AI
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 1:20:46 PM
Belgian pol shocked to get Norway shooter's email
Flemish right wing party member Tanguy Veys speaks as he holds a copy of a manifesto written by Anders Behring Breivik at his office in the Belgian Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday, July 27 , 2011. Anders Behring Breivik has confessed to last week's bombing in the capital and a rampage on a Labor Party retreat for young people. In all, 76 people were killed in the twin attacks that have stunned peaceful Norway. Veys received the manifesto by email just hours before the rampage began.
(AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Flemish right wing party member Tanguy Veys puts his hands on a copy of a manifesto written by Anders Behring Breivik at his office in the Belgian Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday, July 27, 2011. Anders Behring Breivik has confessed to last week's bombing in the capital and a rampage on a Labor Party retreat for young people. In all, 76 people were killed in the twin attacks that have stunned peaceful Norway. Veys received the manifesto by email just hours before the rampage began. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Flemish right wing party member Tanguy Veys holds a copy of a manifesto written by Anders Behring Breivik at his office in the Belgian Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday, July 27 , 2011. Anders Behring Breivik has confessed to last week's bombing in the capital and a rampage on a Labor Party retreat for young people. In all, 76 people were killed in the twin attacks that have stunned peaceful Norway. Veys received the manifesto by email just hours before the rampage began.
(AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Flemish right wing party member Tanguy Veys holds his hands over a copy of a manifesto written by Anders Behring Breivik at his office in the Belgian Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday, July 27 , 2011. Anders Behring Breivik has confessed to last week's bombing in the capital and a rampage on a Labor Party retreat for young people. The twin attacks have stunned peaceful Norway. Veys received the manifesto by email just hours before the Friday, July 22, rampage began.
(AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Shown on Wednesday, July 27, 2011, is a copy of a manifesto written by Anders Behring Breivik that Flemish far right party member Tanguy Veys received by email at his office in the Belgian Parliament in Brussels. Anders Behring Breivik has confessed to last week's bombing in the capital and a rampage on a Labor Party retreat for young people. The twin attacks have stunned peaceful Norway. Veys received the manifesto by email just hours before the Friday, July 22, rampage began.
(AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
DON MELVIN, Associated Press
GABRIELE STEINHAUSERGABRIELE STEINHAUSER, Associated Press
Jul. 27, 2011 11:43 AM ET
BRUSSELS (AP) — A right-wing Belgian politician said Wednesday he was shocked and dismayed to learn he had been sent an email by the perpetrator of the Norway massacre shortly before a powerful bomb exploded in Oslo.
Tanguy Veys, a member parliament for the anti-immigration Belgian Vlaams Belang party, said Wednesday he had never met nor even heard of Anders Behring Breivik, who has admitted carrying out the bombing and shootings that killed at least 76 people in Norway.
So receiving the email was a setback, he said.
"I was connected with a terrorist act, and I didn't want to be connected with a terrorist act," Veys said.
The email, with Breivik's 1,500-page manifesto of three books attached, was sent Friday, about 90 minutes before the bomb went off.
Veys said the email — written in English — went to about 1,000 addresses.
Other recipients may have been less shocked. One email address on the list led to a Facebook site ostensibly for an Italian whose profile picture included Nazi emblems and a skull. As the person's only interest, the page listed "firearms."
Another of the addresses led to the site of a man who claimed to be a member of the anti-immigration British National Party.
Breivik's email began with the salutation, "Western European patriot" and described the attached manifesto as dealing with "the ongoing Islamification of Western Europe," and "how we, the cultural conservative resistance, should move forward in the coming decades."
"I humbly ask you to re-distribute the book to as many patriotic minded individuals as you can," the email said, in part. "I am 100 percent certain that the distribution of this compendium to a large portion of European patriots will contribute to ensure our victory in the end. Because within these three books lies the tools required to win the ongoing Western European cultural war, the war against the anti-European hate ideology known as multiculturalism."
It was signed, "Sincere and patriotic regards, Andrew Berwick, London, England - 2011."
The attached manifesto detailed what Breivik perceived as the "Islamification of Europe." But it also included a section that illustrates how minutely detailed his plans were — and that helps explain the peculiar appearance of the photographs of him that have surfaced so far.
Breivik wrote that some of the resources of those who agree with him should be devoted to getting good, professionally shot photographs of themselves, after which all other photos should be deleted.
"The police usually 'leak' 'retarded looking' photos to the press after raiding the cells apartment after an operation," he wrote.
Those involved in the struggle, he wrote, should prepare for photo shoots by working out, resting in a solarium, getting a haircut, and shaving.
"Visit a male salon if possible and apply light makeup," he wrote. "Yes, I know - this might sound repulsive to big badass warriors like us, but we must look our best for the shoot."
Veys' party says there's been enough immigration in Belgium and it needs to be strictly limited. It also says immigrants already in the country should be enticed to return to their country of origin.
"I think Europe — we have Jewish and Christian roots. These are our origins. I see that Islam is not compatible with the origins of Europe," he said Wednesday.
But he said his party was dismayed to have found itself as one of the recipients of Breivik's email.
"We have never called up for violence, and certainly what happened in Norway we deeply regret what happened over there. You can't defend it, you can't even sympathize with his motivation, with his action," Veys said.
He said he thought Breivik was deranged and had acted alone. Yet he feared the debate on immigration might now be viewed through the lens of Breivik's murders.
"Even now I read in the articles: the bullets came from the right," Veys said. "I think people still must be able to criticize multiculturalism, to criticize the growth of Islam in Europe but without (others) saying, 'But you are causing the violence.'"
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press
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APNewsBreak: Fringe leader speaks of growing anger
Stephen Lennon, 28, leader of the English Defense League, poses for a photograph following an interview with The Associated Press in Luton, approximately 27 miles (43 kilometers) from London, Tuesday, July 26, 2011. Lennon, leader of the English Defense League, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he does not condone Breivik's rampage but "the fact that so many people are scared - people have to listen to that."
(AP Photo/Paisley Dodds)
PAISLEY DODDS, Associated Press
Jul. 26, 2011 8:15 PM ET
LUTON, England (AP) — The leader of a British far-right group to which Anders Behring Breivik claims links called the attacks a sign of growing anger in Europe against Muslim immigrants, while a politician in a party in Italy's governing coalition called some of the gunman's ideas "great."
Following a wave of near universal revulsion against the attacks, the comments were among the first public statements that appeared to defend the extremist views which drove the Norwegian gunman to carry out the massacre.
Stephen Lennon, leader of the English Defense League, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he does not condone Breivik's rampage but "the fact that so many people are scared — people have to listen to that."
"What happened in Oslo shows how desperate some people are becoming in Europe," said Lennon, 28. "It's a ticking time bomb. If they don't give that frustration and anger a platform as such and a voice — and a way of getting emotion out in a democratic way — it will create monsters like this lunatic."
Backtracking on earlier denials of any link to Breivik, Lennon said he is in touch with regional EDL leaders to find out whether the gunman had contact with members of the group as he claims in his sprawling manifesto. He says so far, police haven't come knocking on his door to investigate or to ask questions about his members.
Breivik has posted admiring comments about the EDL online and expressed a wish to attend its rallies, but he also was critical of members for seeming to oppose violence and for being from different ethnicities.
"It could turn out that one of our members met with him but at this point we're not turning anything up," Lennon said.
Meanwhile, Mario Borghezio, a European parliamentarian who belongs to Italy's populist Northern League party, told a mainstream Italian radio station that he sympathized with some of Breivik's ideas.
"Some of the ideas he expressed are good — barring the violence — some of them are great," he told Il Sole-24 Ore radio station.
The Northern League, the junior partner in Premier Silvio Berlusconi's government, has caused a stir with its increasingly virulent anti-immigrant, anti-Islamic rhetoric.
