A Christian Science Monitor report said that a Hindu nationalist leader B.P Singhal, while condemning the shooting, didn’t condemn Mr. Breivik’s ideas. The Monitor quoted Singhal as saying, “I was with the shooter in his objective, but not in his method.”
Singhal was quick to add that he has not corresponded with Breivik, nor does he see much need for alliances to counter Islam’s spread.
The Hindu Nationalists are not alone in distancing themselves from Anders Breivik. It's interesting to see how the Muslim-hating Christian Right in America is also trying to distance itself from the Oslo killer. It's the same people who routinely blame the entire Muslim faith for the violent actions of a few who claim to be Muslim.
For example, Fox Cable TV talk show host Bill O’Reilly has said it was “impossible” that Breivik is Christian just because he claimed to be one. John Stewart took the opportunity to catch O’Reilly's hypocrisy in a recent episode of his popular Daily Show, pointing out that O'Reilly was quite comfortable calling Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the suspect in the Fort Hood shooting, a “Muslim terrorist” because he had a business card that said “Soldier of Allah.”
“See. That guy printed up a "Soldier of Allah" business card. The other guy only printed up an "Army of Christ" manifesto,” Stewart said on his Daily Show. “I guess the only connection is both psychos, for some reason, spent the day at Kinko’s.”
Stewart concluded by offering that "the Fox News rapid-response team distinguishes violence in the name of a religion from the practitioners of that religion -- as long as it's Christianity".
Here's a video clip of The Daily Show With John Stewart on the subject:
Related Links:
Haq's Musings
Norway Terrorist Inspired By Hindutva Rhetoric
Islam 101 According to FBI Guide
Exposing King's Hypocrisy
Saudi Funding Hate in America
Radical Hindu Government in Exile in Israel
Hindu Nationalists Admire Nazis
Can India Do a Lebanon in Pakistan?
Israeli Approval Ratings Highest in India
India's Washington Lobby Collaborates with Israel Lobby
Enraged Hindu Nationalists Gang Up on Musharraf
Gandhi Opposed Creation of Israel
Hitler Memorabilia Attracts Young Indians
Hindutva Terror Can Spark Indo-Pakistan War?
India-Israel-US Axis
India's Israel Envy\
Anders Breivik's Manifesto
Eropol Terror Stats 2011 Report
12 comments:
Here's an excerpt from a Guardian story on Breivik's Hindutva connection:
In his rambling 1,500-page manifesto, Breivik voiced approval of Hindu nationalist parties and called for the deportation of all Muslims from India. He also berated the Congress-led government for "appeasing Muslims and, very sadly, proselytising Christian missionaries who illegally convert low cast Hindus with lies and fear".
Hindu nationalist leaders have denied links with Breivik and some have sought to distance themselves from his actions. Others, however, have expressed sympathy with Breivik's ideas.
"It is time we sit up and discuss issues like multiculturalism, immigration, [and the] problem of Islam's assimilation with liberal democracies without any malice," prominent nationalist Hindu leader Ram Madhav wrote in his blog.
Former Indian MP BP Singhal, of the Bhartiya Janata party, was more forthright. "I was with the shooter in his objective but not in his method," he told the US-based Christian Science Monitor. Singhal said India and Norway should deny voting rights to "foreign religionists" in order to resolve "the bane of democracy".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/28/norway-massacre-india-reaction
Here's an excerpt from a Counterpoint article titled "The New Anti-Semitism" by Uri Avnery:
The Nazi Propaganda Minister, Dr. Joseph Goebbels, calls his boss, Adolf Hitler, by hell-phone.
“Mein Führer,” he exclaims excitedly. “News from the world. It seems we were on the right track, after all. Anti-Semitism is conquering Europe!”
“Good!” the Führer says, “That will be the end of the Jews!”
“Hmmm…well…not exactly, mein Führer. It looks as though we chose the wrong Semites. Our heirs, the new Nazis, are going to annihilate the Arabs and all the other Muslims in Europe.” Then, with a chuckle, “After all, there are many more Muslims than Jews to exterminate.”
“But what about the Jews?” Hitler insists.
“You won’t believe this: the new Nazis love Israel, the Jewish State - and Israel loves them!”
THE atrocity committed this week by the Norwegian neo-Nazi – is it an isolated incident? Right-wing extremists all over Europe and the US are already declaiming in unison: “He does not belong to us! He is just a lone individual with a deranged mind! There are crazy people everywhere! You cannot condemn a whole political camp for the deeds of one single person!”
Sounds familiar. Where did we hear this before?
Of course, after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin.
There is no connection between the Oslo mass-murder and the assassination in Tel Aviv. Or is there?
During the months leading up to Rabin’s murder, a growing hate campaign was orchestrated against him. Almost all the Israeli right-wing groups were competing among themselves to see who could demonize him most effectively.
