Sympathy for a nation in shock

The two atrocities were intrinsically and deeply appalling, but the way in which the second of them, the mass shooting on the island of Utoeya, cruelly cut short so many young lives takes the events even further beyond the pale.

Commentators have been quick to say that the Oslo bomb and the island massacre represent the worst episodes in the history of Norway since the Second World War. And the collective trauma which the country is now experiencing is, perhaps, more acute because of the nature of Norwegian society.

Since the end of the war – when of course Norway was, like the Channel Islands, under enemy occupation – Norwegians have created a community that is remarkably free of prejudice and discrimination and is often held up as a model of tolerance. It will therefore be doubly shocking, at home and abroad, to understand that a country generally so at ease with itself can be under threat from right-wing extremism, one of whose adherents has been capable of turning obnoxious beliefs into unspeakable action.

Islanders will join Senator Freddie Cohen, effectively our foreign minister, in expressing great sympathy for Norway, in particular for those of its citizens who have lost loved ones. The vast majority of Islanders will also be revolted by the values espoused by the architect and author of the recent horrors – values which have much in common with the disgusting anti-Semitic rantings which have lately been directed at Senator Cohen.

What has happened in Norway – and, indeed, views held by a tiny minority of people living here in the Island – alert us to the fact that fanatics and fundamentalists of many flavours and from both extremes of the political spectrum are a threat to social peace and stability.

Meanwhile, some Islanders will have had contact with members of the Norwegian cricket team, who just happened to have been competing here in Jersey as events unfolded. In any circumstances the cricketers would have been able to count on a warm welcome, but in the light of what has happened, that welcome will have been accompanied by compassion and empathy.