[Wamvan] Fwd: Seeing 'Islamic Terror' in Norway

[Frieda Werden]

Good example of journalists jumping to conclusions ahead of the facts.

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From: FAIR <fair at fair.org>
Date: Mon, Jul 25, 2011 at 12:28 PM
Subject: Seeing 'Islamic Terror' in Norway
To: wings at wings.org


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Media Advisory

 Seeing 'Islamic Terror' in Norway
Learning no lessons from Oklahoma City mistakes

7/25/11

 Right-wing terror suspect Anders Behring Breivik reportedly killed 76
people in Norway on Friday, by all accounts driven by far-right
anti-immigrant politics and fervent Islamophobia. But many early media
accounts assumed that the perpetrator of the attacks was Muslim.

On news of the first round of attacks--the bombs in Oslo--*CNN*'s Tom Lister
(7/22/11<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=yiqq2f62v3T9dwfTDb1iJaWyBoLzGQjv>)
didn't know who did it, but knew they were Muslims: "It could be a whole
range of groups. But the point is that Al-Qaeda is not so much an
organization now. It's more a spirit for these people. It's a mobilizing
factor." And he speculated confidently about their motives:
 You've only got to look at the target--prime minister's office, the
headquarters of the major newspaper group next door. Why would that be
relevant? Because the Norwegian newspapers republished the cartoons of
Prophet Mohammad that caused such offense in the Muslim world.... That is an
issue that still rankles amongst Islamist militants the world over.

*CNN* terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank
(7/22/11<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=XkHdrqcfnb5CIdllq1uQcaWyBoLzGQjv>)
took to the airwaves to declare that "Norway has been in Al-Qaeda's
crosshairs for quite some time." He added that the bombing "bears all the
hallmarks of the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization at the moment," before
adding, almost as an afterthought, that "we don't know at this point who was
responsible."

On *Fox News Channel*'s *O'Reilly Factor* (7/22/11), guest host Laura
Ingraham declared, "Deadly terror attacks in Norway, in what appears to be
the work, once again, of Muslim extremists." Even after Norwegian
authorities arrested Breivik, former Bush administration U.N. Ambassador
John Bolton was in disbelief. "There is a kind of political correctness that
comes up when these tragic events occur," he explained on *Fox*'s *On the
Record* (7/22/11). "This kind of behavior is very un-Norwegian. The
speculation that it is part of right-wing extremism, I think that has less
of a foundation at this point than the concern that there's a broader
political threat here."

Earlier in the day on *Fox*
(7/22/11<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=ud1%2F4ryLPUqvrd2Xzz2lXaWyBoLzGQjv>),
Bolton had explained that "the odds of it coming from someone other than a
native Norwegian are extremely high." While he admitted there was no
evidence, Bolton concluded that "it sure looks like Islamic terrorism,"
adding that "there is a substantial immigrant population from the Middle
East in particular in Norway."

An early *Wall Street Journal* editorial
(7/22/11<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=SvysIXd6mFenqaY0FCkkMqWyBoLzGQjv>)
dwelled on the "explanations furnished by jihadist groups to justify their
periodic slaughters," before concluding that because of Norway's commitment
to tolerance and freedom, "Norwegians have now been made to pay a terrible
price."

Once the alleged perpetrator's identity did not conform to the *Journal*'s
prejudice, the editorial was modified, but it continued to argue that
Al-Qaeda was an inspiration: "Coordinated terrorist attacks are an Al-Qaeda
signature. But copycats with different agendas are surely capable of
duplicating its methods."

Many pundits and outlets had to scramble to justify their ideological
presumptions in the wake of the unexpected suspect. *Washington
Post*blogger Jennifer Rubin (
7/22/11<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=6EFoB7ADTXScItOcmLmUV6WyBoLzGQjv>)
had called the Norwegian violence "a sobering reminder for those who think
it's too expensive to wage a war against jihadists," citing Thomas Joscelyn
of the *Weekly Standard*'s assertion that "in all likelihood the attack was
launched by part of the jihadist hydra." In a follow-up post
(7/23/11<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=vuDre2J8rfPTqHtzt78%2FA6WyBoLzGQjv>),
Rubin insisted that even though she was wrong, she was right, because "there
are many more jihadists than blond Norwegians out to kill Americans, and we
should keep our eye on the systemic and far more potent threats that stem
from an ideological war with the West."

