A case of homegrown terrorists
The devastating and deadly attacks in Oslo on Friday which left at least 91 people dead must have shocked the Norwegian community. A country better known for the Nobel Peace Prize than for violence may now be forced to think about the need for a tighter security.
The bombing of a government centre in the Capital and a shooting attack on a youth political conference on a nearby island was the biggest such attack in Western Europe since the London transport bombings in 2005. Some termed it the most violent event to strike Norway since the World War II. The Norwegian police has charged a 32-year-old man, who has been identified as a Christian fundamentalist with right-wing connections. With the police advising the people to evacuate Central Oslo in fear of more attacks, Norwegian PM Jens Soltenberg told a local TV channel that the situation was “very serious”.
As the police investigation has precluded the possibility of the involvement of any Islamic group in the attacks, it indicates that terrorism is not only confined to the Muslim World. The right-wing groups in the liberal west now seem to be dominated by the lunatic fringe.
Muslim leaders in Norway swiftly condemned the attacks. The New York Times quoted the Secretary General of the Islamic Council of Norway as saying: “This is our homeland…I condemn these attacks, my organisation condemns these attacks, whoever is behind them.” However, terrorism specialists believed that even if the Norwegian 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. The motivation for the bomb and shooting attacks remains to be seen but Norway has rightly been cautioned against its own homegrown extremists. It is time for the world at large to realise that the growth of terrorism is the biggest challenge threatening the global peace and it can be obliterated only through concerted efforts by the comity of nations.
