{"id":38181,"date":"2011-07-28T17:47:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-28T14:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=38181"},"modified":"2014-01-06T14:20:20","modified_gmt":"2014-01-06T12:20:20","slug":"in-norway-a-trigger-for-discourse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2011\/07\/28\/in-norway-a-trigger-for-discourse\/","title":{"rendered":"In Norway, a trigger for discourse"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was a deafening silence at the dinner party in Istanbul\u2019s trendy Cihanger district last Friday night. The half dozen guests abruptly stopped talking when a new guest arrived and announced what had happened in Norway. The first question asked hinted at the fear that filled the room: \u201cWas it a Muslim?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Geert
Geert Wilders: Academics studying Islamic radicalization warn that the success of the extreme right in Europe is a bad sign of things to come Robin Utrecht\/Pool\/AP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

Geert Wilders: Academics studying Islamic radicalization warn that the success of the extreme right in Europe is a bad sign of things to come<\/p>\n

Robin Utrecht\/Pool\/AP<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

At the time, the answer was still unknown. But, according to the messenger, this was what all the newspaper reports were saying: A bomb had gone off in the heart of Oslo and, said the \u201cexperts,\u201d the likely culprits were Islamic extremists. \u201cBut is there any proof?\u201d another guest asked. There was none, of course, and this fact ignited an intense debate over media responsibility, Islamophobia and the future of Islam in Europe.<\/p>\n

A day later, when it emerged that the suspect in the attack was a not a Muslim, my Turkish friends and colleagues breathed a collective sigh of relief. But solace turned to anger at the Western media for initially speculating on jihadist motivations for attacking Norway. That their speculation was wrong is little consolation to Muslims in Turkey. The damage is done, they say. The dark heart of the West is revealed: If there\u2019s a violent attack, the West seems reflexively prepared to blame it on those crazy Muslims.<\/p>\n

Linking acts of terrorism with Islam has become trope to the 21st-century journalistic tragedians. But there\u2019s a larger narrative. The emerging portrait of Anders Behring Breivik, the man in custody for carrying out both the bombing and the shooting rampage at a youth camp, reveals a man deeply immersed in hate. Writings found at his home and posted on the Internet are a profile of a violent psyche awaiting a trigger to act.<\/p>\n

Those triggers are plentiful in Europe these days. The alarming pace at which Islamic and Christian right-wing verbal clashes have escalated has set the stage for the violent fringe to justify their murderous outbursts. And the rhetoric has reached dizzying heights. Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician recently acquitted on charges of inciting hatred, is warning that a \u201ctsunami of Islamification\u201d is threatening the Netherlands. One of his party\u2019s key demands \u2013 one that Mr. Breivik has voiced \u2013 is an end to immigration, particularly Islamic immigration. He goes so far as to propose that Dutch Muslims who don\u2019t \u201cassimilate\u201d be stripped of their citizenship and thrown out of the country.<\/p>\n

European Muslims have confessed their growing frustration with politicians such as Mr. Wilders, as well as their fears that the confrontational atmosphere will lead to more violence. Academics studying Islamic radicalization also warn that the success of the extreme right in Europe is a bad sign of things to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a self-propelled spiral into confrontation and violence,\u201d Markha Valenta, a researcher in history at the University of Amsterdam, told me. \u201cStudy after study shows that violent extremism \u2013 Christian or Islamic \u2013 begins with words and the environment words create. In Europe, the discourse between Muslims and non-Muslims has shifted into a dark place. We need to quickly reverse that trend or face the consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norway\u2019s response to Friday\u2019s events is a first step. Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg\u2019s promise to use the aftermath as motivation to promote \u201cmore democracy, more openness, and more humanity\u201d sends the right message: Extremists can\u2019t hijack the discourse. Muslims will have to play their part: It\u2019s incumbent on them to reach out to Europe\u2019s moderate majority, share in their suffering, and confront the violent fringe with a united front.<\/p>\n

Adnan Khan is a writer and photographer based in Islamabad.<\/p>\n

via In Norway, a trigger for discourse – The Globe and Mail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There was a deafening silence at the dinner party in Istanbul\u2019s trendy Cihanger district last Friday night. The half dozen guests abruptly stopped talking when a new guest arrived and announced what had happened in Norway. The first question asked hinted at the fear that filled the room: \u201cWas it a Muslim?\u201d Geert Wilders: Academics […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":38183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[284],"tags":[6531,2539],"class_list":["post-38181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-norway","tag-anders-behring-breivik","tag-geert-wilders"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}