Breivik has confessed to the attacks on Oslo's government district and a summer camp for the youth wing of Norway's ruling Labor Party that killed 76 people. He said he carried out the massacre to publicize his calls for expelling Muslims from Europe.
The act of such deadly right-wing terrorism stunned a continent that has been grappling with a wave of xenophobia and anti-immigrant violence amid faltering economies, rising unemployment, and ongoing fears about Islamic terror plots.
Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson, said he has recently taken his group touring in Germany, France and the Netherlands, and finds rising European support for anti-Islamic groups like his.
"They're going to get bigger and bigger," said Lennon, who is missing several teeth from brawls with police and others. The EDL leader was convicted Monday of leading a football hooligan street fight and sentenced to 12 months community service.
Lennon also claimed that a man Breivik describes in his manifesto as his mentor — "Richard (the Lionhearted)" — is a former EDL member called Paul Sonato, who was kicked out of the group a few years ago.
Sonato, an English right-wing blogger who now goes by the name Paul Ray, told the AP in an telephone interview from his home in Malta that he never had any dealings with Breivik and condemned the massacre.
"Being implicated in this, I just want the truth to come out and it proven that I'm nothing whatever to do with this," he said.
The 35-year-old blogger said he fled England almost two years ago after being arrested for stirring racial hatred and settled in Malta.
The English Defense League was founded two years ago when Lennon says British troops returned from Afghanistan to insults and harassment from Muslims in Luton, a town outside of London where the radical Islamic preacher, Abu Hamza al-Masri — the one-eyed, hook-handed cleric — used to preach occasionally.
The group says it wants peace — but it also wants an end to "Islamic immigration," Shariah law and building mosques "until Islam sorts itself out," Lennon said.
He says other groups across Europe feel the same way.
"Islam is a threat to Europe," he said, denying that he is against cross-culturalism or Muslims.
The European police agency said Tuesday it was investigating links between Breivik and right-wing groups in Europe.
A task force was set up shortly after the Norway attacks to help in the probe but Europol spokesman Soeren Pedersen said Tuesday that British police would also join the task force. He said the task force could expand to even more countries later in an attempt to assess the threat of right-wing extremism in Europe.
Many countries are being contacted by Norwegian authorities about local people Breivik contacted electronically, according to a European security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about police investigations. He said Portugal was one of the latest.
Associated Press writers Simon Haydon, Carlo Piovano and Sylvia Hui contributed to this report from London and Barry Hatton from Lisbon.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press
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Names of Norway victims released, cause new grief
A woman is seen in front of wall decorated with flowers in memory of the victims of Friday's bomb attack and shooting rampage in Oslo, Norway, Tuesday, July 26, 2011. The defense lawyer for Anders Behring Breivik said Tuesday his client's case suggests he is insane, adding that someone has to take the job of defending him but that he will not take instructions from his client. Geir Lippestad told reporters that the suspect in the bombing on the capital and the brutal attack on a youth camp that killed at least 76 people is not aware of the death toll or of the public's response to the massacre that has rocked the country.
(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Red roses float in the water close to Utoya island, where gunman Anders Behring Breivik killed at least 68 people in Sundvollen, near Oslo, Norway, Tuesday, July 26, 2011.
(AP Photo/Ferdinand Ostrop)
People look at tributes outside the Oslo Cathedral in Oslo, in memory of the victims of Friday's bomb attack and shooting rampage, Norway, Tuesday, July 26, 2011. Norwegian police on Tuesday began releasing the names of those killed in last week's bomb blast and massacre at a youth camp, an announcement likely to bring new collective grief to an already reeling nation.
(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A man throws a rose into the lake opposite Utoya island, where gunman Anders Behring Breivik killed at least 68 people, in Sundvollen, near Oslo, Norway, Tuesday, July 26, 2011. Norwegian police on Tuesday began releasing the names of those killed in last week's bomb blast and massacre at a youth camp, an announcement likely to bring new collective grief to an already reeling nation.
(AP Photo/Ferdinand Ostrop)
A woman lights a candle in Sundvollen, facing Utoya island, where gunman Anders Behring Breivik killed at least 68 people, near Oslo, Norway, Tuesday, July 26, 2011. Norwegian police on Tuesday began releasing the names of those killed in last week's bomb blast and massacre at a youth camp, an announcement likely to bring new collective grief to an already reeling nation.
(AP Photo/Ferdinand Ostrop)
KARL RITTER, Associated Press
LOUISE NORDSTROMLOUISE NORDSTROM, Associated Press
Jul. 26, 2011 4:33 PM ET
OSLO, Norway (AP) — Gunnar Linaker was a gentle bear of a man, a lover of people and the outdoors who dedicated himself to the ideals of the country's left-leaning governing party.
Tove Aashill Knutsen worked as a secretary at the electrician's union, a well-liked woman who commuted to work by bike.
Ismail Haji Ahmed was a dreadlocked descendant of immigrants, a teenage musician who recently appeared on the "Norway's Talents" television show.
All died in a few hours Friday in the bombing and shooting spree by a man on a self-described quest to rid Europe of immigrants and leftists. On Tuesday, police began officially release the names of the victims, transforming an anonymous death toll — 76 — into a vivid tapestry of lives cut short, bringing new collective grief to an already reeling nation.
Linaker, 23, hailed from the village of Bardu in northern Norway. He was "a calm, big teddy bear with lots of humor and lots of love," his father Roald told The Associated Press. He was a devoted member of the Labor Party, which advocates a strong welfare state, high taxes and controlled but continuing immigration.
Roald Linaker said he had even taken leave from his political-science studies at the university in the northern city of Tromsoe in order to work full-time in politics and was a regional secretary of the party's youth wing, which hold the camp on the island of Utoya every summer.
"He had been to Utoya many, many times, four or five years," his father said.
His voice weak and trembling, Linaker said he had been on the phone with his son when the shooting started. "He said to me: 'Dad, dad, someone is shooting,' and then he hung up."
That was the last he heard from his son. Gunnar Linaker was wounded and was taken to a nearby hospital, where he died on Saturday. His 17-year-old sister also was at the camp, but somehow survived the slaughter, he said.
He declined to speak any further.
Knutsen, 56, had left the office of the electricians and information technology workers' union for the day and was on her way to a subway station when the bomb exploded in Oslo's government office quarter, union head Hans Felix said.
Normally Knutsen would go to and from work on her bicycle, but earlier that day she had left it at a repair shop.
"It wasn't finished, so this day she had to take the subway home. Tove never got home," Felix said. "Tove was a happy girl who was well liked by us all, and it feels unreal that she is no longer with us."
Police only identified two more of the slain, both victims of the bombing. They were Hanna M. Orvik Endresen, 61, and Kai Hauge, a 33-year-old who owned a bar and restaurant in downtown Oslo. A flower arrangement outside the bar on Tuesday afternoon included notes from friends and a photo of him. A note beside the locked front door, handwritten in black marker, read: "Closed due to death." Inside, the bar was dark.
The national newspaper Dagbladet posted the names and photos of 30 people it said were killed in the attacks or missing. The information, apparently received from friends or relatives, showed three victims who did not appear to be ethnic Norwegians — examples of the increasingly diverse Norway that the alleged bomber and gunman says he despised.
Among them was Ahmed, whom the newspaper said had recently appeared on the "Norway's Got Talent" television show. Another, reported as missing, was a 20-year-old native of Iraq, Jamil Rafal Yasin.
Norway's Crown Prince Haakon and Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere attended a packed memorial ceremony Tuesday for the victims in the World Islamic Mission mosque in Oslo. After the ceremony, Pakistani-born Imam Najeeb ur Rehman Naz said the massacre had brought Norwegian residents of all backgrounds closer together.
