Anders Behring Breivik - Profile

Anders Behring Breivik

[Continuously updated]

The man arrested for the bomb and shooting that have so far claimed 93 lives (a number which i likely to rise) in Oslo and Utøya, Norway, is called Anders Behring Breivik. At least another 97 got injured. The name started to circle on social medias before it was announced in traditional media. Today the name is among the top searches on internet and a hot topic around the world. The shooting of young people in Utøya is said to be the worst in modern history during peace. The police are currently looking into leads about a second shooter, but for now, lets have a quick glance at Behring Breivik without analyzing too much:

Name: Anders Behring Breivik

Age: 32

Nationality: Norwegian

Religious beliefs: Christian

Political views: Conservative and possible connections with the extreme right wing. Calls himself a "nationalist." Been a member of the xenophobic Fremskrittspartiet (FRP). He became a member in 1999 and was also active in FRP's youth group (FPU) 1997-2007. He hated muslims, the political left and the social democratic youth association.

Education: Oslo Upper Secondary School of Business (own translation of Oslo Handelsgymnasium).

Work life: Communicator at Telia callcentre in 1999-2003, started his own company in 2005 with focus on data processing, data storage and adjacent services before it was disolved in 2008. In 2009 he started Breivik Geofarm in Rena, which were growing vegetables, melons and root vegetables.

Other connections: A member of the Johannes Lodge Søilene which is a part of the Freemason Lodge. He claims to have joined a secret underground group, PCCTS, Knights Templar, in 2002. The network is supposedly a sequel to the Knight's Templar, an order that was created to protect crusaders during the 1100's. He claims to have worked purposefully in order to begin the war against what he calls the cultural-marxist elite in Europe. It's unclear if the organisation really exists or if it's a made up story which Behring Breivik explains could be the case since he "can't reveal sensitive information."

Weapons: An automatic and a Glock gun are registered in his name. On May 4th he purchased six tons of artificial fertilizer which is suspected to be used as the bomb. Three tons remains on his farm.

 
Hobbies: Hunting and body building according to his Facebook profile.

Have been described as: Polite, calm and dutiful, service minded and gave no impression of having bad thoughts about any of his co-workers, says a former colleague at the calling centre at Telia - a telephone company. Neighbors describes him as a person that keeps to himself a lot. Behring Breivik's father hasn't seen his son since 1995 and was shocked to hear about the news through media. He said that he didn't notice any tendencies to this kind of violence when the boy was 15-16 years old and claims he was a "normal boy." Neither his mother suspected his son to be capable to such a thing, and a friend of her says that she was very proud of her son.

On Twitter: Behring Breivik started an account on Twitter just days before the attacks where he has one quote posted by the British filosopher and social liberal John Stuart Mill: One person with a belief is equal to the force of 100 000 who have only interests.

On Facebook: Had an account for several years where he posted extreme right wing views. The page was deleted and replaced by a new one a few days ago where he mostly had been posting music videos. Medias are speculating about the intentions of the latest profile - that it was Behring Brevik's way to warn about the upcoming attacks and to create himself an image with photos (that looks a lot like press photos) that he would like the world to see after the attacks. His latest Facebook profile has now been closed.

 
Views expressed: Behring Breivik has been active on the right wing forum Document.no where he has posted several texts which are controversial and critical against Islam. He calls himself a "nationalist." Read all his posts on document.no here. His posts on the forum contains personal views of the political environment, certain public figures in Norway, marxists and islamists. He was a member of a Swedish neo-Nizi forum called Nordisk, according to Expo, a Swedish group monitoring far-right activity.

The manifest: A 1500 pages manifest called ”2083 - A European declaration of independence” was released shortly before the attacks. The manifest is published online under the name Andrew Berwick, which is believed to be a pseudonym of Behring Breivik himself, who has also admitted to be the writer. The text contains a diary, starting in 2002, explaining how he got hold of the explosives and guns and planned his deeds as well as an explanation of how Europe will get rid of Muslims. The number 2083 in the title of the document is supposed to be a date that he believes an European war will end the execution of cultural Marxists and the deportation of Muslims. The "civil war" that he talks about would come in three phases: the first runs through 2030 and includes "open source warfare, military shock attacks by clandestine cell systems (and) further consolidation of conservative forces." The second, between 2030 and 2070 is a call for "more advanced forms of resistance groups (and the) preparation of pan-European coup d'etats" and the third and final stage features the deposition of Europe's leaders and "implementation of a cultural conservative political agenda." Parts of the document is a direct copy of the American terrorist Ted Kaczinski's, the Una-bomber's, manifest. In the end of the manifest are pictures of Behring Breivik with guns and the words "I believe this will be my last entry. It is now Fri July 22nd, 12.51." A YouTube video about the manifest has also been released (but continues to be deleted and can also be found here or here).
 
