Despite Breivik's attacks, right-wing extremists play a minor role in Norway
While the trial of Anders Behring Breivik for the murder of 77 people has put a spotlight on radical right-wing currents in Norway, experts agree far-right extremists do not play a major role Norwegian society.
That's no accident as right-wing extremism does not play a significant role in Norwegian society, said Shoaib Sultan, who researches Norway's right-extremist scene at the Center Against Racism.
"In Norway, we often talk about three different groups of right-wing extremists," Sultan said. "There are the neo-Nazis, who are few in number and not well-organized. There is the somewhat larger group of racists, who believe that people with a different skin color don't belong here. The third group uses Islamophobia to vent its racism."
The 2012 annual report by Norway's intelligence agency also said right-wing extremism does not play a particularly strong role in society. There have been attacks on centers for asylum-seekers in past decades, and the fights over the Mohammed caricatures did fuel skepticism toward Islam. But even the Progress Party (FrP), which acts as a right-wing populist party in the Norwegian Parliament, has not led to radical right-wing trends gaining ground, said Ketil Raknes, who has just written a book about right-wing populist parties.
"Norway handled the right-wing populists well," Raknes said. "The FrP was not shut out, yet it was also openly criticized. That has left its mark. At the party's last political convention, there were members who warned against criticizing Islam because it could scare of voters with immigrant backgrounds."
http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,15988526,00.html
I'm sure that Breivik is not happy that his massacre did not ignite the war between white Norwegians and immigrants (particularly Muslims) that he was hoping for.
