One week after the terror in Oslo I finally find myself able to write again.
76 people died and there is massive damages to Oslo city centre and the government buidling after a mad mans doings one week ago. The most schocking thing is the majority of those who died were youth, who were dedicated to keeping Norway an open and peaceful, multicultural community.
They blamed the muslims. WE blamed the muslims. Just minutes after the boms went off my facebook feed was full of the accusations. No more than 1-1,5 hours later the shootings at the youth gathering at Utøya started. My fear that those who blamed the muslims were right, came to an end. It was a blonde, blue eyed man, dressed as a police man. He was Norwegian. He was my age.
He said, "Come to me, I have some information", he lined them up, he executed them. He shot those who threw them self to the ground. He shot those who ran. He picked them one by one. He shot those who tried to hide. He shot those who threw themselves in the water, trying to swim ashore.
They blamed the muslims. I saw a muslim woman on the news. She thought it was islamists too. She dreaded the times to come, where she knew all muslims in Norway had to carry the blame. She was wrong, they were wrong, he was one of us.
Some months ago I had a blog post on my Norwegian blog. It was about everyday racism, and got more than 200 comments. More than half of these comments were hateful and agressive. My post was about friendship, kindness, openness towards others. More than 50 of those who answered could have been the terrorist, I have read through it all again... He is not alone. We must never believe he was the only one out there.
The Norwegian people have reacted with sorrow - and with love. The terrorist wanted to stir up hate and anger. But there is a wave of care and solidarity and togetherness that washes over Norway. A wave of compassion. An ocean of roses. Many of you have also shared your feelings on my facebook wall.
Oslo and the rest of Norway flows over of meetings over the borders of ethnicity, language, age, origin... One of my friends was deeply touched that a veiled woman had put her arms around her and called her "sister".
Those lives that are lost can never be replaced. We shall honor their memory and remember their ideology.
Islam was not our enemy.
Hate and fear was.
We will never, never allow it to win.
