- The attack on 25 June is a sign that extreme Islamists have queerness and pride in their image of the enemy, says strategic analyst in PST, Siv Sørensen, to news. Siv Sørensen is a strategic analyst at PST. Photo: Truls Antonsen / news Zaniar Matapour (43) shot and killed two people in the center of Oslo on the night of Saturday 25 June. He is charged with murder, attempted murder and terrorism. One of the pubs he shot at was the London Pub. The bar is a well-known gay club. The fact that the attack took place during Oslo Pride is one of the reasons why PST says the shooting is a terrorist attack which is probably aimed at queers. – After the attack, it is clear to us that the focus on queerness from extreme Islamists has become even more topical, says Sørensen. The Oslo police district is investigating the shooting. They have not concluded what was Matapour’s goal. – Queer more vulnerable now Sørensen warns that the queer part of the population may be more vulnerable than before the attack. The reason is that terrorist attacks that receive a lot of attention can inspire others to carry out terror. This can happen by them choosing the same goal or method. This phenomenon was observed, among other things, after the terrorist Brenton Tarrant attacked two mosques in New Zealand in 2019. Subsequently, Tarrant inspired several terrorist attacks, including in Norway. Convicted terrorist Philip Manshaus explained during the trial that he felt chosen by Tarrant. Sørensen says PST fears that follow-on attacks will hit queers. – Unfortunately, we consider that the queer population may be somewhat more exposed in the period ahead, says the analyst. – Does this mean that it will be dangerous to organize pride in the future? – It is a difficult question. Hopefully, the police will look after the security of the various pride events, but warding off terror and solo terrorism is incredibly demanding. Both the pride parade in Oslo and a support rally after the shooting were canceled on the advice of the police. It is uncertain when Oslo Pride will organize a parade again. The threat level in Norway is considered high. This means that PST believes that several people have the ability and willingness to carry out a terrorist attack. Clearer terrorist targets The Oslo police district is investigating the shooting. The police still have a hypothesis that Matapour may have been mentally ill when he carried out the attack. They want to find out whether the 43-year-old is criminally sane. Another hypothesis is that the attack is a hate crime. This means that the attack is motivated by hatred or negative attitudes towards homosexuals. However, PST is clear that the shooting was a terrorist attack. The security service believes that Matapour is an extreme Islamist, and that several people were involved in the attack. – We firmly believe that it is extreme Islamists who are behind this, said PST chief Roger Berg to news in June. He showed, among other things, the day the attack took place. According to analyst Sørensen, extreme Islamists in Norway had not particularly focused on homosexuals before the attack. She says that extreme Islamists have seen homosexuals as a legitimate but not a priority target. Siv Sørensen says that queer people have been a legitimate but not a priority target for extreme Islamists. Photo: Truls Antonsen – We have not registered a very explicit focus on it from Norwegian extreme Islamists. But we have been aware for a long time that queers are part of the general image of the enemy of extreme Islamists, says Sørensen. A couple of weeks before the mass shooting, the well-known Islamist Arfan Bhatti posted a quote on Facebook calling for the murder of homosexuals. He also posted a photo of a burning rainbow flag. Arfan Bhatti during a demonstration in front of the American embassy in Oslo. Photo: Kyrre Lien / NTB scanpix Sørensen in PST says that extremists are “very current”. This spring and summer there has been a debate about, among other things, the participation of trans people and school children in the parade. – The debate around, for example, being queer, trans and the pride movement has perhaps contributed to making pride and queer more visible to certain groups of extremists, says the analyst. The fact that the pride movement has been embraced by large parts of society may also have contributed. – Pride has become a kind of folk festival in Norway. It will be a symbol of our values and our desire for diversity. It may have further actualized pride as a goal, says Sørensen. Few terrorist attacks aimed at homosexuals Nine days before the mass shooting in Oslo, PST lowered the threat level from extreme Islamists. The security service believed that an attack was unlikely. Nor have queers been singled out as a likely target in the annual threat assessments. – Should PST have communicated more clearly that queers are a possible target for extreme Islamists? – If you look at the number of attacks against queer and pride events compared to the number of carried out and averted from extreme Islamists, there was nothing to indicate that, says Sørensen. She refers to PST’s classified database of terrorist attacks. PST has extracted figures for news which show that queer people have been the target in one per cent of terrorist attacks in the west carried out by extreme Islamists since 2014. It is the civilian population in general that has been hardest hit by terrorist attacks from extreme Islamists in recent years. In Syria and Iraq, the terrorist group the Islamic State (IS) has been concerned with punishing homosexuality, including by throwing homosexuals from roofs. However, the terrorist attacks in the West have been motivated by, among other things, what is perceived as provocations or oppression of Islam and Muslims.
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PST believes queers were the target of the mass shooting in Oslo – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
