Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

The Butchery in Oslo

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The Butchery in Oslo

No reason can stand solid for mass killing, provided that the victims are armless and do not intend to harm anyone in any way, except that they differ in their views. In real sense they are bound to be so, as human beings are born with different perceptions. Every individual is bound to be different in some way or the other from others. That is what forms his\her personality.

Differences in thoughts can never harm you unless they are pursued with extremist sentiments and ultimately guided to violence and terror. If others differ from you, it means you exist. They are supporting you in building you identity. There is no need of getting sick of that.

And no one can ever give you the right to kill others just because they belong to a different religion, ideology or sect as long as they do not mean to harm you. The same stands correct for groups and institutions as well, and may even be applied to religions and cultures. But, unfortunately, this concept has been vehemently ignored by the people and the violation of the same concept has led to the killing of million of people.

The differences among the people and the groups of people seem to be getting deeper instead of disappearing. The globalization process that has been expected to bring people together has not been able to maintain a harmonious multi-cultural world. The people still because of their cultural, religious and ethnic differences seem to abhor others and even get ready to launch tyrannical missions against each other.

The concept of multiculturalism has not been able to implement itself thoroughly in the world. The multiculturalism has not been able to form a global ethics or a global code of conduct. It has been lost somewhere in cultural relativism. The cultures or the negatives in the cultures are accepted with the claims of cultural relativism. If the same inclination towards cultural relativism is maintained it would be very difficult for today's world to form common values, laws or systems, which are very necessary to avoid clashes among the cultures and civilizations. Unfortunately, our today's world is moving right towards the same kind of clashes.

The Oslo incident is one of the most recent incidents that alarm human beings for the mentioned danger. Before talking about the impact and the aftermath of the incident it is necessary to throw some light on basic details of the incident so that it should be clear that how cruel human can get in the pursuit of his ideology, thinking or may be misunderstandings.

A 32 years old Norwegian citizen, named as Anders Behring Breivik, bombed Norway's government headquarters and reached to Utoya Island where the Labor Party had arranged a youngsters get together. In the presence of almost 500 youngsters mostly including teenagers, the man opened fire on them.

The people in desperation ran every where, most of them jumping in the water to avoid being shot. The island is raised above the see level and diving from such height does not guarantee safety at all. And many of them might not have been good swimmers as well. Just imagine, the person kept on firing for almost 1.5 hours before the SWAT team could reach there and he had to retreat afterwards.

The butchery has resulted in the death of about 85 people with some still lost. The convicted person has been in police custody, provided a lawyer, who has been trying to explain his basic motive. He is said to have written a complete manifesto, published online, and contains the basic principles of his ideology.

Most of his ideas are anti-Muslim and urge the Europeans to be aware of the Muslim intentions and must ban Muslim immigration to Europe as the Muslims, in his point of view, may colonize the whole Europe once they get in better position. He further believes, as per the manifesto claimed by his lawyer, that the Europeans commit a betrayal to their heritage by allowing the Muslims on their lands.

Norway, for the last few years, has been welcoming the conflict refugees from Pakistan, Iraq and Somalia and Labor Party has been on the forefront of this particular policy. This particular incident has been carried out to let the Labor Party and the entire country, even the whole European countries know that their soft corner for Muslim immigrants mean a serious crime, which is punishable.

This particular incident is not of the type that can be forgotten soon. It is going to echo in the minds for many years to come. It will definitely start controversies and give rise to discussions regarding the policies of the European countries about the Muslim immigrants, at the same time it is going to raise serious questions about multiculturalism. With the people getting more and more intolerant against each other, and the religious believers and defenders of cultures turning more extremists, can there be dreams of a globalized world established on homogenous principles? It is hard to answer the question positively.

Norway has been considered as one of the most peaceful countries of the world. It has been quiet popular for Nobel Peace Prize instead of such butchery. The normal police patrol in the country does not include carrying arms. The people in Norway have been proud of the open-ness of their society and the freedom of speech the people enjoy.

If it can happen in Norway, it can happen in any part of the world. It all depends on the perspective through which the people understand their religions, cultures and civilizations. It even does not depend on a person's religion as well; as there have been terrorists who have claimed to be the best Muslims.

The example of Taliban in this regard can be mentioned swiftly. It is the perspective that makes a difference. There are million of tolerant Muslims and Christians in the world and yet there are such people as well, who on slight difference of thought or belief get ready to slaughter hundred. Both types follow the same religion but with different perspectives.

Dilawar Sherzai is the permanent writer of the Daily outlook Afghanistan. He can be reached at outlookafghanistan@gmail.com

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