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TERROR TRIAL: DAY 31

BREIVIK

Extremists decry ‘Islamization’ of Norway

Norwegian right-wing extremists decried the "Islamization" of their country as they took the stand Tuesday in what Anders Behring Breivik's defence hopes will help prove he was sane when he killed 77 people in Norway last year.

Extremists decry 'Islamization' of Norway
Arne Tumyr, head of Stop the Islamization of Norway, in court on Tuesday (Photo: Stian Lysberg Solum/Scanpix)

The 31st day of Breivik's trial was in large part dedicated to testimony from extremists, as the defence tries to prove the July 22nd bloodbath was the result of ideological convictions shared by others, albeit a tiny minority, and not due to mental illness.

"Norway is at war. It is in the process of being Balkanized," Tore Tvedt, the founder of neo-Nazi group Vigrid, told the Oslo district court.

"We are not only under attack. We are in the process of being eradicated," he added in reference to an alleged "Clash of Civilizations" between the West and the Muslim world.

Earlier, Arne Tumyr, who heads the organization Stop the Islamization of Norway, virulently attacked Islam, which he described as "a religion of violence, a religion of wars", and the Muslim Prophet Muhammad, who he called "a sexual delinquent, a looter of caravans, an assassin, a war criminal."

"We consider Islam as a threat to the Norwegian society and values," he said, claiming for instance that a daycare centre had been forced to remove a reference to Piglet, Winnie-the-Pooh's friend, so as not to offend Muslim children.

Although the witnesses expressed views similar to Breivik's, none of them openly supported his attacks.

Following objections from lawyers for survivors and family members of Breivik's victims, defence lawyer Geir Lippestad insisted the testimony was necessary to show that his client was sane.

"Our aim is not to argue in favour of a political opinion but to show that the way the accused views the world is shared by others," he stressed.

Breivik, 33, is intent on proving his sanity to ensure that his ideology — described as a crusade against multiculturalism and a pending "Muslim invasion" of Norway and Europe — not be written off as the rantings of a lunatic.

On July 22nd, he first bombed a government building in Oslo, killing eight people, before going on a shooting rampage on the nearby Utøya island, where the ruling Labour Party's youth wing was hosting a summer camp.

There, he killed 69 people, most of them teens, with the youngest having just celebrated her 14th birthday.

Breivik blames the Labour Party for the increase in Norway's multiculturalism.

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BREIVIK

Norway mosque shooter ‘has admitted the facts’: Police

A Norwegian man suspected of killing his step sister and opening fire in a mosque near Oslo last weekend, has admitted to the crimes though he has not officially entered a plea, police said on Friday.

Norway mosque shooter 'has admitted the facts': Police
Philip Manshaus appears in court on August 12. Photo: Cornelius Poppe / NTB Scanpix / AFP
Philip Manshaus, 21, was remanded in custody Monday, suspected of murder and a “terrorist act” that police say he filmed himself committing.
   
Answering police questions on Friday, “the suspect admits the facts but has not taken a formal position as to the charges,” Oslo police official Pal-Fredrik Hjort Kraby said in a statement.
   
Manshaus is suspected of murdering his 17-year-old step sister Johanne Zhangjia Ihle-Hansen, before entering the Al-Noor mosque in an affluent Oslo suburb and opening fire before he was overpowered by a 65-year-old man.
   
Just three worshippers were in the mosque at the time, and there were no serious injuries.
   
Manshaus appeared in court this week with two black eyes and scrapes and bruises to his face, neck and hands.
   
Police have said he has “extreme right views” and “xenophobic positions” and that he had filmed the mosque attack with a camera mounted on a helmet. He had initially denied the accusations.
   
The incident came amid a rise in white supremacy attacks around the world, including the recent El Paso massacre in the United States.
   
Norway witnessed one of the worst-ever attacks by a rightwing extremist in July 2011, when Anders Behring Breivik, who said he feared a “Muslim invasion”, killed 77 people in a truck bomb blast near government offices in Oslo and a shooting spree at a Labour Party youth camp on the island of Utøya.