BY HUGO ODIOGOR

Ten years after the Maastricht treaty that laid the foundation for the emergence of European Union, EU, the continent is facing internal and external strictures, occasioned by globalisation and the worsening macro-economic crisis in the capitalist economies.

With the advent of the global village concept, what happens in one part of the world reverberates in another far flung corner with dire consequences. The right wing rage in Norway, last week, cannot therefore be treated as a problem for the Europeans alone because, as Dr. Rasheed Akinyemi, University of Lagos explains, the world has become so integrated that we may have Africans even Nigerians entangled in global crisis whenever they occur.

Norway is a far off Nordic country that is best remembered in this part of the world for its stock fish, which became a political weapon when a prominent politician threatened to ban its importation during the second republic. Norway is an oil producing country of less than five million people. It is known for its high quality newsprint. The country has consistently maintained the number one position in the list of countries with the best conditions for human existence, according to the Human Development Index compiled annually by the United Nations, UN, to match statistics of social and economic development human lives.

As an oil producing nation, Norway pays a percentage of its revenue from sale of crude oil into a trust fund for its citizens. For a country that boosts of its peace credentials, that image was shattered on July 22, when a powerful explosion ripped through the streets of Oslo as a large quantity of  improvised explosive device (IED) was detonated from a rented van parked between the government building housing the prime minister’s office and Norway’s Oil and Energy Department building. Anders Breivik, 32, who was arrested for the terror attack, confessed that he fabricated and placed the device in the van filled with 950 kilograms (about 2,100 pounds) of home-made ammonium nitrate-based explosives.

After detonating the IED, Breivik traveled to the island of Utoya, located about 32 kilometers (20 miles) outside of Oslo where Norway’s ruling Labor Party was having a youth camp-out, donning a uniform with police insignia. Breivik opened a surprised attack on the youths in Utoya with a semi-automatic rifle and a pistol.

Before the police arrived, he had enough time to kill 68 people and injured 60 others. Breivik had posted a manifesto on the Internet that includes his lengthy operational diary. Breivik wrote in his diary that he targeted the Labor Party because of his belief that the party is Marxist-oriented and is responsible for encouraging multiculturalism and Muslim immigration into Norway, to cause destruction of European culture. Breivik considers members of Norway’s ruling Labour Party as traitors and holds them in contempt than he does for Muslims. In fact, in the manifesto Breivik posted on his website, he urged others not to target Muslims because it would elicit sympathy for them.

Breivik said that he planned and executed the attack as a lone ranger but that he was part of a larger organization that he calls the Knights Templar, or the  “Pauperes Commilitones Christi Templique Solomonici (PCCTS, which seeks to encourage other lone attackers called “Justiciar Knights. ” He said there are small cells existing in other parts of Europe to carry out a plan to “save” Europe and European culture from multiculturalism which would lead to the destruction of Europe. It is not certain whether there are other self-appointed Justiciar Knights in Norway or in other parts of Europe.

European Jihad
It is also not clear whether Breivik acted alone. What is critical to this analysis, however, is the fact that he has sown the ideology of hate and set a manifesto propagate to copycat attacks that will engulf Europe in time to come. The Norway attack could be the opening shot to a wider campaign to liberate Europeans from what Breivik described as “malevolent, Marxist-oriented governments”. According to Breivik, the PCCTS was formed with the stated purpose of fighting back against “European Jihad” and to defend the “free indigenous peoples of Europe.” According to Brevik, the PCCTS wants to implement a three-phased plan designed to seize political and military power in Europe. In his manifesto, Breivik  outlines the plan as follows:

Phase 1: Cell-based shock attacks, sabotage attacks, etc. from 1999-2030
Phase 2: Same as above but bigger cells/networks, armed militias from 2030-2070.
Phase 3: Pan-European coup d’états, deportation of Muslims and execution of traitors from 2070-2100.

Migration and Xenophobia
Nothing best brings to reality the upsurge in right wing hate in Europe than the economic crisis engulfing the region and foreigners are seen as the scape goats for their national frustrations. An economic crisis, domestic insecurity and constant fear of possible foreigners swapping them and straining their resources is bringing out right wing ideology of hate. The reality of the international system is instability and the countries in the Eurozone can be least said to be stable.

Migration is a fact of human existence that has spread culture and civilisation, access to resources, knowledge and wealth, as human beings have moved from hostile region and environment to more habitable environment, where they have access to resources, security and comfort.

This was a key process that led to the evolution of nations and people. Migration therefore promotes development and advancement of civilisation, knowledge and socio-cultural interaction if properly managed. But since the emergence of the concept of defined national frontiers, there have been several measures and approaches taken by countries to secure their borders, protect themselves and their resources from outsiders, yet migration remains a potent force for the spread of civilisation, socio-cultural and economic development.

Equally worthy of mention is the fact that migration is an essential part of humanity as the phenomenon of people moving outside their national borders to other countries have provided a strong push for promotion of trade and development. With the end of the cold war, scholars and researchers believe that migration will be one of the hottest political issues of the next 15 years in Europe and America given the dwindling state of global economy.

Experience has shown that politicians and racial bigots often use migration as their most potent weapon to gain popularity by heaping the blame on their failures on migrants. The Tea Party in the US has become a rallying point for Americans promoting hate ideology and supremacist tendencies. The attacks on Nigerians and other Africans in South Africa is a case to mention here.

In Europe, there is a rising wave of ultra right political philosophy. The anti-migration sentiment, originally started as a fringe ideology of the right wing parties being relegated to the back ground.

Even though there is a general sense that globalisation has come to stay and that Europe, at least among the governing elites, share economic interests with the rest of the world, views from the likes of Jean Marie Le Pen,  which were repugnant in the 1990s, have gradually become mainstream ideas in France, and other European countries.

The resurgence of nationalist feeling has been against migrant, notably Arab/Muslims as well as blacks. Multiculturalism is seen as an accommodationist ideology which should not have a footing in fortress Europe.

Akinyemi, who spent over 25 years in Austria, said the idea of fortress Europe as an exclusive European continent for white people is under threat from globalisation. “Today, they see globalisation as a concept that could lead to Europe being swapped by immigrants and especially Arab Muslims who have been seen as irrational and potential terrorists”, the university don said.

Apart from the economic crisis ravaging Europe, political and religious violence has become the identity of the political face of Islam.  The proposed European jihad is to counter what is coming from the Muslim world. The end of the cold war has narrowed down ideological differences, but we now have what Samuel Huntington identified as the clash of civilization. Faith inspired terrorists espouse opposition to the Western culture and value system.

The Boko Haram sect, the Taliban in Afghanistan/Pakistan, the Al-Qaeda and many other fundamentalist religious groups view Judeo-Christian faith as a legitimate target for Islamic jihad. They have seen the superpowers as responsible for all the world’s wrongs and suggested that it was the obligation of all Muslims to mobilize to remove the superpowers from the global arena. All these redefined concept of martyrdom provided the basic justification of suicide on religious grounds. In conclusion, Breivik may be pointing to a clash of civilization.