*New York Times* columnist Ross Douthat (7/25/11) likewise argued that we
should respond to the horror in Norway by paying more attention to the
alleged perpetrator's point of view:

On the big picture, Europe's cultural conservatives are right: Mass
immigration really has left the Continent more divided than enriched, Islam
and liberal democracy have not yet proven natural bedfellows and the dream
of a postnational, postpatriotic European Union governed by a benevolent
ruling elite looks more like a folly every day.... Conservatives on both
sides of the Atlantic have an obligation to acknowledge that Anders Behring
Breivik is a distinctively right-wing kind of monster. But they also have an
obligation to the realities that this monster’s terrible atrocity threatens
to obscure.


The *New York Times*' July
23<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=HolqmYSdHXJqK3kLrRiiHaWyBoLzGQjv>report
explained that while early speculation about Muslim terrorists was
incorrect,

there was ample reason for concern that terrorists might be responsible. In
2004 and again in 2008, the No. 2 leader of Al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri, who
took over after the death of Osama bin Laden, threatened Norway because of
its support of the American-led NATO military operation in Afghanistan.


Of course, anyone who kills scores of civilians for political motives is a
"terrorist"; the language of the *Times*, though, suggested that a
"terrorist" would have to be Islamic.

The *Times* went on:

Terrorism specialists said that even if the authorities ultimately ruled out
Islamic terrorism as the cause of Friday’s assaults, other kinds of groups
or individuals were mimicking Al-Qaeda’s brutality and multiple attacks.

"If it does turn out to be someone with more political motivations, it shows
these groups are learning from what they see from Al-Qaeda," said Brian
Fishman, a counterterrorism researcher at the New America Foundation in
Washington.

It is unclear why any of Breivik's actions would be considered connected in
any way to terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda, which certainly did not invent
the idea of brutal mass murder. But the *Times* was able to turn up another
expert the following day who saw an Islamist inspiration for Islamophobic
terrorism (7/24/11<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=epHgetShzQrnqawdReVR3qWyBoLzGQjv>
):

Thomas Hegghammer, a terrorism specialist at the Norwegian Defense Research
Establishment, said the manifesto bears an eerie resemblance to those of
Osama bin Laden and other Al-Qaeda leaders, though from a Christian rather
than a Muslim point of view. Like Mr. Breivik’s manuscript, the major Qaeda
declarations have detailed accounts of the Crusades, a pronounced sense of
historical grievance and calls for apocalyptic warfare to defeat the
religious and cultural enemy.

"It seems to be an attempt to mirror Al-Qaeda, exactly in reverse," Mr.
Hegghammer said.

To the paper's credit, the *Times*' Scott Shane wrote a strong second-day
piece (7/25/11<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=e%2BGZSUh2CQFTlovAAoyRjKWyBoLzGQjv>)
documenting the influence of Islamophobic bloggers on Breivik's manifesto:

His manifesto, which denounced Norwegian politicians as failing to defend
the country from Islamic influence, quoted Robert Spencer, who operates the
*Jihad Watch* website, 64 times, and cited other Western writers who shared
his view that Muslim immigrants pose a grave danger to Western culture....
Mr. Breivik frequently cited another blog, *Atlas Shrugs*, and recommended
the *Gates of Vienna* among websites.

(Spencer was one of the anti-Muslim pundits profiled in FAIR's 2008
report<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=%2FCk3KVuRDPCveek8%2BZ8jP6WyBoLzGQjv>,
"Meet the Smearcasters: Islamophobia's Dirty Dozen.")

Shane's piece noted that the document, rather than being an Al-Qaeda
"mirror," actually copied large sections of Ted Kaczynski's 1995 Unabomber
manifesto, "in which the Norwegian substituted 'multiculturalists' or
'cultural Marxists' for Mr. Kaczynski’s 'leftists' and made other small
wording changes."

It is not new for media to jump to the conclusion that Muslims are
responsible for any given terrorist attack; the same thing was widespread
after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombings (*Extra!*,
7-8/95<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=NKBkOKBEeq%2F6Yp20JCLGK6WyBoLzGQjv>).
"It has every single earmark of the Islamic car-bombers of the Middle East,"
syndicated columnist Georgie Anne Geyer (*Chicago Tribune*, 4/21/95)
asserted. "Whatever we are doing to destroy Mideast terrorism, the chief
terrorist threat against Americans, has not been working," wrote *New York
Times* columnist A.M. Rosenthal (4/21/95). "Knowing that the car bomb
indicates Middle Eastern terrorists at work, it's safe to assume that their
goal is to promote free-floating fear," editorialized the *New York
Post*(4/20/95). It is unfortunate that so many outlets have failed to
learn any
practical lessons from such mistakes--or question the beliefs that drive
them.

  ------------------------------

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-- 
Frieda Werden, Series Producer
WINGS: Women's International News Gathering Service www.wings.org
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