(Adult language warnings apply.)

Before I roll on this, I want to say up front that my thoughts and condolences are primarily with the people of Norway and the families of the dead.  This is unspeakable horror, and my heart breaks for each and every one of the lives senselessly stolen, and the gaping emptiness that will be left behind in their absence.  You may think it a bit weird, but I don’t care:  a moment of silence and contemplation.

Now I want to say a few other things.

Pre-emptive Islamophobia

I am absolutely disgusted at the silence of so many people who were ready to scream EVIL ISLAM but now have nothing at all to say upon learning the shooter was a fundamentalist Christian.  I wish I’d saved the screenshot of the Washington Post headline I saw in Google News suggesting that the shooter was affiliated with al-Qaeda.

No sooner had news of this event broken than the messages critical of Islam and Muslims started flowing.  Prominent among these – surprise! – Fox News, whose Laura Ingraham (guest-hosting for Bill O’Reilly on the O’Reilly Factor) claimed that the attacks “appear[ed] to be the work, once again, of Muslim extremists.”  As MediaMatters points out, not only was this pre-recorded bit aired several hours after actual news sources had disclosed that the attacker was actually a self-described conservative Christian (meaning that producers and Fox had ample opportunity to remove the accusation), but Ingraham then followed up with a story about…the Park 51 Islamic Center, known to ignorant chickenshits nationwide as the “Terror Mosque at Ground Zero.”  Agenda much, you snivelling, hateful, pathetic, cowardly excuse for a news organization?

But it wasn’t just Fox.  Ohhhh no.  That would be too easy.

They should all be exterminated.  Europe, your 50M muslim population are TICKING TIME BOMBS! = “Kennewick Man” on alt.politics

MUSLIM TERRORISM - More than 80 massacred at youth camp - Police (Norway) – noted frothing nutjob (actually a white guy named Jay Stevens) Jai Maharaj, soc..culture.usa

Officials in Oslo will not speculate as to whether these seemingly coordinated attacks are related to Islamic extremism, but recent events in the Scandinavian country indicate they very well may be. (Emphasis added.) - “Carole” at Talkingsides.Com, who constructed an entire article around this speculation and tagged the post with “al-qaida,” “alsar al-islam,” and “mulla krekar.”

From noted US-based bathroom tissue “American Spectator”

Article excerpt:

No word yet on who is responsible, but it's probably worth noting that Norweigian authorities stopped an al Qaeda plot last year, and just last week filed terror charges against Ansar al-Islam founder Mullah Krekar

From the comments on that article:

PattyMor| 7.22.11 @ 10:46AM

Ah, the religion of "peace' strikes again.

glenny44| 7.22.11 @ 1:28PM

Patty,
I first saw the news of the attack on Drudge and immediately thought, "R O P". Good minds think alike. glenny

Occam's Tool| 7.22.11 @ 10:53AM

It is worth noting that nop European country hates Jews and supports Moslems in Europe as much as Norway. Here is their thanks.

Much more in the same vein follows, and of course when it comes clear that the attacker was in fact a white, conservative, Christian, they conclude:

I guess the actual lesson from the Ansar al-Jihad al-Alami statement is that Muslim extremists lie.

And since it became clear that this was not the work of an Islamic terrorist, two responses have reigned supreme:  excuse-making for the pre-emptive bigotry, and dead silence.

Funny, not one of these festering genital warts has suggested that Christianity is a religion of hate, or that all Christians are terrorists.  No, it’s just more excuses, reel off a selective list of previous attacks by Muslims (and of course 9-11 is the only one that matters, since the rest happened in Otherland…and of course nobody mentions Oklahoma City), and pretend there’s nothing wrong with judging a billion and a half mostly peaceful people according to the actions of a few nutcakes.

Sickening.

But of course,
“I can’t imagine anyone with those opinions would want all those innocents dead.”

and

I don’t believe for one minute it was a ‘tall, blond’ as ‘reportedly’ told.

and

This incident is straight out of a Muslim handbook, despite it ‘reportedly’ being a ‘tall, blonde’.

and

this is terrorism. a terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the bombing and the shooting. it’s terrorism. it’s time to repay the muzzies for this. time to show them what happens to dogs that kill children.

and of course

Excuse me? It was the NORWEGIANS that gave Obama the Nobel Peace Prize....

