I recently had the opportunity to visit Utøya in Norway as part of my Master’s Degree studies in Terrorism, Security and Radical Right Extremism.
Utøya is the Island on which a right-wing white supremacist shot and killed 69 people, many of whom were young teenagers – the youngest was just 14 years old.
As a Pagan police officer I cannot effectively convey in words how it felt to be in the place where a terrorist – dressed as a police officer and whom stated that his cowardly actions would enable him to enter Valhalla – murdered people in cold blood because those people believed in a more inclusive, diverse and loving world.
Not everyone knows that this terrorist also named his guns Mjolnir and Gungnir, equating the weapons that he used to murder innocent people to the most holy of weapons used by the Gods in their protection of mankind.
You will all know how passionately invested I am in educating our police and counter-terrorism agencies about Pagan extremism; this is so that they can pursue those who misappropriate and misrepresent our sacred iconography in the pursuit of their misogynistic, racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic ideologies whilst ensuring that we law-abiding Pagans can were the symbols of our faith without fear of misdirected proactivity.
No-one wants these terrorists and extremists dealt with more so than our Pagan communities, no-one wants to see our Gods and Goddesses sullied by association with cowardly and inhumane acts, and whilst I was already wholly invested in this line of work on behalf of all of our Pagan communities, I cannot express how much my experience on Utøya, and the profound sense of loss and sadness that permeates and otherwise beautiful and historic landscape has reinvigorated my determination to ensure that the association of our sacred Heathen beliefs with right-wing extremism and white supremacism is completely eradicated.
There are no terrorists or cowards in Valhalla.
‘hvars þú bǫl kannt, kveð þú þat bǫlvi at ok gefat þínum fjándum frið.’
‘Where you know of misfortune/evil declare it to be misfortune/evil and don’t give your enemies peace.’
– Hávamál 127