澳彩开奖

And the threat is not confined to Norway or Europe. Exactly the same ideas that motivated the Oslo shooter to take up arms are popular in radical-right circles on this side of the Atlantic.

Anders Behring Breivik, 32, described by Norwegian police as a right-wing Christian fundamentalist, was apparently by hatred of Muslims and fears of multiculturalism. Breivik鈥檚 1,500-page manifesto, 2083: A European Declaration of Independence, equates liberalism and multiculturalism with 鈥渃ultural Marxism,鈥� something Breivik says is destroying European Christian civilization. Posted online just before the attacks, the manifesto is described in as a diary of Breivik鈥檚 months of planning.

Writing under the Anglicized name 鈥淎ndrew Berwick,鈥� Breivik predicted a massive war that would kill or injure more than a million people as he and his small group seize 鈥減olitical and military control of Western European countries and implement a cultural conservative political agenda.鈥� Breivik鈥檚 manifesto also describes a secret April 2002 meeting in London to reconstitute the Knights Templar, a military order active in the medieval Crusades, that was attended by 鈥渞epresentatives鈥� of European countries and one 鈥淓uropean-American.鈥� The document does not name the attendees, and authorities are unclear the meeting actually occurred.

Fears of 鈥渃ultural Marxism鈥� have a in this country. It鈥檚 a conspiratorial kind of 鈥減olitical correctness鈥� on steroids 鈥� a covert assault on the American way of life that allegedly has been developed by the left over the course of the last 70 years. Those who use the term posit that a small group of German philosophers, all Jews who fled Germany and went to Columbia University in the 1930s to found the Frankfurt School, devised a cultural form of 鈥淢arxism鈥� aimed at subverting Western civilization. The method involves manipulating the culture into supporting homosexuality, sex education, egalitarianism, and the like, to the point that traditional institutions and culture are ultimately wrecked.

A number of hate groups, including the racist (CCC), have raised the spectre of cultural Marxism as a way to explain contemporary events (click to watch the CCC鈥檚 DVD on the theory). Some prominent conservatives also adopted the conspiratorial theory ( features MSNBC contributor Pat Buchanan and Texas Congressman Ron Paul). In 2002, William Lind of the Free Congress Foundation, a far-right outfit long headed by the now deceased Paul Weyrich (one of the founders of the ), about the theory to a conference. Saying he was 鈥渘ot among those who question whether the Holocaust occurred,鈥� Lind went on to lay blame for 鈥減olitical correctness鈥� and other evils on so-called 鈥渃ultural Marxists,鈥� who, he said, 鈥渨ere all Jewish鈥� (Lind is mentioned in passing in Breivik鈥檚 manifesto).

Breivik shares more than fears of cultural Marxism with America鈥檚 radical right. A recent 澳彩开奖 documented an increasingly reckless campaign to vilify American Muslims, driven in some cases by mainstream poltical figures. If irresponsible ideologues or public figures use the upcoming ten-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks to further demonize American Muslims, this population may be great danger (in the past year, there have been serious attacks on mosques and other Islamic institutions. For more, read and ).

Tensions are arising here for very much the same reasons as they are in Europe: societies on both sides of the pond are becoming more demographically diverse. In Europe, the targets of radical-right extremists are typically Muslims, because they make up a large share of European immigrants. In the U.S., until recently, ire has mostly been directed at Latinos and Latino immigrants. This growing population is blamed by racist ideologues for the impending end of a white majority, which will come midcentury according to the Census.

That racial fears could drive someone to kill on a massive scale should come as no surprise. Timothy McVeigh killed 168 people in 1995, taking his blueprint for the Oklahoma City bombing from the gruesome race-war novel, The Turner Diaries, written by leader . Between McVeigh鈥檚 April 19, 1995 bombing and early 2011, the 澳彩开奖 has documented some by right-wing extremists. In recent years, these attacks have been propelled by additional factors such as the election of the nation鈥檚 first black president and the troubled economy.

The obvious danger from radical-right domestic terrorism makes it all the more galling that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has largely given up its efforts to monitor such threats. In April 2009, the department released a report, 鈥�,鈥� warning of possible violence from racists, radical antigovernment types and others. The report was prescient; within a few month of its release two major domestic terrorist attacks took place. But that didn鈥檛 stop conservative analysts from savaging the report after it was leaked shortly after its release.

It was one thing for the right-wing media to savage the report; what was truly shocking was DHS鈥檚 reaction. The department ended up gutting its non-Islamic domestic extremism intelligence unit, which had been led since its inception by veteran intelligence analyst Daryl Johnson. Johnson recently to the 澳彩开奖 about how the DHS bowed to the political pressure and basically abandoned its role in protecting the country from radical-right threats (The Washington Post provided further evidence ).

鈥淸M]y greatest fear is that domestic extremists in this country will somehow become emboldened to the point of carrying out a mass-casualty attack, because they perceive that no one is being vigilant about the threat from within,鈥� Johnson told 澳彩开奖 referring to the fact that DHS is out of the non-Islamic domestic terrorism business. 鈥淭hat is what keeps me up at night.鈥�

The 澳彩开奖鈥檚 CEO J. Richard Cohen DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano to reconsider the department鈥檚 actions. The Oslo attacks are a reminder of why this is so critically important.

Photo by Lise Aserud/AP Images