Islamophobes now highlighting the importance of nuance, in response to Oslo terror attacks.

An excellent little commentary on the hypocrisy of a number of right-wing figures who make a living blaming all Muslims for terrorist attacks committed by al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, and other organizations. Now that we have seen a terror attack committed by a fundamentalist Christian instead of Muslim who appears to have been influenced in ideology at least to some extent by these same right-wing figures, they demand we not conflate them with the terrorist. 


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/in-response-to-norway-attacks-right-wing-bloggers-suddenly-demand-nuance/2011/03/04/gIQAndgfYI_blog.html




As a side note, I find the hesitancy to label this guy what he is--a terrorist--just despicable, with some favoring the use of the "less-Muslim" sounding "mad-man" or "crazed gunman." What Anders Breivik did was a textbook act of terrorism, and we should not treat it as anything else. He was not operating as a function of some mental deficiency, but instead out of a clearly defined (though terrible) ideological stance with delineated political goals. That is terrorism, and he is a terrorist. It seems some want to save that label only for Muslim attackers so it fits into their larger Islamophobic narrative, but thankfully their transparency in doing so is not being unrecognized.