Comment: The analysis on Finnish newsmagazine Suomen Kuvalehti gives us a gruesome picture of the new face of fascism if you will in the twenty-first century. It is the same ideology that drove Anders Behring Breivik on his crusade to “save Europe” by killing 76 innocent victims. It is the same ideology used today by the far right and right-wing populist groups.
According to researcher Toby Archer of the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, the new ideology on found on the blogsphere is called the “Counter-Jihad,” which is not anti-Semitic nor does it associate itself with neo-Nazis. It is a sort of modern-day fascism without the heavy ideological baggage of its predecessor.
The new face of fascism is, in my opinion, the same beast but has aged eighty years from the 1930s.
Archer believes that Timo Soini’s Veikko Vennamo’s former Rural Party roots in the PS have weakened since Halla-aho joined the party.
The researcher says that PS has become part of the international Counter-Jihad movement, of which the party’s rhetoric towards Muslims and immigration are very similar.
You can read Archer’s full report here.
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Juho Salminen
Kun uhrit on laskettu, alkaa syiden pohdinta. Millaisella ajatusmaailmalla Anders Behring Breivik perusteli tekonsa itselleen ja yrittää tehdä niin myös muille? Breivik julkaisi perjantaina noin 1500-sivuisen manifestin, jossa hän muun muassa kuvailee valmistautumista terrori-iskuun. Hän kertoo vastustavansa islamia ja marxismia. Terrorismintutkija Toby Archer sanoo, että Breivik ei ole vain hullu. Hän on selvästi mielenvikainen, mutta hänellä on myös poliittinen viesti.
Interrestingly enough, I have discussed this issue with Toby a number of times over the years. Every time we examined the eventuality of whether Finland or any other Nordic country would be likely to fall victim to terrorism, we came to the conclusion that Muslims are nothing to worry about. Far more scary would be, what would happen if a disenfranchised very blond Nordic citizen would decide to use their university education in e.g. biotechnology, chemistry, etc. or their conscript’s military training to take political matters in their own hands and wreak havoc big time. Seems that we guessed right.
So you say muslim extremist are nothing to worry about? Was there not a bombing attempt in Stockholm just 6 months ago? Luckily he failed and only managed to kill himself but saying its nothing to worry about…
If you look at both of Finland’s teenage mass murdering events a few years back and at this Norwegian event, in all cases, the crime was committed by a very local Nordic person. The only exception to this pattern was a guy that shot his former wife in Espoo in a supermarket and, even then, his ethnic origin was a side-issue, since very many Finnish guys have been known to perform similar mass murder acts in retaliation for a break up with their girlfriend.
Im pretty sure that Denmark is on the main list of terrorist attacks following the publication of the mohamet cartoons.
Is that not a cherry picking a bit too much? Did you just ignored the muslim extremist attacks in UK and spain? The attempt in Stockholm? 9/11? Still you could conclude that “Muslims are nothing to worry about”?
Here’s a table showing unsuccessful, prevented and executed terror crimes in the EU in 2008-2010. Certainly, there is a risk of Islamic extremist terrorism – but as you can see, compared to the level of terrorism from other types of groupings, it’s extremely minimal. Yet, from the media and political talk about the threat of Islamic extremists, you’d expect to find it as by far the most prevalent source of terrorist deeds.
http://svenskfinland.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/hbl1.jpg
(The table’s data is sourced from Europol and appeared in yesterday’s Hufvudstadsbladet).
Thank you Jonas for this good footnote. Europe’s politicians should read it, especially Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) leader Heinz-Christian Strache. He said recently that “Not every Muslim is a terrorist. But every terrorist in the last decade was a Muslim. That is the fundamental problem.”
Another problem with these parties is that they spread urban myths about immigrants for their own political ends.
Pretty funny to see how separatist movements form one of the greatest terrorist treats, followed by other political movements. Meanwhile, Muslim-related terrorism is negligible.
So according to that only thing we should be worried about is separatists and leftists since they are the biggest groups in there? Islamists and far-right seemed to be miles behind.
Martin-Éric
It seems to me that Al Qaeda is a separatist movement. How else can we understand the aim of establishing/restoring a caiiphate?
With the sole exception of tha Balkan wars, Europe has not seen a religionsly motivated war in ages.