I must admit to feeling ashamed of myself when I first read the terrible news about the bomb and multiple shootings by a madman in Norway:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-24/suspect-admits-responsibility/2807758

I immediately thought to myself that the perpetrator would most likely be a Muslim Extremist.
How wrong I was, as it appears to have been committed by a Christian Extremist!

I also imagined that the guy probably stole the guns or bought them on the black market, but no, he had a licence for the guns, and belonged to a gun-club!

Are violent 'extremists' the same the world over, or are they simply mentally unbalanced individuals who take violent action on their mad thoughts?

Is there any way of policing the contents of some of these people's web-sites that obviously showed their potential for violence on a grand scale?

What are everyone else's thoughts on this awful tragedy?

Cheers,
Suze.

It was an awful tragedy that probably couldn't be avoided without turning the nation into a totalitarian state, if then.

As long as we accept the right of people to passionately believe in irrational things, this sort of stuff is inevitable.

I'm glad it wasn't in Brisbane...

What are everyone else's thoughts on this awful tragedy?
suzeonline,
it shows how desperate people get when not being listened to. Very, very sad indeed. What did society do to make someone so frustrated. The cause doesn't obviously lie just with the gunman. How many times has it been said that violent video games desensitise people yet more violent video games are being produced.
In this particular tragedy it appears to have been caused by this;

http://tribune.com.pk/story/216462/norway-police-say-killer-behind-1500-page-anti-islamic-manifesto/

Don't worry Suzeonline, you were not the only one to expect that it
was a moslem terrorist attack.

So did virtually everyone else. I wonder why that was ?
Could it be that moslems have form for terrorist attacks ?

No need to feel guilty, it is moslems and Irish Nationalists who
should feel guilty.
It will take them a couple of generations of good behaviour for them
to live it down.

The media hinted at Al Qaeda and some Qaddafi.I argued then that it did not make sense that Gaddafi would attack a country that is weakening the NATO allaince by pulling out of Libya.Norway also supports the trade boycotts against Israel.I don't think that one man could plan and execute this attack alone.Study the details as they come out.

I am horrified by what he did, but I disagree that he was a madman. He merely acted on the basis of premisses that he believed. However, he did not do it on the basis of authority given by the state, religion, party or other recognised institution. Torquemada, Osama bin Laden, George W. Bush, Lenin, Napoleon, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan and others have all authorised mass slaughter on one basis or another. I have never heard any of them referred to as a madman. However, I regard all those I have mentioned as no better, humane or reasonable than Anders Breivik. The only difference is that they organised their slaughter on the basis of serving a poitical or religious entity. When a person does it on his own he will be called a madman.