Far-right leaders back Breivik’s ideology

Norwegian far-right leaders have told the court trying Anders Behring Breivik the mass killer was right to fear his nation’s “planned annihilation” by Muslims, even if his method of combating it was wrong.

Breivik killed 77 people on 22 July last year, first detonating a car bomb outside government headquarters and killing eight, then gunning down 69 people, mostly teenagers, at the ruling Labour Party’s summer camp on Utöya Island.

He argued his victims deserved to die because they supported Muslim immigration, which he said was adulterating pure Norwegian blood.

“The constitution has been cancelled. We’re at war now,” Tore Tvedt, the founder of far-right group Vigrid told the court yesterday.

Mr Tvedt, 69, with greying hair and moustache, addressed the court in a firm voice.

“When they get their will, the Nordic race will be exterminated,” he said of Muslim immigration.

Breivik’s defence team called Mr Tvedt and other far-right supporters to the stand to support their argument that Breivik is sane, since his ideology is shared by others, even if their numbers are few.

“Take a look at society in Pakistan, look at the 57 Islamic states. People there live in a regime of terror and slavery. That’s what we had under national socialism and in the Soviet Union, people were trapped in a terror state,” Arne Tumyr, the head of an anti-Islam group told court.

Mr Tumyr, 79, spoke softly and insisted on testifying to the court standing up. “If nothing is done, Norway will be taken over by Muslims,” he said.

Members of Islamic communities make up about 2 per cent of Norway’s five million people, though their numbers are growing faster than those of Christians.