Hate the key to Oslo bombing: The Church of England Newspaper, July 29, 2011 p 1.

Anders Behring Breivik

First published in The Church of England Newspaper.

The Oslo bomber, Anders Behring Breivik, was a self-appointed Knight Templar tasked with freeing Europe from the scourge of ‘cultural Marxism’ and Islam, according to his 1,518-page manifesto posted on Stormfront.org, a white supremacist internet forum.

Initially tagged as a “Christian fundamentalist” by Norwegian police, Breivik’s apologia shows only a passing concern with religious belief, but professes a fanatical faith in European culture.

On 22 July, the 32-year-old Norwegian detonated a car bomb in central Oslo, killing at least eight people. He then proceeded by ferry boat to Utoya Island where he shot and killed 68 people attending a youth camp organized by the Labour Party.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told a national television audience the attacks would forever change Norway, but he vowed to ensure it remained an “open society.”

Initial reports stated that a hitherto unknown Islamist terrorist group had claimed responsibility, but police quickly arrested Breivik. The shooter admitted his crime and claimed it was a political statement, a police spokesman said. Oslo Deputy Police Chief Roger Andresen told reporters “Mr Breivik belongs to a Christian, fundamentalist, extreme-right environment in Norway,” the Aftenposten newspaper reported.

Breivik was arraigned on 25 July before a closed session of court and entered a plea of not guilty. However, he told Judge Kim Heger the killings were necessary. “What the court understands (is that) the accused believes that he needed to carry out these acts in order to save Norway and Western Europe from, among other things, cultural Marxism and Muslim take over,” Judge Heger said during a televised news conference after the hearing.

“The operation was not to kill as many people as possible. It was to give a strong signal that could not be misunderstood, that as long as the Labour Party keeps driving its ideological line and keeps deconstructing Norwegian culture and mass importing Muslims then they must assume responsibility for this treason. And any person with a conscience cannot allow its country to be colonised by Muslims,” the judge explained.

Breivik’s alleged motives find support in his manifesto, published online shortly before the attack. Entitled “2083 — A European Declaration of Independence” and written under the pseudonym Andrew Berwick, the manifesto states Breivik had joined with nine other men in 2002 to re-form the Knights Templar and he was its “Justiciar Knight Commander.”

“Our purpose,” in forming the Knights Templar was to “seize political and military control of Western European countries and implement a cultural conservative political agenda,” he explained.

Muslims would be expelled from Europe and war waged against their Marxist and multi-culturalist allies. “The time for dialogue is over. We gave peace a chance. The time for armed resistance has come,” he wrote, estimating the revolution would leave “45,000 dead and 1 million wounded cultural Marxists/multiculturalists in Western Europe.

The “2083 — A European Declaration of Independence” manifesto is divided in three sections, with the first two containing dozens of articles and quotes from a cross section of authors.

Articles from conservative European bloggers and commentators predominate, but passages and snippets from the writers as diverse as Melanie Phillips, Jeremy Clarkson, Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Jefferson, William Burke, John Stuart Mill and other commentators, philosophers and political writers abound.

In the third section of his manifesto, Breivik sets out his agenda of cleansing Europe of Muslims and suppressing multi-culturalism and lays out his personal beliefs.

To join his crusade, one must take the Knight Templar’s Oath and swear to “protect the interests of all free, indigenous Europeans, European cultures and Christendom in general through armed struggle.”

“Europeans have not just a right, but a duty to resist through political and military means; cultural Marxist/multiculturalist atrocities and crimes committed against the indigenous peoples of Europe. As such, any European Christian conservative can act as a Justiciar Knight. This includes Christian agnostics and Christian atheists.”

Culture, not religious belief nor ethnicity are the defining qualifications of this new knighthood, Breivik wrote, stating on page 820 that although the Knights Templar “is a pan-European indigenous rights movement we give all Europeans, regardless of skin colour, the opportunity to become a Justiciar Knight as long as the individual is either a Christian, Christian agnostic or a Christian atheist.”

He also denied any personal belief in Jesus Christ and voiced disapproval of Christian moral teachings, but was comfortable in professing the merits of “Christendom.”

“If you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God then you are a religious Christian. Myself and many more like me do not necessarily have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God. We do however believe in Christianity as a cultural, social, identity and moral platform. This makes us Christian,” Breivik wrote on page 1309.

Equal in merit as a bulwark against Marxism and Islam, in the bomber’s eyes, were Hinduism and Buddhism. Breivik applauded the stance of Hindu Nationalist groups like the BJP and denounced Christian missionaries in India for diluting the strength of Hinduism.

He attacked the Indian Congress party for making common cause against the BJP by “appeasing Muslims and very sadly proselytising Christian missionaries who illegally convert low caste Hindus with lies and fear alongside Communists who want total destruction of the Hindu faith and culture.”

Breivik’s social views are confused as well. He professed a fondness for Barak Obama and Vladimir Putin, and espoused libertarian social mores. On page 658 he lamented the hijacking of a number of worthy causes by the multi-culturalists: “They often recruit under false and deceptive idealistic banners we all have sympathy for (anti-racist, pro-minority, pro-gay, anti-war, pro-environment, pro-wildlife, helping Palestinian children and similar organisations).”

Breivik has been remanded in custody for eight weeks, and if convicted of all the killings faces a maximum sentence of 21 years imprisonment under Norwegian law.