OSLO MASSACRE

In the summer of 2011, on July 22, the totally
unexpected occurred. Norway, a country of some of the most peace loving people
of the world suffered a travesty of immense proportions. The unthinkable
happened to this small peaceful country on the North Sea. One of their own,
opened fire on the nation’s young people attending a summer camp on the island,
Utoya, located in Tyrifjorden, Buskerud. He showed no mercy. But instead, he
killed looking them straight in the eye. And he did it for an unachievable and
unchristian cause, using a method of unabashed cruelty and disregard for the
lives he took. Young lives that still had their whole lives ahead of them. He
was demented of course. First, he set a car bomb outside the office of Prime
Minister Jens Stoltenberg in Oslo, killing eight people, wounding even more and
leaving 10 more people critically injured. Then traveling north to the summer
camp of the AUF‘s youth division of the ruling Norwegian Labour Party. He
dressed in a police uniform and showed fake identification to gain access to
the island and opened fire, killing 69 people, including personal friends of
Jens Stoltenberg and the stepbrother of Norway’s crown princess Mette-Marit. It
was considered the deadliest attack in Norway since World War II. Anders
Behring Breivik, a 32-year old Norwegian right-wing extremist was arrested and
charged with both attacks. His mission was to stop the tide of Muslim
immigration into Europe. He hated Islam, and sadly he saw himself as a knight
dedicated to eradicating the Muslims who he felt were taking over his beloved
country. He desired to return Europe and Scandinavia back to only Christianity.
It is hard to understand why he chose to kill his fellow Christian countrymen
to try to achieve this mission. An entire nation country grieved. Anyone of
Norwegian ancestry grieved, no matter where they now reside. I attended a
memorial church service at the Mindekirken Church in Minneapolis where 69 roses
were laid in front of the altar as we grieved for those who lost their lives
and their families. We said prayers of thanks for the 153 who survived with the
help of God and their fellow countrymen who came to their aid. In the aftermath
of this travesty, my prayer is for the Norwegian people to once again feel
secure in their country. Norway is a country I plan on visiting in the near
future and where I hope to once again feel the peace and security I have always
felt in the past.