4

You know the rest. The victims were his own people, the Quislings of his imagined Islamisation of his county. He became a terrorist who decided to try to neutralise multiculturalism. Andres Breivik's prophecy defined any fundamentalism as the face of same nightmare for a modern, liberal and secular society.

The gunman who simultaneously worshipped people such as Winston Churchill and Radovan Karadžić was also aware of the existence of a small and generally unknown country by the name of Slovenia. He believed Slovenia is an example of a place where multiculturalism hasn't taken root. Yet even the Slovenian National Party, explicitly praised by Brievik for their efforts, turned down the "compliment" and condemned the act of a mad man.

Breivik, however, made a few mistakes in his interpretation. It's not that Slovenes turn down multiculturalism. It's just that there hasn't been a chance for multiculturalism to develop yet. It simply hasn't come knocking on our doors. The source of our economic emigration is still a bit closer to the south and "our" Bosnians - some of them Muslims, many other devoted Christians - just don't look and act that different than us. While already in conflict with each others, the ex-Yugoslavs all share the same level of inferiority in the eyes of a xenophobe Slovene. What Berivik also didn't know - and would be happy to find out - is that Slovenia uses far more subtle methods to humiliate them, like hiring them as workers, not paying them and sending them back south to their families. All with a legal blessing under the socio-liberal government. This has even created a wave of sympathy by the same xenophobe Slovenes, so there's really little job for nationalist extremists in this regard.

To explain, but not justify - Slovenia in many aspects has managed to remain a homogenous society, where different races are still regarded as strangely exotic rather than threatening. If you are black, there's more chance to somebody will ask you to pose for a coffee advertisement than see you as a threat for his or her job. So, our guardians of "purity" have had to refocus on other threatening elements. Statistics show that gay people are the most common minority when Slovenes are asked to name "your most undesired neighbours," ahead of Gypsies and Muslims. No wonder they have become the most frequent victim of organised assaults, a stain on the image of a generally safe and friendly country. But then again it's a small country, with small stains... Maybe we should even thank our neighbouring Croats who are far ahead of us in beating up homosexuals, so we can hide into their shadow.

Officially there are of course no self-proclaimed homophobes, just a number of legal and legitimate guardians of the tradition, who are keen to seize any opportunity to scream out their opinion out loud - even as a special appearance of the most prominent Catholic holiday masses. But whenever a violent incident happens, the same "moral majority" would be the first to condemn the outbursts of violence and distance themselves from the perpetrators, labelling them as nutcases, or the freaks of computer games addiction. Nutcases, freaks... or just self-seeking youngsters, who paid attention to some widespread ideas, but took them all too seriously? Sound familiar?