"Everyone realizes that terrorism and this kind of activity doesn't have anything to do with any religion," he told the AP. "They are individuals who can be found in any community who don't represent the majority at all."
The lawyer for Anders Behring Breivik, who has confessed to the massacre, on Tuesday said his client was likely insane. He called him cold, and said he saw himself as a warrior and savior of the Western world.
Breivik has confessed to last week's bombing and rampage, but he has pleaded not guilty to the terrorism charges he faces.
Nordstrom reported from Stockholm. Bjoern H. Amland, Ian MacDougall and Sarah DiLorenzo contributed to this report.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press
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Norway princess' stepbrother killed in massacre
Jul. 25, 2011
http://hosted2.ap.org/COGRA/APWorldNews/Article_2011-07-25-EU-Norway-Explosion/id-af7acf9cddcc4e4b960272e2d233d281
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Norway suspect says NATO bombs 'tipped the scales'
This is an undated image obtained from the Twitter page of Anders Behring Breivik, 32, who was arrested Friday July 22, 2011 in connection to the twin attacks on a youth camp and a government building in Oslo, Norway. Breivik is a suspect in both the shootings and the Oslo explosion Friday.
(AP Photo/Twitter, Anders Behring Breivik)
IAN MacDOUGALL, Associated Press
KARL RITTERKARL RITTER, Associated Press
Jul. 24, 2011 7:07 PM ET
OSLO, Norway (AP) — Anders Behring Breivik said he was a boy when his life's path began to turn. It was during the first Gulf War, when a Muslim friend cheered at reports of missile attacks against American forces.
"I was completely ignorant at the time and apolitical but his total lack of respect for my culture (and Western culture in general) actually sparked by interest and passion for it," the suspect in Norway's bombing and mass shooting wrote in his 1,500-page manifesto.
The 32-year-old Norwegian said it was the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999 that "tipped the scales" for him because he sympathized with Serbia's crackdown on ethnic Albanian Muslims in Kosovo. A year later he said he realized that what he called the "Islamization of Europe" couldn't be stopped by peaceful means.
Police and Breivik's lawyer says he confessed to, but denied criminal responsibility for, Friday's bombing at government headquarters in Oslo and the mass shooting later that day at an island summer camp organized by the youth wing of the ruling Labor Party. At least 93 people were killed in the attacks.
Breivik's manifesto chronicled events that deepened his contempt for Muslims and "Marxists" he blamed for making Europe multicultural. He suggested his friends didn't even know what he was up to, and comments from several people who had contact with the quiet blond man indicate he was right.
From September 2009 through October 2010, Breivik posted more than 70 times on Dokument.no, a Norwegian site with critical views on Islam and immigration. In one comment, he entertained the idea of a European Tea Party movement.
In December of 2009, Breivik showed up at a meeting organized by the website's staff.
"He was a bit strange. As one could see from his postings, he had obviously read a lot but not really digesting it," said Hans Rustad, the editor of the website.
But Rustad said he "hadn't the faintest idea" about Breivik's murderous plans.
"Other people have the same views on the Net and they don't go out and become mass murderers. So how can you tell?" Rustad told The Associated Press.
In the document Breivik styles himself as a Christian conservative, patriot and nationalist. He looks down on neo-Nazis as "underprivileged racist skinheads with a short temper."
Part of Breivik's manifesto was taken almost word for word from the first few pages of the anti-technology manifesto written by "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski, who is in federal prison for mail bombs that killed three people and injured 23 others across the U.S. from the 1970s to the 1990s.
Breivik did not cite Kaczynski, though he did for many other people whose writings he used.
Breivik changed a Kaczynski screed on leftism and what he considered to be leftists' "feelings of inferiority" — mainly by substituting the words "multiculturalism" or "cultural Marxism" for "leftism."
For instance, Kaczynski wrote: "One of the most widespread manifestations of the craziness of our world is leftism, so a discussion of the psychology of leftism can serve as an introduction to the discussion of the problems of modern society in general."
Breivik's manifesto reads: "One of the most widespread manifestations of the craziness of our world is multiculturalism, so a discussion of the psychology of multiculturalists can serve as an introduction to the discussion of the problems of Western Europe in general."
Breivik called his upbringing in a middle-class home in Oslo privileged even though his parents divorced when he was 1 and he lost contact with his father in his teens. His parents split when the family lived in London, where his father, Jens Breivik, was a diplomat at the Norwegian Embassy in London. A spokesman for the embassy, Stein Iversen, confirmed that Jens Breivik was employed at the embassy in the late 1970s, but wouldn't discuss his relationship with the Oslo suspect.
Breivik said both parents supported Norway's center-left Labor Party, which he viewed as infiltrated by Marxists.
His mother won a custody battle, but Breivik said he regularly visited his father and his new wife in France, where they lived, until his father cut off contact when Breivik was 15. The father told Norwegian newspaper VG that they lost touch in 1995, but that it was his son who wanted to cut off contact.
"We've never lived together, but we had some contact in his childhood," the older Breivik, who VG said is now retired in France, was quoted as saying. "When he was young he was an ordinary boy, but reclusive. He wasn't interested in politics at the time."
He learned about Breivik's massacre on the Internet. "I was reading online newspapers and then I suddenly saw his name and picture on the net," he told VG. "It was a shock to find out. I haven't gotten over it yet."
Breivik's mother lives in an ivy-covered brick apartment building in western Oslo, currently protected by police. Neighbors said they hadn't seen her since a few days before the shooting. Police said they've spoken to her and that she didn't know of her son's plans.
In his manifesto, Breivik said he had no negative experiences from his childhood, though he had issues with his mother being a "moderate feminist."
"I do not approve of the super-liberal, matriarchal upbringing though as it completely lacked discipline and has contributed to feminize me to a certain degree," he said.
But Breivik claims he never lacked courage: "If anyone threatened me or my friends, regardless if we were at a disadvantage, we would rather face our foes than submit and lose face." He said that attitude was atypical among ethnic Norwegians, who had a tendency to "sissy out."
In Internet postings attributed to Breivik on Norwegian websites, he blamed Europe's left-wing parties for destroying the continent's Christian heritage by allowing mass immigration of Muslims.
He said he came in contact with like-minded individuals across Europe, and together they formed a military order inspired by the Knights Templar crusaders. Their goal was to seize power in Europe by 2083 in a string of coups d'etat. Norwegian police couldn't say whether the group existed.
Two European security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the investigation said they were familiar with increased Internet chatter from individuals claiming they belonged to a group called the new Knights Templar.
Breivik said he also tried to get engaged in domestic politics, in the Progress Party, an a populist opposition party which calls for stricter immigration controls. He claims he was a popular party member who almost got elected to the Oslo City Council seven years ago.
"That's just something he imagined," said Joeran Kallmyr, whom Breivik described as his "rival" in the party.
Breivik attended only five or six party meetings during those two years and left the party quietly, said Kallmyr, now a vice mayor of Oslo.
"He was very quiet, almost shy. He seemed like a well-educated man. He was very well dressed and very polite. He wore a tie all the time," Kallmyr said. "I couldn't see any signs that he was coming apart."
Kallmyr said he only had one conversation with Breivik, a forgettable chat about Breivik's business. According to Breivik's manifesto, he was the director of Anders Behring Breivik ENK at the time, a business he describes as a "front" and a "milking cow" to finance "resistance/liberation related military operations."
He describes elsewhere in the document how he used his own companies to secure bank loans and credit to fund his attack.
Breivik, who detailed his preparations for the attacks in eerie detail, also anticipated the hostility he would face, even from his friends and family, if he survived his "mission" and was brought to trial.
Jack Levin, a professor at Northeastern University who has written a number of books on mass murderers, said that part could be part of the motivation for the manifesto.
