Western leaders' anti-immigrant comments and their media's systematic demonization of Muslims fuel hate and encourage rightwing terrorists.
Press TV talks with Chris Bambury, an editor and former member of the Central Committee of the British Socialist Workers Party, who gives us his insight on the reasons behind the terrorist attack that has occurred in Norway, and the role European politics has played to contribute to the incident.
Following is an approximate transcript of that interview.
Press TV: The terrorist has said there are 80 suicide cells across western Europe. That tells us a lot about the European intelligence fail when it comes to home grown terrorism doesn't it?
Bambury: There is a constant, which I notice from the British police that these are just individuals - just individual madmen. I don't think you can just explain this attack on simply, madmen. There is clearly a growing connection to far right fascist groups. Breivik himself had contact with 500 members of the English Defense League, a violent anti-Islamic organization in Britain - shows the length of his connections. He himself said he was introduced into far right politics through connections in Britain. It's a regular occurrence now that people are becoming fascist and racists and that anti-Islamic people are found with weapons and explosives.
It seems to be that the police and security forces are passing this up precisely because they are fixated on Islam, so-called Islamic terrorism as part of the war on terror and therefore they're ignoring what is a growing tide of what is anti-Islamic politics across Western Europe.
What we've seen in Norway unfortunately is a terrible price being paid for ignoring these networks of individuals extending.
The politics of fear being created in Western Europe by right wing anti-immigrant anti-Muslim organizations and parties; people that go about in Holland creating a climate where terrorist attacks are more likely to happen.
If you push the politics to essentially of exclusion of saying that Islam is not part of European society, it's not that different from what happened to the Jews in the 1920s and 30s when people said they're not part of European society - there's a consequence to that and the consequence is murder. I have to say that by pushing the politics by banning the burqa, banning minarets and so on, anti-immigrant politics as well, it will turn violent against Islamic people in Europe.
And that's why I think it's important that politicians and other organizations across Western Europe don't just simply condemn this terrible attack in Norway, but come up with a clear stand against anti-Islamic anti-Muslim politics in Western Europe. It's essential we do that in the wake of this because this was not just an individual this was a man that was clearly connected as you said to a number of networks across Europe and I wager that also in North America.
People who believe we're on the verge of a race war and also have this fantasy that somehow plans waging this race war in Europe against the population there. Where is this race war, in Britain where is it for instance or in France where they have the two biggest Islamic populations are in Europe? There's no evidence whatsoever of this.
And I think it's necessary on politicians and other organizations in Western Europe to come out and take a clear stand against demonization of Islam, which is encouraging these attacks.
