Standard bearers of hate

In his posts on the internet, Anders Breivik ranted about the “colonisation” of Europe by supporters of islam. he also

vented his hatred for anything non-nordic and rambled about his plans to take over the world.

Until one week ago no one bothered to take much notice of the 32-year-old’s fanatical views.

After all, there are countless forums on the web where those sorts of extreme opinions are spouted every day. It appears that Breivik, who had no criminal record or history of violence, was not even on the radar of Norway’s security services.

in short, there was nothing in his background to suggest that he was capable of murdering dozens of people in cold blood in a bomb blast in Oslo and a shooting spree on nearby Utoya island.

The trail of mayhem left by this man has been the catalyst for soul- searching not just in his homeland but throughout Europe, for extreme Right-wing groups are enjoying rising levels of support.

Their popularity has spilled over into mainstream politics, where parties with ultra-patriotic manifestos are gaining an

unprecedented foothold.

Since the attacks there has been a procession of far-Right parties lining up to add their condemnation.

However, while these groups distance themselves from his terrible actions, many of the views expressed by Breivik are uncomfortably close to home for some of them and others make no attempt to hide their sympathy for his opinions.

Mario Borghezio, a European parliamentarian who belongs to Italy’s far-Right northern League, said: “some of the ideas he expressed are good – barring the violence – some of them are great.”

The renaissance of neo-fascist and nationalist groups has been driven mainly by the fear of Muslim extremism and mass immigration.

in countries as diverse as the Netherlands, Denmark, Hungary and France it is the common cause of the extreme Right.

Election posters by the northern League in Italy displayed a drawing of an American Indian in a feathered head-dress accompanied by the slogan: “They suffered immigration. now they live in reserves.”

in some European countries, such as Finland and France, far-Right parties are now attracting more than 15 per cent of the vote.

nationalists now have a parliamentary voice in 15 of the 27 EU states. in the Netherlands the anti-Islam Party For Freedom led by Geert Wilders, a politician admired by Breivik in his writings, has become the third largest in Parliament after celebrating its best-ever result in elections last year.

Wilders has called for the Koran to be banned, comparing it to Hitler’s Mein Kampf, and suggested a tax on headscarves worn by Muslim women.

Enthusiasm for these organisations is predominantly from young men who have poor education and consider their job prospects to be under threat from immigrants.

The groups might be distasteful to many but are perfectly legal, which adds an air of respectability. however, the dangers lurk at the fringes.

in Norway it has been confirmed that Breivik was previously a member of the Right-wing Progress Party, the second-largest group in Norway’s parliament, but found its views too tame.

he has been linked to a host of extreme organisations and posted on Right-wing websites such as stormfront, Gates of Vienna and a scandinavian version called Nordisk.

But he kept his murderous intentions secret, recording them in a manifesto in which he outlined how he set up front companies enabling him to buy fertiliser for bomb making and joined a gun club so it would be easier to obtain a weapon.

The attacks in Norway have, at least temporarily, shifted the focus away from militant Muslims and led to claims that eyes have been taken off the ball when it comes to tackling the threat posed by far-Right groups.

Terrorists, we now know, can have blond hair and blue eyes. Dr Andrea Mammone, lecturer in Modern history at Kingston University and an expert on Right-wing extremism, says: “This problem has been growing since the nineties but it has been overlooked. There are links between these extreme groups which cross borders.

"They exchange ideas and strategies and members jump from one group to another, so their strength is unclear.

“Most of these organisations share the same ideology and they attract young white men at the bot- tom end of the social ladder who feel they are economic losers.”

Outside politics far-Right groups are united by a love of music with a “white power” message. Football is another bond; hooligan and ultra groups across Europe tend to attract Right-wing extremists.

Dr Mammone adds: “We should explore the links more between these underground groups and some of the Right-wing political parties. The core ideals are much the same and this is worrying.”

The dilemma for security forces is that while these organisations don’t have huge levels of support, or proper organisation, the massacres in Norway have shown the damage that a “lone wolf” can wreak.

The problem is pinpointing, from among the mass of rhetoric, exactly who poses a genuine threat. Ger- many’s intelligence service recently estimated there were 25,000 far- Right extremists in the country.

in Britain that was demonstrated in 1999 when David Copeland launched a series of devastating nail-bomb attacks targeting gay and ethnic areas of London.

During his trial it emerged that Copeland considered himself a nazi who believed in a master race. With the Olympics looming David Cameron has asked police to investigate the threat from the extreme Right.

Two years ago John Yates, the Metropolitan Police’s head of specialist operations, highlighted the growth of these organisations.

Yates, who recently resigned over the phone hacking scandal, said: “Mostly they tend to be less organised and you tend to see the concept of the lone wolf. That is something we take extremely seriously and we make sure we balance our resources to deal with that threat.”

in the UK and the rest of Europe Right-wing groups, such as Combat 18, tend to mutate and splinter. They might disappear following some internal dispute or crackdown by the authorities, only to re-emerge under a different name. The challenge is keeping pace with their activities and discovering whether they are a real threat or merely run by “keyboard warriors” who hide behind a computer terminal.

The English Defence League, which has organised rallies in cities with large Muslim populations, has disassociated itself from Breivik.

It is reported that he used the pseudonym of a 12th-century Norwegian king to communicate with people on the EDL’s internet forum before retreating to a remote farm to prepare for last week’s attacks.

in one posting he called on Right-wing activists in the UK to “keep up the good work” and spoke of a shared cause.

investigations have shown that the EDL, like many of the far-Right groups in Europe, attracts support from football hooligans.

For all its claims of legitimacy and rejection of violence, the EDL admits that it has no way of controlling the lunatic element that attaches itself to the organisation.

FORMER shadow security minister Patrick Mercer says: “Extreme nationalist organisations will always exist in any

democracy. There is no doubt that there is a threat of violence in the UK both from individuals we know about and those we don’t, because the far-Right tends to attract loners.

Unfortunately it is very difficult to intercept one crazed individual.” in Norway it has emerged that intelligence services warned earlier this year of increased activity by far-Right groups, saying they had formed links with similar organisations in other scandinavian countries.

however, the threat was not considered to be serious. The terrible events in Oslo and Utoya island have proved a terrifying reminder that the march of the far-Right must not be ignored.