Inventing "The Other" Islamophobia |
Fear And Loathing |
The real regressives |
Human Rights Service (HRS) is a Norwegian far-right Islamophobic and racist organization, with an ironic name[1] founded in 2000 by Rita Karlsen. It focuses on one single issue: Muslims are evil and are plotting the overthrow of Europe. Its two core activists are Karlsen and Hege Storhaug, but other cranks and Islamophobes such as Bruce Bawer and Nina Hjerpset-Østlie have also worked for the organization. The hate group's main activity is publishing anti-Muslim screeds on their website.
The organization regularly publishes articles by the Swedish racist "Julia Caesar," including an article which claims that immigration of Africans is a "mass import of mentally retarded people" due to the allegedly low intelligence of Africans.[2] Human Rights Service has promoted blog posts by the Islamophobic blogger Fjordman (who inspired Anders Behring Breivik) and praised his racist and conspiracy theorist screeds as "fantastic Fjordman essays."[3] Hege Storhaug of Human Rights Service has also accused conservative Prime Minister Erna Solberg of being a "cultural traitor" because she visited a mosque.[4] The anti-immigration and climate change-denying Norwegian political party Fremskrittspartiet has demanded that Human Rights Service be given public funding as a condition for supporting various conservative governments.
According to anti-racist activist Tor Bach, HRS promotes conspiracy theories resembling antisemitic conspiracy theories, where the only difference is that HRS targets Muslims instead of Jews. He describes HRS as "an extremist organisation and a hate group which exclusively publishes negative material about Muslims," and considers it a "scandal" that the organisation has received public funding.[5] The social anthropologist Sindre Bangstad describes HRS as a leading Islamophobic and far-right group which inspired Breivik.[1]