Norwegian terrorist

[calimac]

"If Islamic people do something bad, you think, 'Oh, it's Muslims.'  But if a white Protestant does something bad, you just think he's mad. That's something we need to think about." - Sigrid Skeie Tjensvoll, quoted in the Washington Post

Comments

[margdean56.livejournal.com]

My basic assumption is that most people of any faith are normal decent folks trying to get on with their lives, and that the average Muslim is about as appalled by the extremists of their faith as I am by the ones of mine.

[troels forchhammer (from livejournal.com)]

Being in Denmark the attack in Norway has hit very close to home (a Danish woman who was working as first-aider at the youth camp is still missing), and right now there is a discussion on Danish television about whether this should cause us to consider the way we conduct the public debate -- inspired by similar considerations in Norway.

An editor at a major Norwegian newspaper who was interviewed on Danish television opined that this would mean that it would mean that the "immigration card" had become "unplayable" in the Norwegian political debate for many years: creating the exact opposite effect of what the terrorist wanted.

Personally I hope that we will see fewer gross generalisations (such generalisations must, I believe, share some of the responsibility for the 'Oh, it's Muslims' reaction cited above) on all sides of this debate -- not all people who vote for the immigration-critical right-wing nationalist parties are terrorists either.