Breaking News: Religion of Peace Kills Innocents Again?

Oslo, Norway, Jul 21, 2011. Once again Islamic fanatics have killed innocent people in the name of their false god prophet Mohammed.

This time they struck in Norway, a peaceful nation that is currently hosting over 150,000 Moslem immigrants, or roughly 3% of the their population. The number of Muslims in Norway has grown considerably, from when it was first counted at 1006 in official statistics in 1980.

Norway suffered two shocking attacks on Friday, when powerful explosions shook the government center in the capital and, shortly after, a gunman stalked youths on an island summer camp for children.

According to media sources, Police were treating the assaults, which together killed at least 90 people, as connected.

Conflicting reports centered on one group, Ansar al-Jihad al-Alami, or the Helpers of the Global Jihad. According to Will McCants, a terrorism analyst at C.N.A., a research institute, the group issued a statement claiming responsibility, saying "the attack was a response to the presence of Norwegian forces in Afghanistan and to unspecified insults to the Prophet Muhammad."

But Norwegian television reports later suggested that the group had denied responsibility. In the immediate aftermath of recent terrorist attacks, jihadi forums are often filled with claims and counterclaims that are impossible to independently confirm.

While this attack may not be the work of Islamic terrorists, it certainly does mirror their tactics. And the fact that the initial reaction to any senseless slaughter of innocents is to suspect Moslems just tells us that it may be time for the Islamic World to consider precisely why people associate random acts of violence with Moslems.

The explosions, presumably from one or more bombs, turned the ordinarily placid Scandinavian capital into a scene reminiscent of terror attacks in Beirut or Baghdad, blowing out windows of several government buildings, including one housing the office of the Norwegian prime minister, who was unharmed. The state television broadcaster, citing the police, said seven people were killed and at least 15 injured in the explosions.

Even as police locked down a large area of the city, a man dressed as a police officer entered the camp on the island of Utoya, about 25 miles northwest of Oslo, a Norwegian security official said, and opened fire.

“The situation’s gone from bad to worse,” said Runar Kvernen, spokesman for the National Police Directorate under the Ministry of Justice and Police, adding that most of the children at the camp were 15 and 16 years old.

Panicked youths jumped in to the water to escape or went into hiding on the island, which has no bridge to the mainland, a witness said. Many could not flee in time.
 
Oslo police said that 9 or 10 people were killed at the camp, according to The Associated Press. A witness on the island told the state broadcaster that he saw between 20 and 25 bodies on the island, The A.P. reported; the full extent of the carnage remained to be learned.

A suspect was eventually apprehended and was being questuioned by police on Friday. The acting chief of police, Sveinung Sponheim, said the suspect had been seen in Oslo before the explosions there, but they stressed that the investigation was just beginning and that they could not yet say whether the attacks were terrorism-related.

Norway is a member of the NATO alliance and has a small fighting contingent in Afghanistan. It was named by Ayman al-Zawahri, the leader of Al Qaeda, as a potential target for attack.

In 2006, Norwegian newspapers reprinted Danish cartoons that angered Muslims by lampooning Muhammad.

Norway has also historically been a frequent participant in peacekeeping missions and a host for diplomatic talks, including the 1993 Oslo Accords.