How the attacks were planned: In his manifest, Behring Breivik explains in detail how he prepared himself for everything during nine years. He sold off belongings to be able to afford bomb materials and the rent of the farm where the bombs were built and where he could plan everything in peace and quiet. He built up his body with anabola steroids and was a little concerned about how his liver would be affected but was happy about his "perfect body" and explains how he was happier than ever. He started to distance himself from friends and other people that could nose around, like neighbors and curious tourists that wanted to take pictures of his farm. In the middle of June this year, he made a test explosion of a bomb in an isolated place, which he declared a success and quickly drove from the area to avoid unwanted attention. He claimes to have carried out the attacks alone.

Motives: During police interrogation, Behring Breivik explains how he wanted to change the politics in Norway through violence. The shooting of over 80 youths in Utøya was supposed to be a warning about an approaching doomsday if the political party didn't change it's politics. He wanted to harm the party and the recruitment as much as possible and called the Labour Party people marxists. He also seems to believe that Muslims are trying to "colonise" Western Europe and that multiculturalism and cultural marxism are to blame for this.

VG
DN
Aftenposten
The Guardian
Expressen 

Culture Crashes

There's been a lot of talk about Sweden's  failure in integrating its immigrants. Some blame it solely on the Swedes, that they are discriminating and unsympathetic. This may be true, but it's only one reason of a complex situation. To get a better understanding of the difficulties of integration into a new society, all you have to do is to travel abroad, to any country which some of the immigrants are representing in our society. The only societies outside of Sweden that I can claim to have some kind of knowledge about is Morocco and Sudan, in which the latter is the one that is furthest away from my own.

When I found out that I was going to Sudan, it was on pretty short notice, but I did my best to get as prepared as possible. Except for the traditional travel preparations like basic phrases, some 15 different vaccinations, passport and the like, I did some reading about the culture. I was already aware of the culture crashes I would experience, although I didn't have a clear picture of which these crashes would be. Which ever way I looked, I always ended up focusing on the Muslim society. I had never lived in one before and had all the expectations, fears and prejudices that everyone else has that don't have a closer knowledge of it. I was going to the capital, Khartoum, and was a 100% sure that I would have to cover my hair whenever I stepped out of the house, that I shouldn't look men in the eye and that I couldn't discuss politics or religion as such.

I landed on a midnight in the end of August. It was some 40 degrees Celcius, humid and a minor sand storm, haboob, was brushing my face. We went straight to the house, which had lost the electricity because of the haboob and it wasn't until the next morning that I got to see where I had landed. I wanted a cold drink, so nervously I covered up, wrapped my head in a scarf, carefully tucking in all visible hair strands, and went out to look for the closest shop. The houses in the neighbourhood were all secured with high walls and guards, the dust road was uneven and the sun was merciless and - everyone was looking at me. 

Not long after, when I had befriended several westerners in the area, I learned that it wasn't required to cover your hair, at least not for a westerner. Looking a man in the eye or shaking his hand was usually not a problem either. Sure, there were those that were more conservative than others, but those were a minority. Basically I learned that most of the things I had expected and feared about this society, weren't true at all. 

The conclusion is that even though I eventually found my place in the Sudanese society, accepted and got accepted, I never got integrated. True, I didn't live there long enough to get the chance to fully integrate and I didn't have time to learn the language fluently. And truth his, even if I would have had the chance, I don't think I'd ever be able to integrate fully. I would, of course, follow the laws, live among them, befriend them and love them, but I would never become a Sudanese. But what's more important is that it wouldn't matter, because I would be accepted anyways. Even if I would never be exactily like those who were born there, they would still see me as an equal and welcome me into their society. So, if the immigrants in Sweden do the same, which most of them do, why can't we treat them the same way as they would treat us?