"He talks about visiting prostitutes and taking steroids. Why would he say such negative things about himself? I think what he's doing is — this humanizes him," Levin said. "He's trying to tell people he's not a monster, that he's a person with frailties and weaknesses like everybody else. It makes the killer look like a victim rather than a villain."
Associated Press writer Sylvia Hui in London contributed to this report.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press
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APNewsBreak: Extra security at UK mosques
ANGELA CHARLTON, Associated Press
PAISLEY DODDSPAISLEY DODDS, Associated Press
Jul. 24, 2011 2:53 PM ET
LONDON (AP) — Some British mosques are boosting security after Norway's horrific massacre was traced to a man who fears Muslims are taking over Europe — an attack that exposed a failure to root out Islamophobia that has bled into the European mainstream.
European government leaders may even be feeding fears of Islam through measures such as bans on face veils on the streets, aimed at appeasing a non-Muslim majority wary about the continent's rising Muslim population.
Muslim leaders say it's time for governments to wake up to the threat of anti-Islamic extremism and stop pandering to far right nationalist movements that have made inroads in politics from the Netherlands to Austria. European attitudes, though, are unlikely to change overnight.
"People are looking over their shoulders and afraid that we will be the next target," said Mohammed Shafiq of the Ramadhan Foundation, one of Britain's largest Muslim organizations. He spoke to The Associated Press in a telephone interview from the sidelines of an international gathering of Muslim scholars and leaders Sunday. "As a result, we've told people to be extra vigilant and there will be added security placed at mosques."
Mohammed Bechari, head of the European Islamic Conference, said that even though millions of Europe's Muslims were born here and have assimilated into societies that consider themselves open and tolerant, "there is a rise in Islamophobia. Racism, anti-Muslim sentiments have become the norm."
Hours after Norway's terrorist attack Friday, a law went into effect in Belgium banning the Islamic face veil, for what authorities called security reasons. France, with western Europe's largest Muslim population, has a similar law, and Switzerland has banned new mosque minarets.
The wall of a mosque in the Russian town of Berezovsky was defaced overnight Friday with graffiti reading "Russia for Russians!" according to the website Islamnews.ru. Muslim cemeteries in France are regularly vandalized.
When news of Norway's attacks first emerged, suspicion immediately fell on Islamic extremists, responsible for some of Europe's worst horrors in recent history.
That the chief suspect turned out to be a blond man with anti-Muslim, fundamentalist Christian views caught many off guard and exposed a knee-jerk Islamophobia that puts Europe's leaders in a new bind.
Islamic terrorism is a real threat to Europe. Islamophobia channeled by extreme right groups may be a graver threat than many had estimated. Governments must try to stamp out both, while persuading their populations that Muslims as a whole are not a menace to Europe's future.
Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik is accused of two attacks Friday, one outside government headquarters in Oslo that killed seven, and a shooting spree on nearby island that killed 86. A manifesto he published online the day of the attack ranted against Muslim immigration to Europe and vowed revenge.
"Hatred of others, hatred of those who look different, of the supposedly foreign — this hatred is our common enemy," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday. "All of us who believe in freedom, respect and peaceful coexistence. We all must confront this hatred."
It's uncertain whether Norway's monstrous attack, widely condemned by religious leaders and politicians of all stripes, will jolt European leaders into attacking Islamophobia with the same zeal seen in the fight against Islamic terrorism.
And European attitudes toward Muslims are unlikely to change overnight. Bernard Godard, a consultant to European politicians on Muslim issues, says far-right parties are channeling frustrations in communities with high poverty and unemployment and directing their anger at Muslim immigrants.
"We need to ask: Are we passing to a new stage, a new level of anti-Muslim sentiment with these attacks?" he said. "The ideas of the extreme right have become ordinary. We should pay more attention to what they are saying."
He said police have not paid enough attention to groups such as France's nationalist Bloc Identitaire, which uses online organizing to stage provocative mass public parties with wine and pork sausages — both forbidden under Islam.
In Britain in recent weeks, a pig's head was left at a mosque outside of Oxford, while there have been repeated attacks on women wearing headscarves and full-face coverings, Shafiq said.
Muslim groups say they have long warned Britain's police of increasing hostility from far-right groups.
Shafiq said security discussions were under way with police in Manchester, home to many of Britain's nearly 2 million Muslims. Thousands will be gathering at mosques this week ahead of Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month that begins at the end of the month. Manchester police would not immediately confirm the talks.
Britain's Muslims have seen an increase in attacks since 2005, when homegrown suicide bombers killed 52 people during morning rush-hour attacks in London. Since the suicide bombings, and the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States, more resources have been dedicated to fighting Islamic terrorism instead of far right or left extremism.
Dalil Boubakeur, the moderate rector of the Grand Paris Mosque, said no new security measures are yet planned but urged "vigilance" and said there is a "reflection" under way about what to do next. "There is a fear for the future."
In France, critics say President Nicolas Sarkozy is trying to sap support for the far-right National Front and its popular leader Marine Le Pen ahead of next year's presidential election, by borrowing populist language about France's national identity that is seen as code for anti-Muslim views.
Sarkozy's party insists that the laws it has championed on the face veil and banning headscarves from the classrom are aimed at protecting women's rights.
Bechari, of the European Islamic Conference, said the laws "are seen among Muslims as laws that exclude them" — not integrate them, as Sarkozy's party claims it aims to do.
Far-right political groups that have gained some ground in recent years in Europe sought to distance themselves from Norway's attacker.
"Terrible attack in Oslo, many innocent victims of violent, sick mind," Geert Wilders, one of Europe's best-known and influential anti-Islam politicians, said on Twitter.
Wilders, who spent years on the fringe of Dutch politics, was the kingmaker of the right-wing government elected last year. Wilders, responding to news accounts that the shooter shared his party's anti-Islam views, called him a "sick psychopath" and said his party "abhors everything that this man stands for and has done."
The all-white British National Party, which does not accept nonwhite members and calls for the "voluntary repatriation" of immigrants, won two of Britain's 72 seats in the European Parliament, gaining ground in economically battered areas that once were strongholds of Britain's left-wing Labour Party.
In Belgium, the far-right nationalist party Vlaams Belang — Flemish Interest in Dutch — has been pushing for stricter limits on immigration, fighting in particular what it calls the growing "Islamization" of Belgian and Flemish cities. In elections last year, Vlaams Belang won almost 8 percent of the vote, down from 12 percent three years earlier.
Vlaams Belang didn't immediately respond to requests for comment Sunday.
Germany lacks any mainstream political party with anti-Islam and anti-Muslim rhetoric as a central tenet, but there has been growing tension about perceived dangers posed by Muslim immigrants.
Last year, a book by former central bank board member Thilo Sarrazin — which used blunt, often harsh language to portray Muslim immigrants as welfare cases weakening German society and making it "dumber" — became a bestseller — although Merkel condemned its tone.
Abdullah Anas — a Muslim cleric who delivers sermons at some of Britain's largest mosques and used to be an ally of Osama bin Laden before he fell out with him over the prospect of a global holy war — said the Norway attacks would likely be raised at some of this week's Friday prayers.
"It is a challenge for everyone — Muslims and non-Muslims — because there is a lot of anger that must be contained," Anas, originally from Algeria, told the AP. "There are too many people who think the killing of innocents is acceptable just because they are angry over certain things."
Charlton reported from Paris. Arthur Max in Amsterdam, Geir Moulson in Berlin, Don Melvin and Gabriele Steinhauser in Brussels and Sylvia Hui in London contributed.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press
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Flemish right wing party member Tanguy Veys speaks as he holds a copy of a manifesto written by Anders Behring Breivik at his office in the Belgian Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday, July 27 , 2011. Anders Behring Breivik has confessed to last week's bombing in the capital and a rampage on a Labor Party retreat for young people. In all, 76 people were killed in the twin attacks that have stunned peaceful Norway. Veys received the manifesto by email just hours before the rampage began.
(AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Flemish right wing party member Tanguy Veys puts his hands on a copy of a manifesto written by Anders Behring Breivik at his office in the Belgian Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday, July 27, 2011. Anders Behring Breivik has confessed to last week's bombing in the capital and a rampage on a Labor Party retreat for young people. In all, 76 people were killed in the twin attacks that have stunned peaceful Norway. Veys received the manifesto by email just hours before the rampage began. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Flemish right wing party member Tanguy Veys holds a copy of a manifesto written by Anders Behring Breivik at his office in the Belgian Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday, July 27 , 2011. Anders Behring Breivik has confessed to last week's bombing in the capital and a rampage on a Labor Party retreat for young people. In all, 76 people were killed in the twin attacks that have stunned peaceful Norway. Veys received the manifesto by email just hours before the rampage began.
(AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Flemish right wing party member Tanguy Veys holds his hands over a copy of a manifesto written by Anders Behring Breivik at his office in the Belgian Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday, July 27 , 2011. Anders Behring Breivik has confessed to last week's bombing in the capital and a rampage on a Labor Party retreat for young people. The twin attacks have stunned peaceful Norway. Veys received the manifesto by email just hours before the Friday, July 22, rampage began.
(AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Shown on Wednesday, July 27, 2011, is a copy of a manifesto written by Anders Behring Breivik that Flemish far right party member Tanguy Veys received by email at his office in the Belgian Parliament in Brussels. Anders Behring Breivik has confessed to last week's bombing in the capital and a rampage on a Labor Party retreat for young people. The twin attacks have stunned peaceful Norway. Veys received the manifesto by email just hours before the Friday, July 22, rampage began.
(AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
DON MELVIN, Associated Press
GABRIELE STEINHAUSERGABRIELE STEINHAUSER, Associated Press
Jul. 27, 2011 11:43 AM ET
BRUSSELS (AP) — A right-wing Belgian politician said Wednesday he was shocked and dismayed to learn he had been sent an email by the perpetrator of the Norway massacre shortly before a powerful bomb exploded in Oslo.
Tanguy Veys, a member parliament for the anti-immigration Belgian Vlaams Belang party, said Wednesday he had never met nor even heard of Anders Behring Breivik, who has admitted carrying out the bombing and shootings that killed at least 76 people in Norway.
So receiving the email was a setback, he said.
"I was connected with a terrorist act, and I didn't want to be connected with a terrorist act," Veys said.
The email, with Breivik's 1,500-page manifesto of three books attached, was sent Friday, about 90 minutes before the bomb went off.
Veys said the email — written in English — went to about 1,000 addresses.
Other recipients may have been less shocked. One email address on the list led to a Facebook site ostensibly for an Italian whose profile picture included Nazi emblems and a skull. As the person's only interest, the page listed "firearms."
Another of the addresses led to the site of a man who claimed to be a member of the anti-immigration British National Party.
Breivik's email began with the salutation, "Western European patriot" and described the attached manifesto as dealing with "the ongoing Islamification of Western Europe," and "how we, the cultural conservative resistance, should move forward in the coming decades."
"I humbly ask you to re-distribute the book to as many patriotic minded individuals as you can," the email said, in part. "I am 100 percent certain that the distribution of this compendium to a large portion of European patriots will contribute to ensure our victory in the end. Because within these three books lies the tools required to win the ongoing Western European cultural war, the war against the anti-European hate ideology known as multiculturalism."
It was signed, "Sincere and patriotic regards, Andrew Berwick, London, England - 2011."
The attached manifesto detailed what Breivik perceived as the "Islamification of Europe." But it also included a section that illustrates how minutely detailed his plans were — and that helps explain the peculiar appearance of the photographs of him that have surfaced so far.
Breivik wrote that some of the resources of those who agree with him should be devoted to getting good, professionally shot photographs of themselves, after which all other photos should be deleted.
"The police usually 'leak' 'retarded looking' photos to the press after raiding the cells apartment after an operation," he wrote.
Those involved in the struggle, he wrote, should prepare for photo shoots by working out, resting in a solarium, getting a haircut, and shaving.
"Visit a male salon if possible and apply light makeup," he wrote. "Yes, I know - this might sound repulsive to big badass warriors like us, but we must look our best for the shoot."
Veys' party says there's been enough immigration in Belgium and it needs to be strictly limited. It also says immigrants already in the country should be enticed to return to their country of origin.
"I think Europe — we have Jewish and Christian roots. These are our origins. I see that Islam is not compatible with the origins of Europe," he said Wednesday.
But he said his party was dismayed to have found itself as one of the recipients of Breivik's email.
"We have never called up for violence, and certainly what happened in Norway we deeply regret what happened over there. You can't defend it, you can't even sympathize with his motivation, with his action," Veys said.
He said he thought Breivik was deranged and had acted alone. Yet he feared the debate on immigration might now be viewed through the lens of Breivik's murders.
"Even now I read in the articles: the bullets came from the right," Veys said. "I think people still must be able to criticize multiculturalism, to criticize the growth of Islam in Europe but without (others) saying, 'But you are causing the violence.'"
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press
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APNewsBreak: Fringe leader speaks of growing anger
Stephen Lennon, 28, leader of the English Defense League, poses for a photograph following an interview with The Associated Press in Luton, approximately 27 miles (43 kilometers) from London, Tuesday, July 26, 2011. Lennon, leader of the English Defense League, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he does not condone Breivik's rampage but "the fact that so many people are scared - people have to listen to that."
(AP Photo/Paisley Dodds)
PAISLEY DODDS, Associated Press
Jul. 26, 2011 8:15 PM ET
LUTON, England (AP) — The leader of a British far-right group to which Anders Behring Breivik claims links called the attacks a sign of growing anger in Europe against Muslim immigrants, while a politician in a party in Italy's governing coalition called some of the gunman's ideas "great."
Following a wave of near universal revulsion against the attacks, the comments were among the first public statements that appeared to defend the extremist views which drove the Norwegian gunman to carry out the massacre.
Stephen Lennon, leader of the English Defense League, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he does not condone Breivik's rampage but "the fact that so many people are scared — people have to listen to that."
"What happened in Oslo shows how desperate some people are becoming in Europe," said Lennon, 28. "It's a ticking time bomb. If they don't give that frustration and anger a platform as such and a voice — and a way of getting emotion out in a democratic way — it will create monsters like this lunatic."
Backtracking on earlier denials of any link to Breivik, Lennon said he is in touch with regional EDL leaders to find out whether the gunman had contact with members of the group as he claims in his sprawling manifesto. He says so far, police haven't come knocking on his door to investigate or to ask questions about his members.
Breivik has posted admiring comments about the EDL online and expressed a wish to attend its rallies, but he also was critical of members for seeming to oppose violence and for being from different ethnicities.
"It could turn out that one of our members met with him but at this point we're not turning anything up," Lennon said.
Meanwhile, Mario Borghezio, a European parliamentarian who belongs to Italy's populist Northern League party, told a mainstream Italian radio station that he sympathized with some of Breivik's ideas.
"Some of the ideas he expressed are good — barring the violence — some of them are great," he told Il Sole-24 Ore radio station.
The Northern League, the junior partner in Premier Silvio Berlusconi's government, has caused a stir with its increasingly virulent anti-immigrant, anti-Islamic rhetoric.
Breivik has confessed to the attacks on Oslo's government district and a summer camp for the youth wing of Norway's ruling Labor Party that killed 76 people. He said he carried out the massacre to publicize his calls for expelling Muslims from Europe.
