Massacre proves nothing about immigration or multiculturalism
By Randall Hansen, Special to Postmedia News August 4, 2011 6:02 PM

The Norway massacres have unleashed a predictable torrent of media commentary on immigration, multiculturalism and Islam. That commentary has two characteristics. First, everyone is absolutely convinced that they have understood the complex reasons behind this tragedy. Second, the cold-blooded murder of 76 innocent people has not changed a single mind on the left or the right.

The left — in the form of the Guardian newspaper in England and the Huffington Post news website in the United States — can barely contain their excitement, as they have discovered in these events a shadowy foe, a vast network of right-wing extremists that fits their ideological preferences. Those commentators who for years told us that we must not exaggerate the threat of Islamic extremism are desperate to exaggerate the threat of right-wing extremism. Aslak Sira Myhre, himself Norwegian, tells Guardian readers that for “at least 10 years we have been told that terror comes from the east. That an Arab is suspicious, that all Muslims are tainted. ... As the Islamic world has become the Other, we have begun to think that what differentiates ‘us’ from ‘them’ is the ability to slaughter civilians in cold blood.â€