Breivik framed his violence as a crusade against demographic jihad.
Evidence
The title of the manifesto, “2083—A European Declaration of Independence,” reflects Breivik’s convictions that Europe is at war with Muslims. The year 2083 refers to the forthcoming four-hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Vienna. This battle witnessed the defeat of the Ottoman Turks at the hands of European Christians. For Breivik, the battle is significant because it marked the end of the Muslim empire’s attempt to take over the lands of Christendom. Unfortunately, argues Breivik, Muslims are once again on the march, attempting to colonize Europe as part of a “demographic jihad.” Through immigration and breeding, Muslims are determined to create a “Eurabia.” Breivik sees himself as a participant in a crusade to seize military and political control of Western Europe in order to “save millions of European lives from the war that most certainly awaits us when the Muslims in any given country become the dominating force.” Islam, after all, is not really a religion but “a political ideology that exists in a fundamental and permanent state of war with non-Islamic civilizations, cultures, and individuals.” — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 604
Categorization
- XREF: The Battle of Vienna as crusade hinge connects to reader’s interest in the Crusades→modern fear lineage; also resonates with the 2083 fears of Eurabia tropes in far-right discourse. — connects to: Demographic projections of Muslim growth are reframed as an intentional weapon against the West. — Margaret Hodson, Baby Jihad, 27; Neocon anti-Islamist rhetoric supplied ideological cover for Breivik’s massacre — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 677
- QUESTION: How far back can the ‘Islam is not a religion but a political ideology’ claim be traced? Worth investigating its genealogy.
Broader Connections
- Demographic projections of Muslim growth are reframed as an intentional weapon against the West.
#expands(0.75) — Margaret Hodson, Baby Jihad, 27