Norwegian politicians played at shooting Muslims

Nina Berglund:

Politicians from one of Norway's small parties played at shooting Muslims when they gathered for a summer meeting on the Hurum Peninsula. The event has drawn fire from anti-racists.

It all started when members of The Democrats (Demokratene), along with some of their supporters, held a paintball competition at what they called an "informal" summer meeting. The politicians divided themselves into two groups, one of them dressed up like Muslim terrorists.

"This was both fun and useful, and we hope to have more competitions like this in the future," John Arntsen, leader of the Hurum chapter of the Democrats, told Aftenposten.no.

When asked what he meant by "useful," Arntsen said that "if the world keeps developing like it is now, with terrorism especially in Muslim circles, people can quickly have a need for knowledge about self-defense."

He claims it wasn't planned in advance that one of the teams in the paintball competition would be Muslim. "It just happened that the one team dressed up like terrorists," he said. "This was innocent stuff."

Svein Otto Nilsen, deputy leader of The Democrats, stressed to Aftenposten.no that the party isn't racist. "Everyone is welcome to join and we'll help everyone, also Muslims," he said.

The Hurum chapter of the party, however, continues to have a note on its web site that it's a "Muslim-free zone." And when asked why he thinks The Democrats of Hurum chose to let their terrorist team be Muslims, Nilsen said: "Most terrorists are Muslims today."

Reaction was swift to news of the paintball shooting against Muslims. "When it becomes sport to shoot Muslims, it's going way too far," said Tor Bach of the anti-fascist magazine Monitor.

Nadeem Butt, leader of Oslo's Anti-racist Center, said he was "shocked" by The Democrats' paintball war. He thinks Norway's national security police should keep an eye on party members.

"They call themselves politicians, but this case shows just what kind of party we're dealing with," he said.

The party, which is represented in the Norwegian parliament, says it builds its program around "Christian values... based on Norwegian culture and tradition."

Too funny!