Never again - EDL admirer kills 76|30Jul11|Socialist Worker

Never again - EDL admirer kills 76

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Shockwaves went around the world after a far right terrorist killed 76 people in Norway.

Young people attending a Labour Youth gathering were shot dead near the Norwegian capital Oslo when a man dressed in a police uniform opened fire on Friday of last week.

A car bomb killed seven people earlier the same day outside Norway’s main government building in central Oslo.

Members of the ruling Labour Party were the targets in both cases.

The world’s media and security experts rushed to blame the attack on Islamic fundamentalists.

But Anders Behring Breivik carried out the massacre—and he is linked to Britain’s far right English Defence League (EDL).

Breivik had posted messages on a Norwegian website expressing his admiration for the EDL.

Socialist Worker was the first newspaper to reveal his links to the group on the morning after the attacks.

Strategies

On one website Breivik said, “I have on some occasions discussed with SIOE [Stop Islamification Of Europe] and EDL and recommended them to use conscious strategies… this has also benefited BNP. Win Win for both.

“But I must say I am very impressed with how quickly they have grown.”

That is just one of the many links between Breivik and the EDL.

Breivik met leaders of the EDL in March last year when he came to London for the visit of Geert Wilders, the Dutch right wing politician. He has also attended a number of EDL demonstrations.

One EDL supporter who had spoken to him told the Telegraph, “He is extremely intelligent and articulate and very affable. I presume there would be those within the EDL who would be quite taken by that. It’s like Hitler, people said he was hypnotic.”

Breivik wrote in his rambling 1,500 page hate-filled manifesto, “I used to have more than 600 EDL members as Facebook friends and have spoken with tens of EDL members and leaders.

“In fact, I was one of the individuals who supplied them with processed ideological material (including rhetorical strategies) in the very beginning.”

The self-promoting text talks much about the crusades and obscure secret societies. But the organisation named the most is the EDL.

Breivik’s proposal for the EDL is chilling: “They should instead focus on strategically demolishing one of the many British nuclear power plants, which effectively would completely cripple the British economy, contributing to creating an optimal climate for significant political change.”

Threatened

Too far fetched? Then consider the response from the EDL leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, aka Tommy Robinson.

Yaxley-Lennon threatened on Newsnight: “You need to listen because, God forbid, this ever happens on British soil… it’s the time coming… you’re probably five or ten years away.”

One EDL supporter on an online forum went further: “This man is no terrorist, he is a soldier in the war against Islam. God bless him.”

The moneyman behind the EDL, Alan Lake, was interviewed on Norwegian TV two years ago. He said he would execute people who believed in Sharia law.

After Breivik’s murders he wrote, “By attacking the leftist politicians that are enabling this, the chickens have actually come home to roost.”

It appears the EDL pulls the strings of its Nordic counterpart.

In March, Hel Gower, a leading figure in the EDL, posted a comment on the Norwegian Defence League’s Facebook page. It said his group had ruled on problems caused by the latter’s leadership vacuum and appointed an interim head.

It read, “Haavar Krane of SION will function as the officially recognised spokesman and leader of the Norwegian Defence League endorsed by the EDL.”

Thugs

Street thugs give far right ideologues confidence—and the massacre in Norway is the horrific conclusion.

In contrast to this filth, some 150,000 people in Norway took to the streets in a show of unity against the attacks.

As Weyman Bennett from Unite Against Fascism (UAF) told Socialist Worker, “There’s a network of Nazis across Europe who support and sustain racists like Breivik.

“What happened in Norway shows we have to redouble our efforts against the racist ideology of Islamophobia.

“That’s why UAF is calling for the biggest possible mobilisation against the EDL on 3 September.”

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The following should be read alongside this article:

EDL supporter: Breivik’s a ‘hero in the war on Islam’

Who is EDL leader Tommy Robinson?

Stop the racists on 3 September in Tower Hamlets

Flood of racism led to terror attacks

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