Norway's Islamic Split Personality

Norway: The People's Revolution vs. The "Religion of Peace"

by Bjorn Jansen

"...How, then, does one express dissent in a country whose politicians and media are rooted in socialist thinking; where discussing religion is a no-go; where politics has replaced religion and where there is a small population ensuring conformity of thought, with the risk of being sanctioned for expressing other thoughts?"

"...Most of the media has the same socialist outlook as Norway's politicians. There is either complete ignorance or a blind refusal to go to the root of Islamic terrorism, or how Islam's doctrine effects the socialisation, mindset and actions of Muslims. Despite the existence of informative, independent websites such as document.no and rights.no, the media refuses even to look at Islam's doctrines.

Rather than investigate Islam for themselves, politicians in Norway have put their blind faith in what the imams in Norway say is Islam. Likewise Islamsk Råd, The Islamic Council of Norway, has been given media space to determine what Islam is or is not.

The last three years have seen an explosion in the knowledge of Islam by the man-in-the street, largely thanks to the internet, and inspired by key figures such as Geert Wilders, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Irshad Manji, Brother Rachid and Norway's own Hege Storhaug. While no voice critical of Islam gets coverage in the media, recent coverage in the media of Germany's populistPEGIDA movement (Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West) has already started changing this lapse.

PEGIDA was started in Dresden last October by Lutz Bachman, who stepped down on January 21, 2015, after a photo of him posing as Hitler surfaced. Its wildfire popularity throughout Europe in just three months or existence seems due to the politicians' and media's neglect of their populace -- especially the media's refusal or inability to undertake independent investigative journalism.

People are now discussing what exactly is preventing the European media from going to the root of Islam -- discussing which elements of Islam's key scriptures (the Koran, the sira and thehadith) are at conflict with the non-Muslim world.

If the media and politicians admit there is a problem, they will be forced to retract their belief in multiculturalism and apologize for voluntarily allowing a change in Norway's demographics, with potentially many violent outcomes. They might have to admit that the media and politicians know of the dangers of Islam's doctrines but do not dare to publish them; that maybe they have been collectively threatened and are afraid of the consequences. Other countries' media might be afraid to talk about Islam's doctrines because of their dependence on oil from the Middle East, but this is not the case for Norway.

PEGIDA's followers can trigger a sorely needed debate on the unopened Pandora box of Islam's doctrines. They can also ask questions that need to be asked, but that neither politicians nor the media have so far had the guts to ask. Caricatures and cartoons are only the symptom; we need to get to the root.

Bjorn Jansen is a journalist based in Norway.

See more on the political Islamic incursion of Europe.