Americans around the country sat glued to their TV sets and computer screens on July 22 as news of a twin terror attack on Norway rocked our collective world and dredged up phantom pains from our own 9/11. News of the bomb blast in Oslo had barely begun to register when it was reported that a killer, dressed as a life-protecting policeman, was indiscriminately shooting people at an island youth camp run by the ruling Labour Party. All told, 86 people lost their lives that day.
I released the following statement as CEO of Concerned Women for America (CWA):
“As an organization founded on prayer, we call on Christians around the nation to pray for the people of Norway. Evil has reared its ugly head again in history, and we join others in condemning it and the violence it has wrought. The fact that the shooter used hatred of Muslims as his excuse is as insane as those within the Islamic faith who call for jihad against Christians and Jews. As a Christian, let me say clearly that Jesus taught that we must love even our enemies. Hate and violence is incompatible with being a follower of Jesus. Again, we condemn violence for any reason and call for healing for those suffering at the hand of evil.”
While the media tries its best to paint this deeply troubled man, Anders Behring Breivik, as a rightwing, Christian extremist, our own state director for CWA of North Dakota, Janne Myrdal — herself a Norwegian immigrant — has read his manifesto and tells the Plains Daily a different story. We offer it here for your edification.
Norwegian Breivik’s Manifesto Eerily Reminiscent of Hitler’s
“It is sad to see the American media at large and the New York Times playing politics with this, because the Norwegian media and the people of Norway are not playing politics at all,” said Janne Myrdal. “As a matter of fact, they are coming together asking for a more open society, more freedom, more liberty for individuals, in spite of perhaps wanting revenge, but that’s just the Norwegian people.”
Myrdal is a Norwegian native who immigrated to North Dakota and who still maintains close ties with friends and family, in addition to being the State Director of North Dakota’s Concerned Women for America chapter. She shared her insights with listeners on the Scott Hennen show this afternoon.
The recent shootings in Norway have shaken many across the globe who know the small Scandinavian country to be a peaceful, quiet nation, including North Dakotans, many of whom are of Norwegian descent.
Anders Behring Breivik, the man charged with the shootings that resulted in more than 70 deaths, wrote a manifesto prior to his rampage, which some media sources are saying displays the dangerous ideology of extremist right wing, Christian fundamentalists.
However, Myrdal has read his manifesto in the original language* and says that Breivik writes that he seriously doubts the existence of God, and that while he believes in the church as a Nordic strength, that science should supersede the church. “It is very frightening how like 1933-1939 it sounds, like somebody else who wanted to take the church and turn it into an instrument of their racist and evil agenda.”
“He was going after one particular political party, which leans very left,” Myrdal shared. “He had a target and sadly he is winning right now in the media opinion, because they are just tickling his feathers and keep saying that he is a right-wing fanatic. … The whole fact that they claim him to be a right-wing, fanatical Christian and Israel-loving person is just plain bull.”
There is no death penalty in Norway, and the longest sentence Breivik could receive is 21 years. There are currently suspects in Britain and Poland being detained in possible connection to the shootings. Breivik has claimed that he had two other terrorist cells working with him.
*The version of the Breivik Manifesto released by the media was in English. Breivik’s previous writings and his diary are in Norwegian. These are the writings Janne has read.
This article published by the Plains Daily on July 25, 2011. Find it here.