Maybe it’s time to get up off the couch?

Also published at Gates of Vienna

It’s not really worth writing too much about yesterday’s anti-Islamic rally in Oslo organized by the NDL and SIOE. As predicted, the event only attracted around 40-50 individuals, most of them members of the two organizations. The rally could just as easily have been held at the headquarters of the NDL as a “members only” event.

Rune Hauge, the leader of the NDL, was correct when he stated in an interview earlier this year that Norwegians who are critical of Islam need to get up off the couch and become more actively involved in the fight against this evil ideology. It’s no good limiting oneself to writing indignant post and comments on the Internet. Sure, writing on the web has an impact, but at some point people need to get off their bums and actually start doing some constructive organizational work and make their voices heard, and demonstrating in a public area is a good start.

If ten thousand people had showed up at the event in Oslo on Saturday, and at similar events across the country in the future, the authorities and the MSM wouldn’t be able to simply brush them off any longer as ‘radical loons’ without public support. I’m pretty confident that there are hundreds of thousands of Norwegians who share the concerns of the NDL and SIOE, but they are reluctant to demonstrate and take part in these types of rallies. The threat of violence will always hang over such events as an invisible glove, and, yes, it could have negative repercussions for some people’s careers, but that’s just the way it is.

How do people expect to stop the spread of Islam in Norway in the future if they’re not even willing to stand up to this undemocratic ideology today? Norwegian politicians are most definitely not going to stop it; they are the ones who got us in this mess in the first place by opening the doors for it. Unfortunately, the responsibility for halting the tidal wave of Islam falls upon the people who oppose it. It is as simple as that, and subsequently those people who at a great personal cost are willing to stand up as an example for others to follow should be commended and praised. They certainly shouldn’t be ridiculed and mocked, especially not by other Norwegians who are equally critical of this ideology, but who limit themselves in venting their frustration about Islam online.

I had a look at Document.no yesterday and I was saddened to see the editor of the website, Hans Rustad, belittling and lecturing those who dare to stick their necks out and stand up for something they believe in. These are principles that should be applauded, not derided. It is especially sad because Document.no is one of the biggest Islam-critical websites in Norway, and people listen to Hans Rustad.

I’ve translated some of Rustad’s poisonous remarks below:

"When reading and watching NRK’s reports on the Norwegian Defense League and Stop The Islamisation of Europe, one is almost overcome by a claustrophobic anxiety. It is difficult to distinguish between NRK’s political grip and the activists’ simplicity. It takes two to tango."

"But the activists are playing the cards that they have been dealt as effectively as possible. To demonstrate in a public area, and one where there is a large immigrant population, is a hopeless undertaking. In theory, NDL leader Rune Hauge’s idea to show that Grønland is also part of Norway has some validity. But one cannot ignore the consequences: that it is going to provoke the residents of the area and that opposing forces will mobilize. And among those opposing forces are people who feel that they have every right to resort to violence."

"If the activists are serious about their commitment then they have to listen to the wishes of the people. People don’t accept confrontations provided that there is a specific issue that is of such importance that one simply can’t keep quiet about it. The fact that people failed to support them on Saturday in Grønland does not mean people don’t take these issues seriously. You don’t get people involved by scaring them away."

I would venture that Islam definitely qualifies as a ‘specific issue’ that has to be opposed in the most rigorous manner even if that includes the likelihood of getting physically attacked, because rest assured the rise of Islam in Norway will eventually result in violence and brutality, and it will be directed at those who are too cowardly to oppose it today, and their offspring. There’s no need to try to sugar-coat the inevitable.

Perhaps it would be a better idea, if Document.no and Hans Rustad are so concerned about the NDL/SIOE’s lack of oral skills and inadequacies in presenting views on national TV, to encourage people with those skills to join these organizations and not drive people away from them.

On previous occasions Hans Rustad has condescendingly described members of the EDL as unemployed hooligan thugs who are only interested in fighting and drinking. Is that also how he sees the people of the NDL and SIOE?

Are they not educated enough for him?

It would be even better if Rustad and the milieu around Document.no started organizing similar rallies across Oslo — and the rest of the country for that matter — on their own terms of course, and began getting the masses more involved in this fight. It’s no good criticising and belittling those who actually have taken the leap and who are willing to give it a go. Demonizing and ridiculing those who have the guts to stand up to Islam only proves that one is a useful idiot for the radical Left, who must be rubbing their hands in joy when they see the biggest Islam-critical website in Norway fronting their views in this particular matter.