5. Europe's Racial Hate Flames Need No Fanning
This is Andres Breivik. A lot of people here in the US could be forgiven for not recognizing his name, but I'm sure most of them would recognize what he did. Breivik was behind the July 22, 2011 attacks in Norway that killed 77 people. And to be clear, despite what a number of pundits here said, the attack was motivated by Islamophobia and far right-wing ideologies. He had penned several manifestos and posted videos online that called for a 'crusade' against Muslim countries. The problem is, his viewpoints aren't too far off from a lot of other very vocal groups in Europe. Right now, the third largest party in Denmark is the Danish People's Party, who state in their
actual party platform that they are opposed to a multi-ethnic Denmark, which sounds bad no matter how you read it. in 2009 there was a voter referendum in Switzerland that banned the construction of minarets for mosques, structures as important as bell towers for Christian churches. Even this article
here points to a strong online presence in Denmark of anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant voices. Granted, the issue has its complexities: these debates and controversies are largely centered around immigration from Turkey, India, and a variety of other Asian and Middle-Eastern countries. Most European countries still have strong connections to their ethnic identities. To some in these countries, immigration presents a threat to the very existence of their heritage. That being said, when Iceage
cited German metal band Absurd as a favorite because it was, "Beautiful Norse sound filled with pride and emotion," they are playing with some serious fire.