The act of such deadly right-wing terrorism stunned a continent that has been grappling with a wave of xenophobia and anti-immigrant violence amid faltering economies, rising unemployment, and ongoing fears about Islamic terror plots.
Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson, said he has recently taken his group touring in Germany, France and the Netherlands, and finds rising European support for anti-Islamic groups like his.
"They're going to get bigger and bigger," said Lennon, who is missing several teeth from brawls with police and others. The EDL leader was convicted Monday of leading a football hooligan street fight and sentenced to 12 months community service.
Lennon also claimed that a man Breivik describes in his manifesto as his mentor — "Richard (the Lionhearted)" — is a former EDL member called Paul Sonato, who was kicked out of the group a few years ago.
Sonato, an English right-wing blogger who now goes by the name Paul Ray, told the AP in an telephone interview from his home in Malta that he never had any dealings with Breivik and condemned the massacre.
"Being implicated in this, I just want the truth to come out and it proven that I'm nothing whatever to do with this," he said.
The 35-year-old blogger said he fled England almost two years ago after being arrested for stirring racial hatred and settled in Malta.
The English Defense League was founded two years ago when Lennon says British troops returned from Afghanistan to insults and harassment from Muslims in Luton, a town outside of London where the radical Islamic preacher, Abu Hamza al-Masri — the one-eyed, hook-handed cleric — used to preach occasionally.
The group says it wants peace — but it also wants an end to "Islamic immigration," Shariah law and building mosques "until Islam sorts itself out," Lennon said.
He says other groups across Europe feel the same way.
"Islam is a threat to Europe," he said, denying that he is against cross-culturalism or Muslims.
The European police agency said Tuesday it was investigating links between Breivik and right-wing groups in Europe.
A task force was set up shortly after the Norway attacks to help in the probe but Europol spokesman Soeren Pedersen said Tuesday that British police would also join the task force. He said the task force could expand to even more countries later in an attempt to assess the threat of right-wing extremism in Europe.
Many countries are being contacted by Norwegian authorities about local people Breivik contacted electronically, according to a European security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about police investigations. He said Portugal was one of the latest.
Associated Press writers Simon Haydon, Carlo Piovano and Sylvia Hui contributed to this report from London and Barry Hatton from Lisbon.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press
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Names of Norway victims released, cause new grief
A woman is seen in front of wall decorated with flowers in memory of the victims of Friday's bomb attack and shooting rampage in Oslo, Norway, Tuesday, July 26, 2011. The defense lawyer for Anders Behring Breivik said Tuesday his client's case suggests he is insane, adding that someone has to take the job of defending him but that he will not take instructions from his client. Geir Lippestad told reporters that the suspect in the bombing on the capital and the brutal attack on a youth camp that killed at least 76 people is not aware of the death toll or of the public's response to the massacre that has rocked the country.
(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Red roses float in the water close to Utoya island, where gunman Anders Behring Breivik killed at least 68 people in Sundvollen, near Oslo, Norway, Tuesday, July 26, 2011.
(AP Photo/Ferdinand Ostrop)
People look at tributes outside the Oslo Cathedral in Oslo, in memory of the victims of Friday's bomb attack and shooting rampage, Norway, Tuesday, July 26, 2011. Norwegian police on Tuesday began releasing the names of those killed in last week's bomb blast and massacre at a youth camp, an announcement likely to bring new collective grief to an already reeling nation.
(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A man throws a rose into the lake opposite Utoya island, where gunman Anders Behring Breivik killed at least 68 people, in Sundvollen, near Oslo, Norway, Tuesday, July 26, 2011. Norwegian police on Tuesday began releasing the names of those killed in last week's bomb blast and massacre at a youth camp, an announcement likely to bring new collective grief to an already reeling nation.
(AP Photo/Ferdinand Ostrop)
A woman lights a candle in Sundvollen, facing Utoya island, where gunman Anders Behring Breivik killed at least 68 people, near Oslo, Norway, Tuesday, July 26, 2011. Norwegian police on Tuesday began releasing the names of those killed in last week's bomb blast and massacre at a youth camp, an announcement likely to bring new collective grief to an already reeling nation.
(AP Photo/Ferdinand Ostrop)
KARL RITTER, Associated Press
LOUISE NORDSTROMLOUISE NORDSTROM, Associated Press
Jul. 26, 2011 4:33 PM ET
OSLO, Norway (AP) — Gunnar Linaker was a gentle bear of a man, a lover of people and the outdoors who dedicated himself to the ideals of the country's left-leaning governing party.
Tove Aashill Knutsen worked as a secretary at the electrician's union, a well-liked woman who commuted to work by bike.
Ismail Haji Ahmed was a dreadlocked descendant of immigrants, a teenage musician who recently appeared on the "Norway's Talents" television show.
All died in a few hours Friday in the bombing and shooting spree by a man on a self-described quest to rid Europe of immigrants and leftists. On Tuesday, police began officially release the names of the victims, transforming an anonymous death toll — 76 — into a vivid tapestry of lives cut short, bringing new collective grief to an already reeling nation.
Linaker, 23, hailed from the village of Bardu in northern Norway. He was "a calm, big teddy bear with lots of humor and lots of love," his father Roald told The Associated Press. He was a devoted member of the Labor Party, which advocates a strong welfare state, high taxes and controlled but continuing immigration.
Roald Linaker said he had even taken leave from his political-science studies at the university in the northern city of Tromsoe in order to work full-time in politics and was a regional secretary of the party's youth wing, which hold the camp on the island of Utoya every summer.
"He had been to Utoya many, many times, four or five years," his father said.
His voice weak and trembling, Linaker said he had been on the phone with his son when the shooting started. "He said to me: 'Dad, dad, someone is shooting,' and then he hung up."
That was the last he heard from his son. Gunnar Linaker was wounded and was taken to a nearby hospital, where he died on Saturday. His 17-year-old sister also was at the camp, but somehow survived the slaughter, he said.
He declined to speak any further.
Knutsen, 56, had left the office of the electricians and information technology workers' union for the day and was on her way to a subway station when the bomb exploded in Oslo's government office quarter, union head Hans Felix said.
Normally Knutsen would go to and from work on her bicycle, but earlier that day she had left it at a repair shop.
"It wasn't finished, so this day she had to take the subway home. Tove never got home," Felix said. "Tove was a happy girl who was well liked by us all, and it feels unreal that she is no longer with us."
Police only identified two more of the slain, both victims of the bombing. They were Hanna M. Orvik Endresen, 61, and Kai Hauge, a 33-year-old who owned a bar and restaurant in downtown Oslo. A flower arrangement outside the bar on Tuesday afternoon included notes from friends and a photo of him. A note beside the locked front door, handwritten in black marker, read: "Closed due to death." Inside, the bar was dark.
The national newspaper Dagbladet posted the names and photos of 30 people it said were killed in the attacks or missing. The information, apparently received from friends or relatives, showed three victims who did not appear to be ethnic Norwegians — examples of the increasingly diverse Norway that the alleged bomber and gunman says he despised.
Among them was Ahmed, whom the newspaper said had recently appeared on the "Norway's Got Talent" television show. Another, reported as missing, was a 20-year-old native of Iraq, Jamil Rafal Yasin.
Norway's Crown Prince Haakon and Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere attended a packed memorial ceremony Tuesday for the victims in the World Islamic Mission mosque in Oslo. After the ceremony, Pakistani-born Imam Najeeb ur Rehman Naz said the massacre had brought Norwegian residents of all backgrounds closer together.
"Everyone realizes that terrorism and this kind of activity doesn't have anything to do with any religion," he told the AP. "They are individuals who can be found in any community who don't represent the majority at all."
