200bn, that of Germany alone is $2,500bn and that of Japan $5,500bn"
Ref: Musharraf berates Muslim world, BBC Saturday, 16 February, 2002, 16:04 GMT
@Thomas
Agree 100%.
Tanvir sahib are you sure the views expressed an objective conviction or is this write up the same hypocritical trite well knowing individuals regularly cook up because the stuff goes well with the dominant mindset? You start off with jaundiced one sided opinion of how West would have judged Breivik, in the absence of this manifesto. Not everyone has blinkers some people can add two plus two. By Pakistani standard Europe is extremely tolerant. It supports multiculturalism and immigration which is outrightly being abused by its migrants. Why do these migrants fully aware of the lifestyle, culture and religiosity prevalent in the West choose to settle among its communities in preference to Islamic countries notwithstanding the fact that many of them are there illegally? It doesn’t a rocket scientist to answer this question – these people are simply taking advantage of the tolerance of their hosts. They never intended to be loyal to their host countries nor did they intend to merge into these societies, while holding unto their religious beliefs. You state that fear of demography is greatly exaggerated. Is it and who is to blame for this fear? For a start, you can’t have smoke without a fire. You don’t need painstaking research for an answer. The next time you have time to spare just browse Youtube sites to understand the behavior of some of these born again religious zealots who have migrated to Europe. Their acts do nothing but instill distrust and fear of a community. Though you were not immediately concerned with the subject while in the foreign office but I’m sure you were aware of difficulty foreigners involved in education and other social development projects encountered in getting visas for Pakistan. I think the West has been more welcoming when compared to the welcome mat laid out for these people in Pakistan. Wasn’t the fear of demography more exaggerated in this case?
@Cynical
LOL, Actually there were no comments when I posted mine. They should have allowed my comment/remarks in the beginning.Agree, they have a point too.
I am surprised when a Pakistani worries about secularism in Europe...
Pot calling the kettle black. In Europe at least the state condemns such senseless acts of violence that are in violation of basic human rights. The Norway incident deserves unconditional condemnation as do all similar acts perperated in the name of any religion anywhere in the world.
Answer is simple, stop all imigration!
@Adil
Which planet do you live in brother? Read all the six comments just before yours, might help you to enter the world we are talking about.
So...Im not sure what Breivik wants. I mean if all the Muslims/blacks/browns leave Europe and go back, do the Caucasians leave Australia, New Zealand, America, Canada, South-Africa, and go back to Europe and UK? That will need another 1500 pages to his manifesto, I guess.
The Islamic media will never refer to a Muslim who kills infidels in hate crimes as "terrorist". They save that label for infidels who insult Islam.
All thanks to the manifesto published by Mr. Anders Behring Breivik, now all those who used to say that Islam is a religion of terror, or used to redirect their discrimination and hatred saying that 'Not All Muslims are terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims', must be hiding their faces if they've got any shame or dignity. But I feel that the issue will be forgotten since Fox News,CNBC,CNN,abc etc...will not highlight it for more than few weeks and then the world will get back to normal once a new video by Aymen Al-Zawahairi comes at the surface, and Islamofobia will get back to business.
How can you say this when in west a Muslim is caught trying to blow up something almost every other week. Give the west a break. Thy have had enough. Find another place to immigrate, Saudi Arabia may be.
How about following your own advise and get rid of all the religious hatred laws from your constitution? How about ending the religious profiling on your passports, ID card, application for employment etc.?
Tanvir Sahib, as per Newton's law "every action has an equal and opposite reaction", when the Muslim world stops their inflammatory rhetoric, persecution of religious minorities and abolish laws that deny equal rights to all citizens irrespective of their caste and creed then we can give advise others.
I dont think we have the moral high ground to critic someone. Pakistan potentially has the worst right wing violence record since records began. The list of our crime is a bit too long to start calling names to European nations.
"Europe needs to do something about the hardening of religious, ethnic and racial prejudices on its soil."
What a brave advise!. Can the author please enlighten us about what MUSLIMS are doing about the already hardened religious, ethnic and racial prejudices on its soil? May be you can then preach us with your pearls of wisdom.