Terror functions as a mythology that builds the nation through violence

Evidence

Finally, we cannot ignore the potential for conspiratorial narratives of Muslim infiltration and left-wing collusion to inspire individual acts of extreme violence. The Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik extensively cited counter-jihad writers and bloggers in his ‘manifesto’, and rationalized his massacre of Norwegian Labour Party youth activists on the basis that they were potential future collaborators in the ‘Islamization of Europe’. Breivik had a number of EDL supporters among his Facebook friends and posted on EDL message boards using the pseudonym ‘Sigurd Jorsalfare’ (‘Sigurd the Crusader’), the name of a 12th-century Norwegian king (Jackson 2011). — A. Hussain, N. Meer, Framing Muslim Integration, 544 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Character and culture are built to shield us from death-terror — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core: On the Role of…, 18; Modern civilization idealizes itself while being constitutively built on incorporated violence — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 236; Power, fear, and violence function as idolatrous substitutes in Christian nationalism — Andrew L. Whitehead, American Idolatry, 99 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Counter-jihad conspiratorial narratives can motivate individual acts of extreme violence. #complicates (0.71) — A. Hussain, N. Meer, Framing Muslim Integration, 544