The murder trial of Anders Behring Breivik, who is accused of killing 77 people on July 22, 2011, in two separate attacks (bomb in Oslo and killing spree on the Norwegian island of Utøya) has once again focused attention on the growth of right-wing extremism throughout Europe. Additionally, there are concerns that law enforcement agencies and security services are neglecting the growing threat. The website quoted a member of the London-based nongovernmental organization (NGO) called “HOPE not hate,” “EU authorities have been lagging on radicalization in Europe. They’ve been slow to grasp the power of the Internet and social media that encourages and helps coordinate the activities of groups.”

The NGO recently published a report entitled The Counter-Jihad Movement that argues that “the ‘counter-jihad’ movement has become the new face of the far right in Europe and North America.” The report “identifies some 300 disparate groups and individuals behind the trend.”

The EUobserver also quoted Professor Sindre Bangstad, an anthropologist at the University of Olso, who is writing a book on Anders Breivik. As to whether the European authorities had a “blind spot” on the counter-jihad movement, Professor Bangstad said, “The threats from the far right and radicalization in Europe are quite real. In the Norwegian experience, the authorities have taken a one-sided approach. The PST, the police intelligence services who monitor terrorism threats in Norway, had only limited knowledge of right-wing extremists.” He added that, “despite the scale of the Breivik incident, the number of far-right activists prepared to use deadly violence is limited, however. They do not constitute a credible threat to democracy in Europe.”