On Friday, the Nazi organization and three of its leaders were placed on the US list of global terrorists. The US State Department believes that DNM poses a threat to the US and US interests. Knife fights and explosives: This is how the US justifies the terrorist listing. The US State Department writes that DNM has a platform that is openly racist, anti-Semitic, against immigrants and queers. The ministry writes that members and leaders have carried out violent attacks against political opponents, counter-demonstrators and journalists. The ministry also points out that members of the organization have “taken steps” to collect and make weapons and explosive materials. DNM has organized violence training, including fighting with knives and fists. The Nordic resistance movement has its center of gravity in Sweden, but also has branches in Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Finland. Associate professor at the Norwegian Police Academy, Jacob Aasland Ravndal, has followed the far-right movement for a long time. RESEARCHER: Jacob Ravndal is a researcher at the Norwegian Police Academy and associated with the Center for Extremism Research (C-REX) at the University of Oslo. He was also a member of the committee that investigated the terrorist attack in Oslo on 25 June 2022. Photo: Ole Berg-Rusten / NTB He believes the US has made a mistake by labeling the organization a terrorist. – Is there a deserved label to put on this group? – If a traditional understanding of terrorist groups is to be used as a basis, then it is not. Then it doesn’t hit. – The organization does not use terror as a means of action as they operate today, says Ravndal to news. Ravndal calls the group extremely extreme, but says that they are characterized by a conscious relationship with what kind of means they use and do not use. – My assessment is that purely in principle and morally they do not rule out the use of terror in another context, but that they are aware that it will not serve their cause today. It is something they absolutely avoid. They want to operate as a legal group, and then terror is ruled out. – Unfortunate that one misses so clearly The US Ministry of Foreign Affairs points out, among other things, that DNM engages in combat training, and that members have collected weapons and explosives. KNIFE FIGHT: news followed the Nazi organization DNM for over two years, including at a training camp where close combat was among the points on the programme. This is one of the activities the Americans highlighted in their justification. Photo: Henrik Evertsson / news In 2017, three members of DNM were sentenced to longer prison terms for having been behind two firebomb attacks in Sweden. The Nordic resistance movement then claimed that the organization had nothing to do with the bombings – and that the activists must have acted on their own initiative if they were behind it. The Norwegian part of the resistance movement claimed the same when the police seized a number of weapons from one of the organization’s supporters in 2014. DNM believes, among other things, that Adolf Hitler was a great politician, that the Holocaust is a lie, that same-sex marriage should be banned, and that all who do not have a northern European or closely related ethnic background, must be thrown out of the Nordic region. Extremism researcher Ravndal believes that it has been in the cards for some time that DNM should be on the terrorist list. He sees it as a response to a political demand. – Who should be called terrorists or not is a very political question. There has been general criticism that the threat from the far right is not taken seriously enough in the USA. – Do you think it is right to put DNM on the terrorist list? – No, says Ravndal to news. – It is a shame when it becomes so political that you end up classifying groups that do not satisfy a normal definition of a terrorist group. I think it’s unfortunate when you miss so clearly. – I am also unsure whether this has any beneficial effects. If anything, this will create more attention around the organization, and they want that. PST does not see DNM as a threat DNM has so far not responded to news’s inquiries. On its own website, the organization has already published several articles about the move from the USA. – These are absurd accusations with no basis in reality, writes DNM’s leader Tor Fredrik Vejdeland in a post. DNM leader Tor Fredrik Vejdeland gives a speech at a demonstration in Stockholm on 25 August 2018. Photo: Øyvind Bye Skille / news He writes that DNM is not a terrorist organisation, but a legal organization that engages in “opinion-forming” activities. Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström shares the US view that DNM is a serious threat. Senior adviser Eirik Veum in the Police’s security service does not want to comment on Ravndal’s opinion that the US has “clearly failed” to list DNM as a terrorist. He says, however, that PST does not consider DNM in Norway to be a threat to the nation’s security. – We consider it unlikely that people associated with DNM will carry out terrorism and that assessment has not changed, says Veum to news. Published 16.06.2024, at 13.01
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– Unfortunate that one misses so clearly – news Norway – Overview of news from various parts of the country
