Norway’s Oklahoma: Rise of the Right?

What’s the Latest Development?

At least 92 people in Norway have died as the result of a homegrown terrorist attack perpetrated by an extreme right-wing individual with a grudge against liberal immigration policies. Anders Behring Breivik has confessed to the crime of bombing the capital of Olso and attacking a summer camp populated by children of Norway’s Labor Party. Breivik is appearing in a closed court today in Norway. His plan seems to have been carried out in a horribly meticulous way, buying a farm which gave him access to tons of fertilizer needed to construct a bomb. 

What’s the Big Idea?

Is the attack in Norway a sign of something larger, the emergence of new right-wing extremism in previously tranquil parts of Europe? While first reports of the terrible event considered the possibility that a Muslim group was behind the attacks, officials now agree that it seems entirely homegrown. Some say the label of ‘terrorist’ was dropped once that was realized, preferring the word ‘extremist’ instead. Norwegian officials say the attack is a defining moment in the country’s modern history, comparable to the Oklahoma City bombing in the U.S.