I guess I should not have been surprised to see on the front page of today’s New York Times a sly article noting that the accused Norway mass killer had “closely followed the acrimonious American debate over Islam.”


The Times specifically noted that Anders Behrin Breivik, the monster who is accused of killing more than 90 people, many of them teenagers, quoted in his deranged manifesto from the work of Robert Spencer, a friend of friends of mine, whose writing I regard as courageous.


So, yes, it turns out that Anders Behring Breivik held bizarre political beliefs–he regarded himself as the reviver of the Medieval Teutonic Knights–that fall on the right side of the political spectrum. He hated the multiculturalism that pervades Europe. The left is suitably thrilled by these revelations. They should not be.


Bruce Bawer, an American writer who lives in Oslo and whose works were also cited by Breivik, explains why the left should not be so pleased that Breivik is who he is:



Several of us who have written about the rise of Islam in Europe have warned that the failure of mainstream political leaders to responsibly address the attendant challenges would result in the emergence of extremists like Breivik. …



Norway, like the rest of Europe, is in serious trouble. Millions of European Muslims live in rigidly patriarchal families in rapidly growing enclaves where women are second-class citizens, and where non-Muslims dare not venture. Surveys show that an unsettling percentage of Muslims in Europe reject Western values, despise the countries they live in, support the execution of homosexuals, and want to replace democracy with Shariah law. (According to a poll conducted by the Telegraph, 40% of British Muslims want Shariah implemented in predominantly Muslim parts of the United Kingdom.)



Muslim gay-bashing is driving gays out of Amsterdam. Muslim Jew-bashing is driving Jews out of Gothenburg, Sweden. And let’s not forget about the shameful trials of politician Geert Wilders in the Netherlands and historian Lars Hedegaard in Denmark, which demonstrate how the fear of Muslim wrath is squelching the freedom of speech of those who dare to criticize Islam.