Nina Hjerpset-Østlie

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Nina Hjerpset-Østlie (born 1969) is a Norwegian Islamophobe and far-right activist and blogger. She is currently affiliated with the Islamophobic and far right[1] group "Human Rights Service," an organisation which exclusively publishes negative material, including conspiracy theories, about Muslims. She was formerly an active blogger on the Islamophobic far-right[2] blog Document.no.

Anti-Muslim blogging[edit]

For many years, she was one of the two main authors of the Islamophobic and nationalist blog Document.no,[3] along with its founder Hans Rustad. Their blog entered the media spotlight in 2011 due to its assocation with Anders Behring Breivik, a former contributor who according to the BBC "left racist, extremist right-wing comments along with fellow anti-Muslims" on the site.[4] The website has been described by the humanist scholar Lars Gule as "a far-right web forum" that is "dominated by Islamophobic and anti-immigration commentary."[5] The Financial Times has described Document.no as "a website rife with anti-Muslim and hard right rhetoric."[6] An official report of the Norwegian Police University College cites Document.no as an example of an "extremist website" alongside Stormfront and Gates of Vienna.[2]

While Hans Rustad tries, rather unconvincingly, to give the impression of being an "intellectual," Hjerpset-Østlie has no such aspirations, and her writing has a more vulgar, uneducated and openly racist tone. Like most Islamophobes, she has no formal education and little knowledge of the topics she voices strong opinions on; her writing is characterized by frequent use of exclamations, bad humour and poor language.

Involvement with Islamophobic hate group[edit]

Since 2014, Nina Hjerpset-Østlie works as a "website editor" for Hege Storhaug's Islamophobic organisation "Human Rights Service" (HRS). HRS is noted for promoting blog posts by the Islamophobic blogger Fjordman (who inspired Breivik) and for praising his racist and conspiracy theorist screeds about "Eurabia" as "fantastic Fjordman essays."[7] Most revealingly, in 2015 HRS, using language closely resembling Breivik's manifesto, accused conservative Prime Minister Erna Solberg of being a "cultural traitor" because she had visited a mosque.[8] HRS also promotes blog posts by the Swedish anonymous racist blogger "Julia Caesar," including an article which claims that immigration of Africans is a "mass import of mentally retarded people."[9]

According to anti-racist activist Tor Bach, HRS promotes conspiracy theories resembling antisemitic conspiracy theories, where the only difference is that HRS targets Muslims instead of Jews. He describes HRS as "an extremist organisation and a hate group which exclusively publishes negative material about Muslims." He points out that "there are no substantial differences between HRS and the Norwegian Defence League" (the Norwegian branch of the English Defence League) and that "they both promote the same Eurabia theories as Fjordman and Breivik."[10] In a scholarly monograph on the rise of Islamophobia, the social anthropologist Sindre Bangstad describes HRS as a leading Islamophobic and far-right group which inspired Breivik.[1]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sindre Bangstad, Anders Breivik and the Rise of Islamophobia, Zed Books, 2014, ISBN 9781783600083
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Inger Marie Sunde, Forebygging av radikalisering og voldelig ekstremisme på internett [Prevention of radicalization and violent extremism on the Internet] (p. 28), Norwegian Police University College, Report 1/2013
  3. ↑ International ‘Counter-Jihadist’ map: Norway, Hope not Hate
  4. ↑ Liss Goril Anda (2001-09-11). "Attacks strike at Norway's values". Bbc.co.uk.
  5. ↑ Peter O'Neil (2011-07-27). "Expert says he confronted mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik about his views". The Vancouver Sun.
  6. ↑ Andrew Ward; Robin Wigglesworth (2011-07-25). "Killings sure to stir immigration debate". Financial Times.
  7. ↑ Kritikk som fortjent, Dagbladet, 6 October 2015
  8. ↑ – De stadig sterkere uttalelsene er et tegn på at ekstremistene taper, Osloby.no
  9. ↑ Rasisme hos Human Rights Service, Antirasistisk senter
  10. ↑ – Storhaug spiller på jødehat-lignende konspirasjoner, Vårt Land, 5 June 2015
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