In one demonstration, a photo-montage of Rabin in the uniform of an [] SS officer was paraded around. On the balcony overlooking this demonstration, Binyamin Netanyahu could be seen applauding wildly, while a coffin marked “Rabin” was paraded below. Religious groups staged a medieval, kabbalistic ceremony, in which Rabin was condemned to death. Senior rabbis took part in the campaign. No right-wing or religious voices were raised in warning.
The actual murder was indeed carried out by a single individual, Yigal Amir, a former settler, the student of a religious university. It is generally assumed that before the deed he consulted with at least one senior rabbi. Like Anders Behring Breivik, the Oslo murderer, he planned his deed carefully, over a long time, and executed it cold-bloodedly. He had no accomplices.
http://www.counterpunch.org/avnery07292011.html
Probably a statistical representation of violence by muslim on themself or against others vs. other believes will give a more clear picture of trends of religious violence.
Further other believes like hindus and christian are taking lesson from muslim violene as a mark of bravery to perpetuate the same animal like behaviour
satwa
Satwa: "Further other believes like hindus and christian are taking lesson from muslim violene as a mark of bravery to perpetuate the same animal like behaviour"
Your comments reflect your anti-Muslim bigotry based on ignorance.
To get enlightened, look at Europl terrorism data for 2010, for example.
The Europol TE-Stat 2011 report appendix 2 shows that only 3 out of 249 terror incidents in 2010 involved Muslim attackers.
https://www.europol.europa.eu/sites/default/files/publications/te-sat2011.pdf
Here is what a no "friend of muslims" Fareed Zakaria said on his FB paage "Of the 294 terror attacks committed in Europe in 2009, only one was conducted by Islamists. That's a third of one percent. There were 249 terror attacks in Europe in 2010. Only three of those attacks were carried out by Islamist terrorists. Again, that's about one percent. Most of the attacks were by separatist groups or anarchists."
Also another 'ex-expert' Perter Bergen of CNN echoed the same today in an interview on KQED - SFO.
Anon: "Fareed Zakaria said on his FB paage "Of the 294 terror attacks committed in Europe in 2009, only one was conducted by Islamists."
Yes, I heard Fareed Zakaria say the exact same thing on his CNN GPS show.
http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/31/what-is-the-knights-templar/
I also heard Peter Bergen on NPR Fresh Air with Terry Gross compare the manhunt for bin Laden with that of Whitey Bulger. Both men were on the FBI Most Wanted list, and Bulger lived undetected in the US for 17 years until his recent arrest, far longer than bin Laden is said to lived undetected in Pakistan.
http://www.npr.org/2011/08/02/138783681/how-bin-ladens-death-has-affected-al-qaida
Riaz,
Muslims have been very bad in media management - lack of leadership. I am not saying that its alright to do terrorism so long as one handles media correctly, rather that Muslims effectively failed to counter the anti Muslim propaganda of some hate mongers when some fringe elements from their community conducts terror. The explicit use of religious texts in videos by terrorists also helped these anti muslim business.
Now though Brevik did more or less the same by quoting Christianity as his motivation for terror, the failure by mainstream Westerners to condemn it as Christian terrorism is hypocrisy from their side. If his name had been Mo.., then there would have been another anti Muslim witch hunting.
Brevik's texts also show the unholy nexus between Christian fundamentalists, Zionists, and Hindutwa - both ideologically and sometimes logistically through internet it seems. They motivate each other in their rhetoric. This was considered an Islamist conspiracy theory, but Brevik proved it correct. This shows that hatred and violence is a state of mind and Islamist extremists do not have the exclusive copyright of it.
Zen: "This shows that hatred and violence is a state of mind and Islamist extremists do not have the exclusive copyright of it."
I agree with your statement, as does the data compiled by the FBI, Europol, and others.
Weeks before the Norway tragedy inflicted by right-wing terrorist Breivik, the US Homeland Security Dept disbanded its efforts to track domestic right wing terror under pressure from the conservatives, according to Washington Post:
The Department of Homeland Security has stepped back for the past two years from conducting its own intelligence and analysis of home-grown extremism, according to current and former department officials, even though law enforcement and civil rights experts have warned of rising extremist threats.
The department has cut the number of personnel studying domestic terrorism unrelated to Islam, canceled numerous state and local law enforcement briefings, and held up dissemination of nearly a dozen reports on extremist groups, the officials and others said.
The decision to reduce the department’s role was provoked by conservative criticism of an intelligence report on “Rightwing Extremism” issued four months into the Obama administration, the officials said. The report warned that the poor economy and Obama’s election could stir “violent radicalization,” but it was pilloried as an attack on conservative ideologies, including opponents of abortion and immigration.
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“Strategic bulletins have been minimal, since that incident,” said Mike Sena, an intelligence official in California who presides over the National Fusion Center Association, a group of 72 federally chartered institutions in which state, local and federal officials share sensitive information. “Having analytical staff, to educate line officers on the extremists, is critical.…This is definitely one area” where more effort is warranted by DHS.
Similar frustration was expressed in interviews with current and former officials at fusion centers in Missouri, Virginia and Tennessee. Daryl Johnson, formerly the senior domestic terrorism analyst at DHS and a principal author of the disputed report, confirmed in an interview that he left in frustration last year after his office was “gutted” in response to complaints.
