A blogosphere of bigots, Islamophobia in Europe...

IT is tempting to view Anders Behring Breivik, the self-described Christian crusader behind the July 22 massacre in Norway, as an isolated case of pure evil. Yet history has taught us that such acts of violence rarely occur independent of their social and cultural surroundings. The assassination of Sweden’s prime minister, Olof Palme, on a Stockholm street in 1986, like the January shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords outside a shopping mall in Arizona, took place at a time when caustic antigovernment rhetoric was widespread.

Mr. Breivik managed to commit two terrorist attacks in a single afternoon. But the hatred and contempt from which he drew his deranged determination were shared with many others throughout the international right-wing blogosphere.

 The racism and bigotry that have simmered for years on anti-Islamic and anti-immigration Web sites in Norway and other European countries and in the United States made it possible for him to believe he was acting on behalf of a community that would thank him. As John Donne famously put it, “No man is an island ... every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” More...

Don't miss:

1. The Colbert Report on the "Islamic" attack on Norway... 
2. British media facing fierce criticism for linking Norway attacks to “Islamist extremists”. 
3. 8 dumbest, most insensitive right-wing reactions to the Norway shooting...
4. Killings in Norway spotlight anti-Muslim thought in the US...
5. In Oslo, all rapes in 2010 were committed by "non-Western" men...
6. Arson attack on home of Swedish Mohammed cartoonist Lars Vilks...
7. Multiculturalism has utterly failed in Europe?