Sunday, July 24, 2011

Norway Attacks: Brutal Massacre Tests Norwegian Society

OSLO, July 24 (Reuters) - Before Friday's deadly attacks by a Norwegian on a self-styled mission to save European "Christendom" from Islam, it was not uncommon to see Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg taking public transport to work and senior ministers walking in Oslo without bodyguards.

Such openness could now be at an end after Anders Behring Breivik's devastating car bomb attack on the prime minister's offices and the slaying of young activists from the ruling Labour party trapped on an island.
The attacks, in which at least 93 people were killed, will also affect Norway's debate on immigration but are unlikely to close the shutters of one of Europe's most open societies.

"We will have a society based on less trust ... we will be a bit more anxious than before," said Thomas Hylland Eriksen, a social anthropologist from the University of Oslo.
Stoltenberg said on Sunday that Norway would "keep going" but that there would be a definite break between the country before and after the attacks.

"But I am quite sure that you will also recognise Norway afterwards -- it will be an open Norway, a democratic Norway and a Norway where we take care of each other," Stoltenberg said.
Breivik, who admitted to the shooting spree and bomb blast, has said through his lawyer that his actions aimed to "change Norwegian society" which he saw as being undermined by multi-culturalism.

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