Anders Breivik: Inspired by al-Qaeda
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Not only was he "inspired" by al-Qaeda, but his very tactics mirrored those of the jihadist organization. According to the AP, Breivik testified "that he had planned to capture and decapitate" the former Norwegian Prime Minister, with the plan "to film the beheading and post the video on the Internet," adding that "he was inspired by al-Qaida's use of decapitation," which he described "as a very powerful psychological weapon."
In a globalized world where Islam has the lion's share of acts of terrorism—where nonstop images of jihadists killing and beheading people have metastasized in the media, and thus in the mind of the average person—discovering that al-Qaeda is Breivik's source of inspiration is, of course, not surprising.
But there is a more profound point here: Breivik is not the first non-Muslim to be "inspired" by Muslim notions; the Crusaders, for example, lived in an atmosphere thoroughly permeated and influenced by Islamic jihad, so much so that the very idea of Christian "holy war"—the use of violence and conquest in the name of Christianity—finds its ideological origins in jihad.
Emmet Scott, for instance, author of the new book Mohammed and Charlemagne Revisited writes:
[I]n addition to some commentaries upon Aristotle, and a few scientific and technological concepts (which were not "Arab" inventions at all) Islam was to communicate to Europe a whole host of ideas and attitudes that were far from being enlightened. Most obviously, the concept of "holy war" [or jihad], which Europe adopted (admittedly somewhat reluctantly) in the eleventh century, was entirely an Islamic innovation (p. xx). Read the rest on his page:
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