Anders Behring Breivik, arrested for the attacks in Norway, as he appears in the manifesto and the video he published on the day of the attack, discovered late on July 23, 2011. (Image: Scanpix Norway/EPA)
Anders Behring Breivik, the man who has admitted to bombing government headquarters in Oslo, Norway, killing seven, and attacking a summer camp on Utoeya Island, killing at least 94, has pleaded not guilty to the charge of terrorism, arguing that he was trying to “save Europe.”
In Seattle, where the Ballard neighborhood faithfully celebrates Syttende Mai each year, a bouquet of flowers was left at the Royal Norwegian Consulate, and Mayor McGinn made this statement:
Our thoughts are with our neighbors in Ballard and across Seattle who have family and friends in Norway. It is hard to make sense out of violence like this, particularly when it is directed at children. We join our neighbors in Ballard, across Seattle and throughout the world in grieving this terrible loss.
UPDATE: The Ballard New-Tribune reports that the Nordic Heritage Museum will commemorate the tragedy:
At 6 p.m. on Tuesday, July 26, the Nordic Heritage Museum will hold a vigil for the victims of last week’s tragedy in Norway. Honorary Consul of Norway, Kim Nesselquist, will present to stand in a moment of silence and offer prayers.
Former Seattle P-I reporter Dorothy Parvaz writes on Al Jazeera about the abortive attempt to link the actions of what has been discovered to be a Christian extremist–it turns out that Breivik’s manifesto plagiarizes the Unabomber–with Muslim extremists:
Norway’s police confirmed that Breivik identified himself as a “Christian fundamentalist”, while local media reported that he had posted anti-Muslim rhetoric online on several occasions.
Indeed, Breivik, it has been reported, was also rather taken with at least one member of the far right, Pamela Geller, a noted anti-Islam activist who fought against the construction of an Islamic community centre near the site of the former World Trade Center towers in New York.
