I do live in Norway, though. Luckily there have been no terror attacks here on the south coast where I live, so the huge bomb blast in Oslo and the shooting episode are really not much “real” to me than it is to you.
The aftermath will probably be, though. Depending on who is found to be responsible, the political climate will change dramatically, I am sure. There is a strong undercurrent of resentment and scorn toward the Muslim immigrants in Norway. And rightly so, actually! What has happened is that Norway has taken in a large number of refugees from various Muslim countries, for the obvious reason that Muslim countries are among the few where killing people is still government business.
Now, the refugees are not necessarily political opponents, although that happens. They may often be common habitual criminals, which is enough to get you killed in those countries. So they are not criminals because they are Muslims. They are criminals from countries where being a criminal is highly unsafe, and we take them in because, well, we’ve signed various treaties to that effect.
As a result, “Muslims” – as in people form Muslim countries – are now a major part of the criminal underclass. They are responsible for the overwhelming majority of rapes, most robberies and all but a few murders. Â (The exception being homegrown psychiatric patients with sufficiently serious mental afflictions, and a few jealous boyfriends.) Again, this has less to do with religion than absence of religions. That does not really help the public opinion though.
So today I put up a brand new smoke detector. I don’t really expect a Kristallnacht thing, or for that matter a preemptive strike by the foreigners, but I do share this house with a family that is not ethnic Norwegian. Since I have only newly arrived, I am not sure how many locals know that I am even living here yet – the upstairs family was alone in the house for some time, and people may still think they are. Just saying. A smoke detector may not be enough if push comes to shove, but it is generally a good idea to have anyway.
So yeah, the bombing could affect me  even that distance, in a subtle and indirect way. But hopefully not.
And hopefully we won’t take a nosedive into “homeland security” society, like a certain other nation that used to be admirable. But you never know. Humans are just barely rational even at the best of times.
On the bright side, if this turns out to actually be an Islamic terrorism, we might finally get a conservative government after the election. That would be a silver lining indeed, since conservatives here in Norway are rather different from the American version. The correct name for them is actually “Moderates”. This is the name of the corresponding Swedish party, “Moderaterna”. I was briefly a member of Moderat Ungdom (Moderate Youth) in high school. And no, it did not mean that I was only moderately young. Â Now, however, that would be a more fitting description!
Oh, dear. First of all, I hope your neighbors are good people who have a good grasp on the fact that we are all “people of the book” and should be tolerant and loving toward everyone. Secondly, I hope they recognize you as such a person as well. Also, though, I hope that they are recognized by the neighborhood as good, moral people who would never be part of such awfulness, and that there is no reason for any violence or difficulties to present themselves at your new home.
Thank God you are not in Oslo. A cousin of mine just posted on facebook that he didn’t understand why the 80 people dead in Norway wasn’t the lead story, which surprised me a great deal and sent me to your site. We have been visiting family and only got home this evening, so I haven’t been keeping up with much other than Texas weather, hoping for rain.
Prayers for those who lost loved ones, and for your nation in general. I do hope that a reactionary right wing does not evolve from this, if it does end up being misguided religious zealots, but . . . perhaps a shift to the right wouldn’t be so bad, so long as it stops at “moderate”.
Thank goodness it wasn’t in your area, and that you weren’t vising Oslo for any reason!
Well, it turns out we have some kind of lone criminal mastermind faking an Islamic terror attack, counting on them to assume responsibility while he was off killing socialists while dressed as a policeman.
So on the bright side we won’t get our clash of civilizations. That’s the silver lining, and a very bright one for as long as it lasts. The dark cloud is that the guy claims to be a Christian and a conservative, which will make things harder for the Christian minority. Not to mention for the conservatives.
The “Christian Right” seems determined to defame the Christian faith. They certainly cause Christians to be seen as idiotic bigots. It seems to me that Christianity should cover the entire political spectrum at once, judging by our reference book. But it also seems that the new testament took us back from the right and toward the center. Now, fiscally and politically, there are reasons to be right-ish. Spiritually and emotionally there are reasons to be left-ish. But there is no reason whatsoever for sane people to do this sort of thing. Whether this man was ruled by Evil or by insanity, his actions should be seen as outside all decency and not attributed to anyone other than himself and whoever his cronies are, not to Christianity.
Funny (not “ha ha”, but odd): My Christian majority nation has warped Christianity into a patriotic “Hooray USA” sort of thing. Your Christian minority nation is going to turn it into an unpatriotic anti-Norway sort of thing. And probably none of them realize the irony (or just plain wrongness) of doing this.