After Breivik’s massacre, back to Utøya in Norway

This video from the USA says about itself:

Knights Templar Cited by Norwegian Shooting Suspect; Anders Breivik Invokes Christian Military Order

25 July 2011

The Knights Templar are trending after Norwegian shooting suspect Anders Behring Breivik referenced the group in his manifesto, “2083: A European Declaration of Independence.” Breivik, who is charged with killing more than 90 people in a shooting spree and bombing attack, cites the group as an “international Christian military order” that fights against “Islamic suppression.”

But who were the Knights Templar? Back in the 12th century, their responsibility was to protect Christian pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land during the Crusades. The Knights subsequently joined the fight to reclaim Jerusalem from the Arabs, but were forced out and returned to Europe where they were persecuted by King Philip of France with the backing of Pope Clement V. They were disbanded by the year 1312, but Breivik claims the Christian military order has been re-founded under the name PCCTS as an armed “anti-Jihad movement.”

Another video from the USA which used to be on the Internet used to say about itself:

Norway Terrorism: Its time to talk about real Western Christian Nazi Terrorism | Oslo Utøya 22/7/11

From Associated Press:

Norway’s Utoya youth camp to reopen, four years after mass shooting

Island was site of nation’s worst massacre, when Anders Behring Breivik killed 69 during 2011 rampage

August 6, 2015 10:27AM ET

Four years ago a far-right fanatic gunned down 69 people, shattering tranquillity on the idyllic Norwegian island of Utoya after killing eight in a bomb blast in the center of the capital, Oslo.

This week a flood of newcomers will be arriving on the island as the Labor Party’s youth camp opens for the first time since the massacre, on July 22, 2011.

Emilie Bersaas, a camp organizer, said they won’t allow “that dark day [to] overshadow the nice and bright” memories of past camps or future weekend youth meetings and social events organized by the party’s youth wing, which owns the island, about 25 miles from Oslo.

More than 1,000 students have enrolled for three days of seminars on politics that start Friday. …

Many of the island’s traditional red-and-white wooden buildings have been renovated, and construction continued feverishly Wednesday to complete new conference and meeting rooms. A bright circular steel memorial engraved with the victims’ names has been given pride of place among pine trees on a secluded spot overlooking Tyrifjorden, the surrounding lake.

Mani Hussaini, the president of the youth group, believes that a good balance was found in constructing buildings and restoring old ones, describing the reopening as “an important step” for going forward after the events of 2011.

Utoya will “always [be] a place where we honor and remember our comrades, a place to learn and a place for political engagement,” he told reporters.

The murderous rampage of the self-styled “militant nationalist” Anders Behring Breivik, who randomly shot students as he walked through the island, shocked Norway, a nation of 5 million people in the far north of Europe. About 1 in 4 people in the country were affected by the massacre, through family, friendships or work connections.

It left lasting traces on Utoya, including the dark green cafeteria, which bears bullet marks from the murder of 13 people. It has not been renovated and will open as a center for learning after another building has been built around it.

Survivor Ragnhild Kaski, secretary-general of the youth organization, remembered with glee and excitement how she gave her first political speech in that fateful cafeteria — tinged with deep sorrow and emptiness over the loss of her friends.

“For me, that building will always be the building where I was giving a speech for the very first time, when I was 17 … At the same time, that’s the place where people lost their lives and I was saving mine,” she said. “So it kind of shows it’s part of the island. You have both the good and the bad memories.”

In 2012, Breivik was convicted of mass murder and terrorism and was given a 21-year prison sentence that can be extended for as long as he is deemed dangerous to society — which legal experts say likely means he will be locked up for life.

But his attack on the government quarter in the capital and the students of a left-wing movement in Norway that prides itself on equality and democracy has left a scar on its reputation as a country that doesn’t need armed police and where political leaders can walk freely.

…

Since the shooting, 16 regional support groups and a national organization were set up to help families of the victims.

On Utoya, the victims’ names, engraved in longhand on the suspended memorial, glittered in the cloudy sky. The youngest was that of a 14-year-old boy; the oldest, that of Breivik’s first target on the island, a 45-year-old security guard.

But not all 69 names are there. Eight spaces have been left for those names parents do not want displayed.

“It’s still too early for some now, and that’s a natural thing, I think,” said Lisbeth Roynehold, whose 18-year-old daughter, Synne, was killed. “Because we grieve in different ways and some parents need more time.”

Roynehold, who is the leader of a July 22 support group, welcomes the reopening of the camp.

“By going back to the island, I think the youngsters will fight for what my daughter fought for,” she said quietly, her folded hands twitching. “They are fighting for democracy.”

‘We are taking the island back’: Norway’s long road back to Utøya. Four years after Anders Behring Breivik murdered 69 people on the island of Utøya, the political youth group he attacked has returned for its annual summer camp for the first time. Will their defiance in the face of such horror bolster the country’s uneasy healing process? Here.

Mass murderer Anders Breivik gave the Nazi salute as he appealed solitary confinement today: here.

• Anders Breivik says Hitler’s Mein Kampf is only reason he is surviving prison
• Anders Breivik makes Nazi salutes at start of human rights court case

 

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