Norway Shooter Anders Breivik Gets the Stage He Always Wanted
After closing arguments today, a Norwegian court will determine the fate of Anders Breivik, the right wing extremist who confessed to killing 77 people — most of them teenagers — in a rampage in Norway last July, but the shooter may have already won part of what he wanted all along: a world stage to spread his anti-Muslim message.
At the end of his trial, which began in April, Breivik took the stand to say that he was justified in killing dozens of youths at a summer camp for the country’s liberal party and that history would exonerate him, according to local and international media reports. Breivik, who has confessed to the killing, said it was “self-defense,” a preemptive strike against Muslims and “multi-culturalism” he believed were taking over Europe.
“History shows that you have to commit a small barbarism to prevent a bigger barbarism,” the 33-year-old Norwegian said Friday. “The attacks on July 22 were preventive attacks to defend the indigenous Norwegian people… I therefore demand to be acquitted.”
In what was described as a rambling statement, Breivik also decried perceived faults in the world, everything from Norwegians with non-Norwegian roots participating in the Eurovision Song Contest to the flippant attitude towards sex featured in the television series “Sex in the City.” Breivik claimed that fellow right-wing compatriots were behind a recent bomb scare at a Swedish nuclear plant.