12 September 2011

By Raymond Billy | ResonateNews.com

TYLER, Texas — Hilde Marie Taylor was inundated with calls from her native Norway on this day 10 years ago. Although friends and relatives there knew she was not in harm's way, they wanted to express their sorrow that an event so traumatic as the terrorist attacks had occurred in Taylor's adopted homeland, the United States. Almost a decade later, Taylor received an equal outpouring of sympathy from Americans in the wake of a massacre in the Norwegian capital of Oslo, where she was born and raised.

The two attacks bear resemblance, both in terms of their death tolls relative to populations of the nations involved and in terms of the religion-related cultural values the apparent perpetrators claimed to be defending. Taylor said the similarities end there.

Anders Behring Breivik, who is accused in the July 22 Norway shootings “was acting alone,” said Taylor, 52, a retired educator in Tyler. “There is a force evil enough to try to destroy the United States — and it's not one person.”

Eric Sivertson, a second-generation Norwegian American, said Breivik's purported Christianity does not signal a significant threat from religious militants in Norway. Many Norwegians share Breivik's desire to preserve the country's traditional values amid an influx of immigrants with different religious and cultural backgrounds. But that desire has not led to radicalization on par with that of Al Qaida, he said.

“There's no comparison between what happened in Norway and what happened here in the U.S.,” said Sivertson, 57, a teacher in Tyler. “The 9/11 terrorists were part of a worldwide religious extremist movement. The Norway shooter was a lone actor.”

Taylor said “I don't think there's any Christian group in Norway that has the attitude that Breivik has.”

Despite their disgust that Breivik reportedly has used Christianity to justify the massacre, several Norwegian Tylerites expressed relief that he was apparently responsible, rather than an immigrant.

“Some people jumped to the conclusion that a Muslim was responsible for the shooting when the news came out,” said Jan-Harry Kastmo, a small-business owner in Tyler. “When I found out the person who did this was Norwegian, I was shocked. But I'm glad we're not seeing any kind of backlash against Muslims. That would have been disappointing.”

A wave of anti-immigrant hostility might have erupted in Norway if the shooter had been an immigrant, Taylor said.

“We have very hardworking, good immigrants in Norway,” Taylor said. “But some of them have added to criminal activity or become overly dependent on the welfare state. This has led to an increase in racism against immigrants in general.”

Sivertson said anti-Muslim hostility is unwarranted, both in Norway and in the U.S.

“I'm a live-and-let-live kind of person. I don't worry about what other people or groups of people do,” Sivertson said, later adding “We have a mosque in Tyler and that's alright with me.”

 

Photo Courtesy Of Luca Venturi Via Flickr.com

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