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In one of the worst mass murders in post-World War II Europe, Anders Behring Breivik, a 32 year old Norwegian confessed on Monday to last week’s devastating bombing and shooting. Breivik killed more than 70 people in two separate incidents – a bomb targeting government offices in Oslo and a shooting rampage at a youth camp. The attack left the normally tranquil nation of Norway shaken to its core. Although Breivik confessed to the crimes, he refuses to accept guilt. He described himself as a defender of the nation against the ruling Labor party, which he accused of “treason” for its policies of “mass importation” of immigrants. Breivik claims to belong to an organization with two cells still in operation. The disclosure was cause for concern for Norwegian officials, prompting a decision to conduct a closed trial that will take place in a month. The massacre comes at the same time that a nationalist, anti-immigrant movement is growing in Europe, where foreign, particularly Muslim, culture is seen as so inherently different that it poses an “existential threat.” Fascism and other similar ideologies in Europe have become mainstream, embraced by 5% to 15% of the population in most countries. While most European right-wing political parties shy away from blatantly racist language, they focus instead on what they say is an inherent cultural incompatibility with immigrants, particularly Muslims. Those views are pushing mainstream politicians to the right. Last December German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared, “[t]his [multicultural] approach has failed, utterly failed.” Whereas she once urged Germans to live side-by-side, she put the onus on immigrants to make more of an effort to assimilate into society. On Friday, before it was known the Norway attacks were carried out by a Norwegian citizen, there was widespread speculation that Muslims terrorists had directed the violence.

GUEST: Gary Younge, a columnist for the Guardian and The Nation. He is an Alfred Knobler Journalism Fellow at the Nation Institute. His newest book is Who Are We – and Should It Matter In The Twenty-First Century?

Read Gary Younge’s article here: http://www.thenation.com/article/
161858/wests-moral-panic-over-multiculturalism