A year on from the Anders Behring Breivik's terrorist attacks on Norway, Marte Christensen conducted a series of interviews in Oslo for openDemocracy.
Shoaib Sultan is a Norwegian analyst and writer of Pakistani descent. He mapped the extreme right for the Norwegian Centre against Racism, and in 2007 co-wrote an essay warning against overlooking the potential for terror from those quarters.
He was the first Secretary General of the Islamic Council of Norway, is proponent of religious dialogue, and co-signer of the Christian-Muslim declaration on religious freedom and freedom to choose ones religion.
Sultan was the third candidate for the Green Party in the Oslo municipal elections in 2011, and writes for several newspapers and journals. He has been active in peace and environmental organisations.
Thomas Hylland Eriksen is professor of social anthropology at the University of Oslo, and openDemocracy contributor.
He has written extensively on identity, nationalism and globalisation, and is a frequent commentator on related issues in the media.
Anders Behring Breivik mentioned him more than a dozen times in his “manifesto”, considering him one of the foremost proponents of multiculturalism and ”cultural Marxism” in Norway, and hence an enemy.
Kate Pendry, born in London in 1965, has lived in Norway since 1995, and was in downtown Oslo as the bomb went off. She has followed the court case closely and, standing in front of the site of the explosion, she reflects on how her adopted nation has dealt with its trauma, drawing on her experiences of violence in recent British history.
Pendry is a successful performance artist, actress and playwright, often dealing with controversial subjects such as war, murder and pornography. Her work is personal and political, often using dark humour. In 2010 she received The Norwegian Ibsen Award for her play Erasmus Tyrannus Rex. At times she has needed protection due to threats.
These interviews are the first two of three interviews in the series Recovering from terror, produced by openDemocracy with Marte Christensen in cooperation with Magnus Nome.