The lawyer for Anders Behring Breivik, who has confessed to the massacre, on Tuesday said his client was likely insane. He called him cold, and said he saw himself as a warrior and savior of the Western world.
Breivik has confessed to last week's bombing and rampage, but he has pleaded not guilty to the terrorism charges he faces.
Nordstrom reported from Stockholm. Bjoern H. Amland, Ian MacDougall and Sarah DiLorenzo contributed to this report.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press
http://hosted2.ap.org/COGRA/APWorldNews/Article_2011-07-26-EU-Norway-Massacre/id-e2000eed9e914e0ba93c530cad9f9179
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Norway princess' stepbrother killed in massacre
Jul. 25, 2011
http://hosted2.ap.org/COGRA/APWorldNews/Article_2011-07-25-EU-Norway-Explosion/id-af7acf9cddcc4e4b960272e2d233d281
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Norway suspect says NATO bombs 'tipped the scales'
This is an undated image obtained from the Twitter page of Anders Behring Breivik, 32, who was arrested Friday July 22, 2011 in connection to the twin attacks on a youth camp and a government building in Oslo, Norway. Breivik is a suspect in both the shootings and the Oslo explosion Friday.
(AP Photo/Twitter, Anders Behring Breivik)
IAN MacDOUGALL, Associated Press
KARL RITTERKARL RITTER, Associated Press
Jul. 24, 2011 7:07 PM ET
OSLO, Norway (AP) — Anders Behring Breivik said he was a boy when his life's path began to turn. It was during the first Gulf War, when a Muslim friend cheered at reports of missile attacks against American forces.
"I was completely ignorant at the time and apolitical but his total lack of respect for my culture (and Western culture in general) actually sparked by interest and passion for it," the suspect in Norway's bombing and mass shooting wrote in his 1,500-page manifesto.
The 32-year-old Norwegian said it was the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999 that "tipped the scales" for him because he sympathized with Serbia's crackdown on ethnic Albanian Muslims in Kosovo. A year later he said he realized that what he called the "Islamization of Europe" couldn't be stopped by peaceful means.
Police and Breivik's lawyer says he confessed to, but denied criminal responsibility for, Friday's bombing at government headquarters in Oslo and the mass shooting later that day at an island summer camp organized by the youth wing of the ruling Labor Party. At least 93 people were killed in the attacks.
Breivik's manifesto chronicled events that deepened his contempt for Muslims and "Marxists" he blamed for making Europe multicultural. He suggested his friends didn't even know what he was up to, and comments from several people who had contact with the quiet blond man indicate he was right.
From September 2009 through October 2010, Breivik posted more than 70 times on Dokument.no, a Norwegian site with critical views on Islam and immigration. In one comment, he entertained the idea of a European Tea Party movement.
In December of 2009, Breivik showed up at a meeting organized by the website's staff.
"He was a bit strange. As one could see from his postings, he had obviously read a lot but not really digesting it," said Hans Rustad, the editor of the website.
But Rustad said he "hadn't the faintest idea" about Breivik's murderous plans.
"Other people have the same views on the Net and they don't go out and become mass murderers. So how can you tell?" Rustad told The Associated Press.
In the document Breivik styles himself as a Christian conservative, patriot and nationalist. He looks down on neo-Nazis as "underprivileged racist skinheads with a short temper."
Part of Breivik's manifesto was taken almost word for word from the first few pages of the anti-technology manifesto written by "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski, who is in federal prison for mail bombs that killed three people and injured 23 others across the U.S. from the 1970s to the 1990s.
Breivik did not cite Kaczynski, though he did for many other people whose writings he used.
Breivik changed a Kaczynski screed on leftism and what he considered to be leftists' "feelings of inferiority" — mainly by substituting the words "multiculturalism" or "cultural Marxism" for "leftism."
For instance, Kaczynski wrote: "One of the most widespread manifestations of the craziness of our world is leftism, so a discussion of the psychology of leftism can serve as an introduction to the discussion of the problems of modern society in general."
Breivik's manifesto reads: "One of the most widespread manifestations of the craziness of our world is multiculturalism, so a discussion of the psychology of multiculturalists can serve as an introduction to the discussion of the problems of Western Europe in general."
Breivik called his upbringing in a middle-class home in Oslo privileged even though his parents divorced when he was 1 and he lost contact with his father in his teens. His parents split when the family lived in London, where his father, Jens Breivik, was a diplomat at the Norwegian Embassy in London. A spokesman for the embassy, Stein Iversen, confirmed that Jens Breivik was employed at the embassy in the late 1970s, but wouldn't discuss his relationship with the Oslo suspect.
Breivik said both parents supported Norway's center-left Labor Party, which he viewed as infiltrated by Marxists.
His mother won a custody battle, but Breivik said he regularly visited his father and his new wife in France, where they lived, until his father cut off contact when Breivik was 15. The father told Norwegian newspaper VG that they lost touch in 1995, but that it was his son who wanted to cut off contact.
"We've never lived together, but we had some contact in his childhood," the older Breivik, who VG said is now retired in France, was quoted as saying. "When he was young he was an ordinary boy, but reclusive. He wasn't interested in politics at the time."
He learned about Breivik's massacre on the Internet. "I was reading online newspapers and then I suddenly saw his name and picture on the net," he told VG. "It was a shock to find out. I haven't gotten over it yet."
Breivik's mother lives in an ivy-covered brick apartment building in western Oslo, currently protected by police. Neighbors said they hadn't seen her since a few days before the shooting. Police said they've spoken to her and that she didn't know of her son's plans.
In his manifesto, Breivik said he had no negative experiences from his childhood, though he had issues with his mother being a "moderate feminist."
"I do not approve of the super-liberal, matriarchal upbringing though as it completely lacked discipline and has contributed to feminize me to a certain degree," he said.
But Breivik claims he never lacked courage: "If anyone threatened me or my friends, regardless if we were at a disadvantage, we would rather face our foes than submit and lose face." He said that attitude was atypical among ethnic Norwegians, who had a tendency to "sissy out."
In Internet postings attributed to Breivik on Norwegian websites, he blamed Europe's left-wing parties for destroying the continent's Christian heritage by allowing mass immigration of Muslims.
He said he came in contact with like-minded individuals across Europe, and together they formed a military order inspired by the Knights Templar crusaders. Their goal was to seize power in Europe by 2083 in a string of coups d'etat. Norwegian police couldn't say whether the group existed.
Two European security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the investigation said they were familiar with increased Internet chatter from individuals claiming they belonged to a group called the new Knights Templar.
Breivik said he also tried to get engaged in domestic politics, in the Progress Party, an a populist opposition party which calls for stricter immigration controls. He claims he was a popular party member who almost got elected to the Oslo City Council seven years ago.
"That's just something he imagined," said Joeran Kallmyr, whom Breivik described as his "rival" in the party.
Breivik attended only five or six party meetings during those two years and left the party quietly, said Kallmyr, now a vice mayor of Oslo.
"He was very quiet, almost shy. He seemed like a well-educated man. He was very well dressed and very polite. He wore a tie all the time," Kallmyr said. "I couldn't see any signs that he was coming apart."
Kallmyr said he only had one conversation with Breivik, a forgettable chat about Breivik's business. According to Breivik's manifesto, he was the director of Anders Behring Breivik ENK at the time, a business he describes as a "front" and a "milking cow" to finance "resistance/liberation related military operations."
He describes elsewhere in the document how he used his own companies to secure bank loans and credit to fund his attack.
Breivik, who detailed his preparations for the attacks in eerie detail, also anticipated the hostility he would face, even from his friends and family, if he survived his "mission" and was brought to trial.
Jack Levin, a professor at Northeastern University who has written a number of books on mass murderers, said that part could be part of the motivation for the manifesto.
