Aljazeera English.

Initial reactions to the attacks in Norway showed a “clash of civilisations” exists, but not in the way many understood.

The Norwegian terrorist who murdered more than ninety innocent civilians – many of whom were teenagers – did not act alone. Or rather, he acted within a cultural and political context that legitimises his fearful and hate-infested worldview. It is now clear that Anders Behring Breivik was exposed to large amounts of right-wing propaganda. This tragedy underlines the urgency with which normal people around the world must combat fundamentalist nationalists and chauvinists wherever they may be. But it also demonstrates the extent to which reactionary bigotry has infected mainstream thought.

Many reacted to the news from Oslo with wide eyes and a pointed finger. The most animated reactionaries took to the pages of the New York Times comment section to issue sweeping proclamations about the Clash of Civilisations and something called “the cult of death”. In many ways, readers were merely reinforcing the paper’s woefully editorialised reportage. As Glenn Greenwald helpfully pointed out, the editors of the NYT – America’s allegedly liberal newspaper – reserve the word “terrorist” solely for use in conjunction with the word “Muslim”.

When news emerged that the perpetrator of the murders – the terrorist – was a man whose religion and skin pigmentation closely resembled those of the editors of the NYT, the story changed. The terrorist became a deranged “Christian extremist” whose tactics clearly mirrored “Al Qaeda’s brutality and multiple attacks”. In that way, the paper linked the terrorist with Muslims, despite his strong antipathy for them.

Blame for the Western media’s panting pursuit of a non-existent Muslim triggerman quickly focused on the feckless, credulous, overeager and inept source of the NYT’s journalistic failure. Will McCants – proclaimed by one of his acolytes to be at the top of a “list of five terrorism experts you can trust” – was quickly discredited. In his defence, he only sought to affirm the confirmation bias that he and the editors of the NYT suffer from. The meme that underpins their worldview goes something like this: “Muslims are bad. When bad things happen, Muslims are responsible.” This is a mainstream view in the US today; it cuts across party lines.

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