(All from this thread at Free Republic)

Funny, isn’t it?  Suddenly a whole lot of right-wing Christian fundamentalists in this country are embracing the same logic that they refuse to apply to Muslims.  “Oh, he was a weirdo, he’s not part of OUR religion.  Nobody who believes the way I do could ever do such a thing.”  Like Tim McVeigh never existed.

Let’s not be hypocritical.

As anyone who knows me is aware, I am very critical of religions, and have wavered back and forth between "atheism" and "agnosticism" for most of my adult life in labeling my own beliefs.  At the same time, I think it is only fair to keep in mind the line between "religion" and "religious extremism." If this man was a Muslim, I would have been among the first to say "you cannot judge each member of a religion based on the acts of a handful of radicals." I would be very hypocritical not to say the same about a Christian extremist.

But…

With that said...my own gut thought is much the same as a friend’s remark on one of my Facebook threads regarding the situation:  this is one more example why religions are so often dangerous.  While it is true that belief brings comfort to many and prompts a great deal of charity and good will in billions of believers, it is also true that since the very foundations of religion it has been used by human beings to manipulate power and control over people to selfish and tyrannical ends. 

Furthermore, this man's apparent "logic" in his acts displays exactly the fundamental problem with religious authoritarianism - one can too readily find ways to distort or manipulate or entirely ignore the peaceful and loving messages of any religion to justify brutality and tyranny against others "in the name of God."  Whether that distortion takes the form of radical fundamentalist Christian homophobia or radical fundamentalist Judaism discriminating against blacks as the "sons of Ham" or the radical fundamentalist Islamic belief that suicide bombing makes one a martyr and guarantees entrance to Heaven is irrelevant to me. 

Do you notice what those three things have in common?  I’ll give you a hint – it’s not the religions. 

The fact remains that more hate and pain and misery have been thrust upon the world in the name of radical fundamentalism than for any other cause by far.

I am further frustrated and at times outraged by the apologetics and excuse-making I see happening.  I don't hold anyone's belief against them per se; if it makes you happy to believe that there's some omniscient, omni-benevolent, omnipotent being watching your back, then fine.  But when you start using your "God" as an excuse to hate people?  No.  Then you are nothing but a coward who refuses to own up to your own ugly and ignorant beliefs by attempting to justify them with your deity.

All of the major texts of the Abrahamic religions - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - have passages which preach hate and intolerance against non-believers.  All of them also have passages which preach love and tolerance for all people regardless of their belief.  What *you choose* to follow is *your choice.*  Stop leaning on God or Jesus or Allah (which, contrary to popular belief, is simply "God" in another language) as an excuse for your bitterness and hate and intolerance, and own it yourself.  God didn't tell you to kill people, God didn't tell you to hate gays, God didn't tell you to beat your wife.  That's just what you choose to take from your scripture.

So I don’t care if you are Jewish or Christian or Islamic or Hindu or Jainist or Druidic or whatever.  If you want to be a hateful, ignorant piece of garbage, at least have the dignity and self-respect to own it.

In conclusion…

In conclusion, I needed to vent and speak my peace on this, so I have done so…but now let’s nevermind the idiot right-wing jackasses and the simpering, cowardly losers who attack Norway’s politics at a time like this; let’s set aside for a moment the documented ties that the gunman had to the US Tea Party movement and anti-socialist groups in Norway and around the world.  Nevermind that he was an avowed sycophant of Ayn Rand like so many of the other unstable and frankly dangerous minds of the right wing, both in this country and in Europe.  Nevermind his deep connections to screeching, hatemongering, radical, fundamentalist Christian Tea Partier Pamela Gellar, which have been so thoroughly and capably covered by my teammate Erin N over at New Progressive Muckraker,

The important thing we should all be thinking about is the 92 (as of this moment) (Note:  I misspoke here.  85 teens, at current count, were killed at Utoya; 7 adults were killed by the bombs in Olso.  Mea culpa.) innocent teenagers who have been wiped off the face of this planet because once again some radical fundamentalist nutjob bought in to a bunch of religious and political hate-mongering and took it upon himself to “fix” things.

The important thing we should all be thinking about is how we can turn away from the ridiculous, hateful, ugly, ignorant rhetoric of the Tea Party and Randite Objectivism, so that maybe something positive can be made from something that has no positive purpose.  All the money and prayers and good intentions and anger at the idiocy and madness that took those kids’ lives won’t bring them back, but maybe if someone who has been walking that road of hate and bitterness turns away from it and embraces a more sane and loving way of thinking, then perhaps some good can come of this in spite of the horror.

And people call me insane because I write a damn blog.