Norway shootings and religious belief

I'm sure you're aware of the recent Norway terrorist attacks, one in Oslo and the other at a youth camp on the island of Utoya. It's a tragic thing, and in my view it highlights the dangers of religious belief.

The attacks were carried out by Anders Breivik, a far-left anti-Islam extremist who sought to remove multiculturalism and Islam from Europe to keep it "Christian."

The attacks were intended to raise awareness of his beliefs, not as a direct offense against immigrants in Norway. He thought such an action would only cause the public to sympathise for them. In regards to the civilian wounded and dead, he says it was a "necessary atrocity". His motivations are very disturbing, outlined in his manifesto. I've only read summaries of it, it would take days to go over it all.

It includes instructions on how to arm yourself for anti-Islamic violence in gruesome detail, as well as his militant views against feminism, homosexuality, atheism, political correctness (which he claims is a variant of Marxism) and Islam. There's even a section on how his new world would work, from government to agriculture.

Anders attacked the camp because it was owned by the Norwegian Labour Party, which he disdained for its liberal policies on immigration. His lawyers are pleading clinical insanity because his views and actions are so non-sensical.

I find this disturbing primarily because of how he was motivated; his religious belief. Granted, it was not totally a theological thing, there were political grievances too. But my point is that without religion he wouldn't have so readily threatened by the peaceful "Islamisation" of Europe. No atheist has ever threatened to fly planes into skyscrapers or shoot up schools. A godless rational mind would resort to political activism (of the non-militant kind!) at most.

And many right-wing Christian media have been decrying the Christian motivation, such as Conservapedia and Bill O'Reilly etc.

Which is of course ridiculous. He was certainly a Christian, Bill. His manifesto includes a section of Christian templars he venerates, including Vlad the Impaler.

The point to take from this is that all irrational religious belief is dangerous, even moderate belief. It can act as a gateway to extremism. Usually this is the case for Islam but Anders shows it can happen in Christianity as well.