"He talks about visiting prostitutes and taking steroids. Why would he say such negative things about himself? I think what he's doing is — this humanizes him," Levin said. "He's trying to tell people he's not a monster, that he's a person with frailties and weaknesses like everybody else. It makes the killer look like a victim rather than a villain."
Associated Press writer Sylvia Hui in London contributed to this report.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press
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APNewsBreak: Extra security at UK mosques
ANGELA CHARLTON, Associated Press
PAISLEY DODDSPAISLEY DODDS, Associated Press
Jul. 24, 2011 2:53 PM ET
LONDON (AP) — Some British mosques are boosting security after Norway's horrific massacre was traced to a man who fears Muslims are taking over Europe — an attack that exposed a failure to root out Islamophobia that has bled into the European mainstream.
European government leaders may even be feeding fears of Islam through measures such as bans on face veils on the streets, aimed at appeasing a non-Muslim majority wary about the continent's rising Muslim population.
Muslim leaders say it's time for governments to wake up to the threat of anti-Islamic extremism and stop pandering to far right nationalist movements that have made inroads in politics from the Netherlands to Austria. European attitudes, though, are unlikely to change overnight.
"People are looking over their shoulders and afraid that we will be the next target," said Mohammed Shafiq of the Ramadhan Foundation, one of Britain's largest Muslim organizations. He spoke to The Associated Press in a telephone interview from the sidelines of an international gathering of Muslim scholars and leaders Sunday. "As a result, we've told people to be extra vigilant and there will be added security placed at mosques."
Mohammed Bechari, head of the European Islamic Conference, said that even though millions of Europe's Muslims were born here and have assimilated into societies that consider themselves open and tolerant, "there is a rise in Islamophobia. Racism, anti-Muslim sentiments have become the norm."
Hours after Norway's terrorist attack Friday, a law went into effect in Belgium banning the Islamic face veil, for what authorities called security reasons. France, with western Europe's largest Muslim population, has a similar law, and Switzerland has banned new mosque minarets.
The wall of a mosque in the Russian town of Berezovsky was defaced overnight Friday with graffiti reading "Russia for Russians!" according to the website Islamnews.ru. Muslim cemeteries in France are regularly vandalized.
When news of Norway's attacks first emerged, suspicion immediately fell on Islamic extremists, responsible for some of Europe's worst horrors in recent history.
That the chief suspect turned out to be a blond man with anti-Muslim, fundamentalist Christian views caught many off guard and exposed a knee-jerk Islamophobia that puts Europe's leaders in a new bind.
Islamic terrorism is a real threat to Europe. Islamophobia channeled by extreme right groups may be a graver threat than many had estimated. Governments must try to stamp out both, while persuading their populations that Muslims as a whole are not a menace to Europe's future.
Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik is accused of two attacks Friday, one outside government headquarters in Oslo that killed seven, and a shooting spree on nearby island that killed 86. A manifesto he published online the day of the attack ranted against Muslim immigration to Europe and vowed revenge.
"Hatred of others, hatred of those who look different, of the supposedly foreign — this hatred is our common enemy," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday. "All of us who believe in freedom, respect and peaceful coexistence. We all must confront this hatred."
It's uncertain whether Norway's monstrous attack, widely condemned by religious leaders and politicians of all stripes, will jolt European leaders into attacking Islamophobia with the same zeal seen in the fight against Islamic terrorism.
And European attitudes toward Muslims are unlikely to change overnight. Bernard Godard, a consultant to European politicians on Muslim issues, says far-right parties are channeling frustrations in communities with high poverty and unemployment and directing their anger at Muslim immigrants.
"We need to ask: Are we passing to a new stage, a new level of anti-Muslim sentiment with these attacks?" he said. "The ideas of the extreme right have become ordinary. We should pay more attention to what they are saying."
He said police have not paid enough attention to groups such as France's nationalist Bloc Identitaire, which uses online organizing to stage provocative mass public parties with wine and pork sausages — both forbidden under Islam.
In Britain in recent weeks, a pig's head was left at a mosque outside of Oxford, while there have been repeated attacks on women wearing headscarves and full-face coverings, Shafiq said.
Muslim groups say they have long warned Britain's police of increasing hostility from far-right groups.
Shafiq said security discussions were under way with police in Manchester, home to many of Britain's nearly 2 million Muslims. Thousands will be gathering at mosques this week ahead of Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month that begins at the end of the month. Manchester police would not immediately confirm the talks.
Britain's Muslims have seen an increase in attacks since 2005, when homegrown suicide bombers killed 52 people during morning rush-hour attacks in London. Since the suicide bombings, and the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States, more resources have been dedicated to fighting Islamic terrorism instead of far right or left extremism.
Dalil Boubakeur, the moderate rector of the Grand Paris Mosque, said no new security measures are yet planned but urged "vigilance" and said there is a "reflection" under way about what to do next. "There is a fear for the future."
In France, critics say President Nicolas Sarkozy is trying to sap support for the far-right National Front and its popular leader Marine Le Pen ahead of next year's presidential election, by borrowing populist language about France's national identity that is seen as code for anti-Muslim views.
Sarkozy's party insists that the laws it has championed on the face veil and banning headscarves from the classrom are aimed at protecting women's rights.
Bechari, of the European Islamic Conference, said the laws "are seen among Muslims as laws that exclude them" — not integrate them, as Sarkozy's party claims it aims to do.
Far-right political groups that have gained some ground in recent years in Europe sought to distance themselves from Norway's attacker.
"Terrible attack in Oslo, many innocent victims of violent, sick mind," Geert Wilders, one of Europe's best-known and influential anti-Islam politicians, said on Twitter.
Wilders, who spent years on the fringe of Dutch politics, was the kingmaker of the right-wing government elected last year. Wilders, responding to news accounts that the shooter shared his party's anti-Islam views, called him a "sick psychopath" and said his party "abhors everything that this man stands for and has done."
The all-white British National Party, which does not accept nonwhite members and calls for the "voluntary repatriation" of immigrants, won two of Britain's 72 seats in the European Parliament, gaining ground in economically battered areas that once were strongholds of Britain's left-wing Labour Party.
In Belgium, the far-right nationalist party Vlaams Belang — Flemish Interest in Dutch — has been pushing for stricter limits on immigration, fighting in particular what it calls the growing "Islamization" of Belgian and Flemish cities. In elections last year, Vlaams Belang won almost 8 percent of the vote, down from 12 percent three years earlier.
Vlaams Belang didn't immediately respond to requests for comment Sunday.
Germany lacks any mainstream political party with anti-Islam and anti-Muslim rhetoric as a central tenet, but there has been growing tension about perceived dangers posed by Muslim immigrants.
Last year, a book by former central bank board member Thilo Sarrazin — which used blunt, often harsh language to portray Muslim immigrants as welfare cases weakening German society and making it "dumber" — became a bestseller — although Merkel condemned its tone.
Abdullah Anas — a Muslim cleric who delivers sermons at some of Britain's largest mosques and used to be an ally of Osama bin Laden before he fell out with him over the prospect of a global holy war — said the Norway attacks would likely be raised at some of this week's Friday prayers.
"It is a challenge for everyone — Muslims and non-Muslims — because there is a lot of anger that must be contained," Anas, originally from Algeria, told the AP. "There are too many people who think the killing of innocents is acceptable just because they are angry over certain things."
Charlton reported from Paris. Arthur Max in Amsterdam, Geir Moulson in Berlin, Don Melvin and Gabriele Steinhauser in Brussels and Sylvia Hui in London contributed.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press
http://hosted2.ap.org/COGRA/APWorldNews/Article_2011-07-24-EU-Europe-Muslims/id-43d7f8fdba47425090c7365297851683
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