The Far Right Link Between Norwegian Killer Breivik and Florence Gunman Casseri

via International Business Times, an excellent piece about the commonalities between all right wing fundamentalists currently operating in Europe. From the link:

Florence far-right gunman Gianluca Casseri, who shot dead two Africans Tuesday and Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik may have more in common than expected, experts on far-right movements point out.

Described as an expert on right-wing European culture, the 50-year-old alleged member of far-right Casas Pound movement was also passionate about fantasy and conspiracy books. Its literary magazine La Soglia or The Threshold included monographic issues about Dracula, the author of The Lord of the Rings J.R. Tolkien, and H.P. Lovecraft.

This long-time engagement with fantasy genre is shared by Breivik, who killed 77 people in a twin attack in Oslo. “Breivik’s manifesto shows a fascination and an obsession with the fantasy genre, especially with Tolkien and Lovecraft,” Matthew Goodwin, experts on far-right extremism, told the International Business Times UK.

“It’s part of a wider discourse. Far-right movements are obsessed with narratives that put emphasis on apocalyptic scenario, in which they portray themselves as heroes.”[…]

The Florence racist shooting also reflects “the neglected challenge of far right violence”, according to Goodwin.

“It’s interesting to notice that Florence shooting took place the same day as Belgium one, but it did not rise the same attention from the media,” he argues. Before Norway, there was a tendency among European politicians to downplay far-right violence because it does not fit in focus with Al Qaeda and the anti-Islamist narrative post 9/11.

Read the rest here.

Worth noting, the BBC took seven hours (SEVEN!) to report the killing of the Senegalese men in Italy. As the writer points out, it seems that far right violence is not perceived as a challenge that requires urgent measures.


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