“Other reports written by DHS about Muslim extremists … got through without any major problems,” Johnson said. “Ours went through endless reviews and edits, and nothing came out.”
The threat of Islamic-related terrorism in the United States has by all accounts captured the most attention and resources at DHS since it was formed in 2002. But a study conducted for the department last October concluded that a majority of the 86 major foiled and executed terrorist plots in the United States from 1999 to 2009 were unrelated to al-Qaeda and allied movements.
“Do not overlook other types of terrorist groups,” the report warned, noting that five purely domestic groups had considered using weapons of mass destruction in that period. Similar warnings have been issued by the two principal non-government groups that track domestic terrorism: the New York-based Anti-Defamation League and the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/homeland-security-department-curtails-home-grown-terror-analysis/2011/06/02/AGQEaDLH_story.html
Here's an Al-Arabiya report on Bannu Jail inmates with cell phones & Internet access to Facebook & blogosphere:
A high profile Pakistani prisoner, who escaped on Sunday along with 383 other inmates, was reportedly contributing to several social networking sites including Facebook and blog sites while he was in prison, a report revealed late Monday.
Adnan Rashid was on death row at Bannu Central Prison in northwestern Pakistan for his alleged attempt to assassinate former military ruler Pervez Musharraf in 2003.
But despite the high profile charges against him, Rashid enjoyed the use of cell phones inside the death cell he was held in, allowing him to keep in touch with several journalists through text messaging, the Pakistan-based Dawn news website reported.
Rashid, a former junior technician of the Pakistan Air Force, was among some 384 prisoners who escaped early Sunday from the jail after an attack by insurgents armed with guns, grenades and rockets, officials said.
The attack, claimed by Pakistan’s Taliban movement, started at around 1:00 a.m. (2000 GMT) and continued for two hours, with militants in cars and pick-up trucks shooting and lobbing grenades to force their way into the prison, a senior security official told AFP news agency.
“We have freed hundreds of our comrades in Bannu in this attack. Several of our people have reached their destinations, others are on their way,” a Taliban spokesman said on Sunday.
Rashid was arrested in early 2004 on charges of the alleged assassination attempt, but had continued to plead his innocence while in prison, claiming “that his only crime was that he had voted ‘No’ in the referendum held by the then military president Gen. Musharraf,” the Dawn reported.
As a prisoner, he was questioned by the media in interviews uploaded on to social networking site Facebook, in which he argued against flaws in laws concerning the Pakistani army, air force and navy, while urging the Supreme Court to intervene in his case and those of others who had been detained with him.
In one letter to the Chief Justice, Rashid claimed that at the time of the assassination attempt, he was on duty in Quetta and was picked up by intelligence personnel.
He had recently sent a text message to a group of recipients, who were not identified by the newspaper, which states: “There are millions of cases pending before high courts and Supreme Court, 99.9 percent of these are actually appeals against verdicts of lower courts. Billions of rupees are being spent on higher civil courts so why not this judicial system is replaced by military courts; these are swift, require no judge, no special courtrooms or bars, and most interesting court martial are unchallengeable so no more need of high and supreme courts. It saves time and money of nation. What do you think? From a court martial convict.”
http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/04/17/208348.html
Here's NY Times blog post on McCain denouncing Congressional Islomophobes' attacks on American Muslims serving in Obama administration, including Huma Abedin based on her Muslim heritage:
Finally, today, on the floor of the Senate, he excoriated Rep. Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota Tea Partier, for her McCarthy-esque claims that the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the government. He singled out attacks on a senior aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedin.
To say that the accusations “are not substantiated by the evidence they offer is to be overly polite and diplomatic about it,” he said. “It is far better, and more accurate, to talk straight: These allegations about Huma Abedin, and the report from which they are drawn, are nothing less than an unwarranted and unfounded attack on an honorable citizen, a dedicated American, and a loyal public servant.”
http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/18/whos-the-real-john-mccain/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/18/anderson-cooper-michele-bachmann-huma-abedin-muslims_n_1682281.html?utm_hp_ref=media
Yet another mass shooting in America--this time at Sikh temple where a white supremacist gunman killed Sikhs apparently mistaking them for Muslims.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/sikh-temple-shooter-was-military-veteran-who-lived-nearby/2012/08/06/648d8134-dfbd-11e1-a421-8bf0f0e5aa11_story.html
The subtext to this and similar anti-Sikh violence appears to be the hysterical Islamophobic rhetoric that conflates all Muslims with terrorists and it amounts to outright fearmongering. It must stop to free us all from these kinds of incidents in America. Rather than distancing themselves from fellow Americans who happen to be Muslim, the Sikhs and other minorities as well as the white Christian majority must take a stand against such violence. I applaud Ethan for this timely and well-written piece in this regard.
http://www.ethancasey.com/2012/08/the-wisconsin-sikh-killings-and-an-america-worth-fighting-for/comment-page-1/
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