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White supremacist attack on Norway mosque ‘inspired by recent US shootings’

Tuesday, 13 August 2019 3:35 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 13 August 2019 5:01 AM ]

Amina Taylor

Press TV, London

Witnesses say the suspect, 21 year old Norwegian Philip Manshaus, was wearing body armor and was armed with two “shotgun-like weapons” and a handgun. He opened fire but was then disarmed by this man, retired Pakistani Air Force officer Mohammad Rafiq. Manshaus is now in custody for the attempted terror attack and the murder of his stepsister found dead in his home. As in the case of the New Zealand attack in March, there was plenty of online evidence that Manshaus had been radicalized and was glorifying former terrorists.

The mosque did call the police but the incident was initially classified as low-priority and the police would not respond. There have also been claims that a user of an online forum had tried to notify the Norwegian police that he suspected an attack would happen three times, but that local police told him to call the FBI.

The mosque director says this fellow Muslims are harassed on a daily basis and the government has to do more

New Zeland is still reeling from mass shootings carried out by one man at 2 mosques back in March. 51 people died and 49 were injured. And earlier this month twenty-one people were killed in El Paso; a predominantly Hispanic part of the US state of Texas. Just 13 hours later, a gunman killed 9 in Dayton Ohio. There have been 251 mass shootings on the US in 2019; more than one a day; and the likes of President Trump have been blamed for exacerbating the situation.

Peter Neumann, professor of security studies at King’s College London, has warned of a cascade of similar events.

Rising right-wing nationalism and politics is raising the alarm across the globe that ignoring the problem will not make it go away.

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