Norway Killings Shift Immigrant Debate in Europe

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

BERLIN — Less than a week after the mass killings in Norway, evidence of a shift in the debate over Islam and the radical right in Europe already appeared to be taking hold on a traumatized Continent.

Members of far-right parties in Sweden and Italy were condemned from within their own ranks for blaming multiculturalism for the attack, as expressions of outrage over the deaths crossed the political spectrum. A member of France’s far-right National Front was suspended for praising the attacker.

Lurking in the background is the calculation on all sides that such tragedies can drive shifts in public opinion. The violent actions of a terrorist or homicidal individual can hardly be blamed on nonviolent political parties. But politicians have begun to question inflammatory speech in the debate over immigrants, which has helped fuel the rise of right-leaning politicians across Europe in recent years.

The head of the Social Democratic Party in Germany, Sigmar Gabriel, told the German news service dpa on Wednesday that a trend toward xenophobia and nationalism in the region had fostered the attacks in Norway. In a society where anti-Islamic sentiment and isolation were tolerated “naturally on the margins of society, there will be crazy people who feel legitimized in taking harder measures,” he said.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/28/world/europe/28europe.html?pagewanted=all

[Arrowhead2k1]

1. Hate begets hate.

Who'da thunk it?

[War Horse]

2. As horrible as this is

I'm glad that the media in Europe and the U.S. are *finally* catching up on the so called "Counter Jihad" phenomenon. Breivik's terrorist manu... sorry, "manifesto" is in many ways an anthology of the far right's internet activities during the past 10 years.