FAIR on the rush to pin the Oslo bombing on Muslims

FAIR has an excellent analysis of the rush in the MSM to declare the shocking terror attack in Norway the work of Muslims. From "Seeing 'Islamic Terror' in Norway":

Right-wing terror suspect Anders Behring Breivik reportedly killed 76 people in Norway on Friday, by all accounts driven by far-right anti-immigrant politics and fervent Islamophobia. But many early media accounts assumed that the perpetrator of the attacks was Muslim. [MORE]

It's a very useful round-up that you should read.

Now, given the tragic conflicts that wrack our world I frankly understand the temptation to assume it was perpetrated by Muslims–not that this justifies disgarding basic journalistic standards or gratuitiously fanning prejudices or fears–but in a way what's most scandalous is the foul mix of Orwelian rationalizations and shameless indifference to facts on display by the many pundits and politicians who are now refusing to own up to their undeniable mistake and the obvious concerns it raises about their assumptions and understanding of basic issues. Even when they dead wrong, they're somehow "right."

I especially "like" the Norwegian security analyst who confidently declared the man's manifesto to be strikingly similiar to OBL's rants. From "Oslo Suspect Wrote of Fear of Islam and Plan for War" (The New York Times, 7/23/11):

Thomas Hegghammer, a terrorism specialist at the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment, said the manifesto bears an eerie resemblance to those of Osama bin Laden and other Al-Qaeda leaders, though from a Christian rather than a Muslim point of view. Like Mr. Breivik’s manuscript, the major Qaeda declarations have detailed accounts of the Crusades, a pronounced sense of historical grievance and calls for apocalyptic warfare to defeat the religious and cultural enemy.

"It seems to be an attempt to mirror Al-Qaeda, exactly in reverse," Mr. Hegghammer said.

Wow, what powerful analysis. Why, the scales have been removed from my eyes. This eagle-eyed observer is obviously intimately acquainted with the strange ways of Muslim extremists.

There's just one problem, though: It turns out that the document from which Islamofascism allegedly drips from every line was cribbed not from Osama bin Laden or one of his insane colleagues, but from an infamous American non-Muslim eco-terrorist! From "Norway's mass murder and the Unabomber (SFGate.com, 7/25/2011):

If ["Unabomber" Ted]  Kaczynski weren't doing life in a federal prison, he might have had plagiarism lawyers look at the document. It apes his 1996, 63-page manifesto in many ways. That document, "Industrial Society and Its Future," was a typewritten cry for revolution against modern technology, ranting against all who promoted anything other than a Luddite life.

Breivik's paper lifts some bits wholesale from the Unabomber, such as this one passage: "Feminists are desperately anxious to prove that women are as strong and capable as men." Other parts are disturbingly similar to Kaczynski's writing, swapping out jibes against leftists for jibes against Marxists or multiculturalists.

My god, do these clowns get paid to spout such uninformed nonsense?