Daily Mail columnist Melanie Phillips has responded to online commentary noting that her work was referenced by Norway’s mass killer.
The Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik published a 1,500 page manifesto that warned of ‘Islamic colonisation’of Western Europe.
It drew on numerous published sources ranging from Winston Churchill to George Orwell and including Phillips.
Writing on her blog Phillips notes: “A concerned reader has sent me a post by Sunny Hundal on the Liberal Conspiracy blog.
‘Hundal brings us what he clearly considers to be the most important news about the Norwegian atrocity. This is that, in the ‘manifesto’ reportedly published by the terrorist suspect Anders Behring Breivik, two of my articles are quoted.
‘Golly. Is Hundal suggesting that my writing provoked the mass murder of some 93 Norwegians? Doubtless with one eye on the law of libel, he piously avers: ‘There is no suggestion that his actions were inspired by Melanie Phillips, nor am I making that claim’.
“In fact, there are only two references to me or my work in its 1,500 pages … Why has he singled me out in this way? It looks like yet another crude attempt to smear me. … The supposed beliefs of Norway massacre’s perpetrator has got the left in general wetting itself in delirium at this apparently heaven-sent opportunity to take down those who fight for life, liberty and western civilisation against those who would destroy it.
‘On Twitter and the net and in the liberal media, the forces of spite, malice and venom have been unleashed in a terrifying display of irrationality.”
Breivik’s manifesto also cites an article by Jeremy Clarkson, the Top Gear presenter, about the flag of St George, in which he stated: ‘This is the only country in the world where the national flag is deemed offensive.’
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