Sunday, July 22, 2012

#1173 Pipes in NRO: "The Left Distorts Breivik's Mental World"



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The Left Distorts Breivik's Mental World

by Daniel Pipes
July 22, 2012
Cross-posted from National Review Online
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Immediately after Anders Behring Breivik committed his terrorist atrocity in Norway a year ago today, killing 77, the Center for American Progress, a $38 million-a-year liberal think tank, rushed out (under its ThinkProgress imprint) a graphic that helpfully pointed out how often Breivik had cited 11 of what it called "right-wing pundits and organizations" in his manifesto, 2083 — A European Declaration of Independence.


CAP's research, which was much cited and had vast influence on the reporting of Breivik's mental formation, would lead one to believe that Breivik's sources of information came exclusively from those "right-wing pundits and organizations." Not so. Although I noted a year ago the essential deceit of this characterization, the full picture became apparent only later, thanks to a complete concordance created by Steven Emerson's Investigative Project on Terrorism of the over 1,600 personal names in 2083.
IPT's research establishes that, yes, Breivik certainly did mention conservatives, but he also mentioned about as many liberals and leftists, not to speak of Christians and Muslims, historical figures and writers. With IPT's authorization, I am posting the 84 names mentioned ten or more times in 2083. (The discrepancy between CAP's and IPT's numbers results from their differing methodologies.)
IPT's list of 84 top mentions includes a very wide range of figures.
  • Leftist thinkers: Karl Marx (27 times), Theodor Adorno (26), György Lukács/George Lukacs (26), Herbert Marcuse (24), Antonio Gramsci (23), Thomas Hylland Eriksen (21), Colin Barker (20), and Friedrich Nietzsche (10).
  • Leftist politicians: Tony Blair (20 times), Barack Obama (19), Andrew Neather (15), Javier Solana (12), Romano Prodi (12), and Gordon Brown (11).
  • Muslims: Anwar Shaaban (48 times), Islam's prophet Muhammad (36), Osama bin Laden (29), Yasir Arafat (19), Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid (15), Abu Talal al-Qasimy (13), Ahmad Abu Laban (12), Ibn Khaldun (12), Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali (11), Hasan al-Banna (11), and Sayyid Qutb (11).
  • Christian figures: Jesus Christ (63 times), Pope Urban II (13), Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir (12), Michael the Syrian (11), and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (10).
  • Random historical figures: Charles Martel (53 times), Hitler (50), Winston Churchill (23), Duke Odo of Aquitaine (21), John III Sobieski (19), Thomas Jefferson (18), Napoleon Bonaparte (17), Sitting Bull (14), and Benjamin Disraeli (10).
  • Writers: Aristotle (25 times), Ivo Andrić (20), William Shakespeare (20), Plato (16), Salman Rushdie (16), George Orwell (12), Wilhelm Reich (12), and Sigmund Freud (11).
Comments:
(1) I count 13 critics of Islam or Islamism and 11 Muslims among the 84 top names mentioned by Breivik. Pretty much a draw, no?
(2) As for Breivik agreeing with those critics: hardly. As I showed last July, he intentionally sought to damage and delegitimize anyone who rejects his violent ways.
(3) The Center for American Progress distorted Breivik's mind by listing only conservatives – hardly a shock given CAP's history of shoddy work.
(4) Concerning all those progressive eminentoes: after Max Blumenthal recently lambasted me in The Nation, a Leftist magazine, for being mentioned by Breivik, I wrote a letter to its editors: "Were the Nation to boycott this posse of Marxists, leftists, and their protégés, its pages would stand quite empty."
(5) I am the 9th most commonly mentioned person, bizarrely finding myself right after Islam's prophet Muhammad, tied with Dutch politician Geert Wilders & Osama bin Laden, immediately ahead of Karl Marx.
Name
Tally
Bat Ye'or
71
Fjordman
63
Jesus Christ
63
Robert Spencer
54
Charles Martel
53
Shaykh Anwar Shaaban
48
Adolf Hitler
50
Mohammed
36
Daniel Pipes
29
Geert Wilders
29
Osama Bin Laden
29
Karl Marx
27
György Lukács (or George Lukacs)
26
Theodor Adorno
26
Aristotle
25
Herbert Marcuse
24
Andrew Bostom
23
Antonio Gramsci
23
Winston Churchill
23
Bruce Bawer
22
Jean-Louis Bruguière
22
Serge Trifkovic
22
Speros Vryonis, Jr.
22
Duke Odo of Aquitaine (Eudes the Great)
21
Thomas Hylland Eriksen
21
Colin Barker
20
Ivo Andric
20
Jean-Francois Ricard
20
Tony Blair
20
William Shakespeare
20
Barack Obama
19
Ibn Warraq
19
John III Sobieski
19
Theo van Gogh
19
Yasser Arafat
19
Hugh Fitzgerald
18
Thomas Jefferson
18
Napoleon Bonaparte
17
A.E. Vacalopoulos
16
Angela Merkel
16
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
16
Plato
16
Salman Rushdie
16
Walid Shoebat
16
Andrew Neather
15
José Manuel Barroso
15
Pim Fortuyn
15
Sultan Abdul Hamid
15
George W. Bush
14
Saga
14
Sitting Bull
14
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
14
Ali Sina
13
Axel
13
Erich Fromm
13
Mike Tyldesley
13
Nasrallah Sfeir
12
Nicholas Sarkozy
13
Ole Jørgen Anfindsen
13
V.I. Lenin
5
Abu Laban
12
Camille Chamoun
12
George Orwell
12
Javier Solana
12
Pope Urban II
13
Romano Prodi
12
Wilhelm Reich
12
Al-Ghazali
11
Carl I. Hagen
11
Hasan Al-Banna
11
Henryk Broder
11
Ibn Khaldun
12
Jean Monnet
11
Michael the Syrian
11
Sayyid Qutb
11
Sigmund Freud
11
Thomas Madden
11
Abu Talal al-Qasimy
13
Benjamin Disraeli
10
Edward Grant
18
F.A. Hayek
10
Friedrich Nietzsche
10
Gordon Brown
11
Roger Scruton
10
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
10
(July 22, 2012)
Related Topics:  Conservatives & Liberals, Daniel Pipes autobiographical, Muslims in Europe This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL.

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