Extremism comes in many forms

EDITORIAL | Norway Massacre | Globe Editorial

July 25, 2011

FRIDAY’S HORRIFIC terrorist attack in Oslo had, at first glance, some of the earmarks of Al Qaeda. Norway hosts NATO, which Al Qaeda has targeted for its leadership role in Afghanistan. Simultaneous and vicious attacks were akin to the London train bombings and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The targets were political: a government center and a Labor Party summer camp. As we now know, though, Oslo bred its own enemy: a right-wing Christian fanatic.

Yet, for most of the day Friday, and for some radio and websites throughout Saturday, the need for fast analysis led many to assume that this was the work of Islamic terrorists. The rush to judgment is similar to what occurred after the Oklahoma City bombings, when Middle Eastern-looking men were blamed for the attack that turned out to have been masterminded by Timothy McVeigh.

In a post 9/11 world, it is not paranoid, nor racist, to assume that Al Qaeda may have been to blame. But it’s worth noting that there was never any evidence Friday, and there were substantial countervailing indications, that the attacks had anything to do with Islam. The counterterrorism industry that grew up after 9/11 - government agencies, along with the academics and other experts who supply commentary on cable TV - can be myopic about the Islamic threat.

The violent tactics used by Islamic radicals are the same ones used by other terrorist organizations. The true enemy is radicalism itself, not any religion or political party. Right-wing extremism is not new to Europe or the United States. Norway’s police had been briefed in February of a rising concern with right-wing extremism, bred by an international anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant movement.

Friday’s attacks should not be whitewashed as merely the efforts of a lone madman. What happened in Oslo was a horrible act of terror, inspired by an ideology that cannot be ignored. It may not be Islamic terrorism - and, indeed, in this case it was anti-Islamic terrorism. But for the 93 dead and more than 90 injured, many of them young people at the camp, the difference doesn’t matter.