A 32-year-old Norwegian man made international news last Friday when he ruthlessly murdered at least 93 people in a huge bomb blast in the country’s capital and then a massive shooting spree at an island retreat for young people. According to the Washington Times, the murders unfolded late Friday afternoon when a van exploded, killing seven people outside government buildings in downtown Oslo. Police believe Anders Behring Breivik left this explosive-filled van and then drove to the island of Utoya, a remote island 24 miles from Oslo, to embark on a shooting rampage at the annual summer gathering of some 700 youth members of the Norwegian Labor Party.

Breivik is a self-described Christian fundamentalist with links to anti-Islamic establishments in both England and Norway. In a 1,500-page online manifesto titled 2083—A European Declaration of Independence, he railed against Islamic immigration and claimed that multiculturalism was sapping Europe of its Christian heritage. He also heaped praise on Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders and included quotes from Wilders in his manifesto.

Although Breivik has been captured by the police, he defends his actions as a necessary step in the battle against Islam. Both his targets—the government building in Oslo and the youth camp in Utoya—had strong connection with the social-democratic Norwegian Labor Party. This party was singled out in his manifesto as an epicenter of Marxist activity. His lawyer has clarified that Breivik was trying to incite a revolution by striking out at those he holds responsible for Islamic immigration into Europe.

It would be grossly unfair to consider Breivik’s senseless and barbaric actions as representative of the majority of far-right political adherents in Europe. However, the fact is that many in the far-right wing of European politics are coming to share many of Breivik’s ideas about the need to take radical action against the “threat of Islam.” According to the Telegraph, “Breivik has already become a heroic figure for sections of the ultra far right, much in the same way Timothy McVeigh became a hero for sections of the militia movement in the United States.” Breivik was not always an irrational far-right loner; he traveled through the political mainstream and had strong ties with both the English Defense League and the Norwegian Progress Party.

In recent years, anti-immigrant parties have gained influence throughout northern Europe by tapping public anxiety over the relatively new phenomenon of mass Muslim immigration to their region. The anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats were elected last year to the Swedish parliament for the first time, despite the party having roots in neo-Nazi movements of the 1980s and ’90s. In France, recent polling places President Nicolas Sarkozy behind Marine Le Pen, the head of the country’s anti-immigrant National Front Party, ahead of 2012’s elections. In Germany, a recent report reveals that far-right neo-Nazi activists are increasingly use the Internet to recruit young people to their cause.

The xenophobic ideas that were once characteristic only of fascist radicals are now working themselves into the mainstream of European politics. The fact that far-right politicians can voice extreme views with “a veneer of acceptability” actually makes far-right leaders of today more dangerous than the skinheads of yesterday, says Simon Tilford, chief economist for the Center for European Reform, a London-based think tank that favors European integration. “The far-right movements that we’re seeing—not all of them, but a few of them—pose a greater challenge than those we saw in the 1980s and 1990s,” Tilford says. “They’re expressing extreme positions but in a far more polished way, and there’s a danger of such views becoming more socially acceptable.”

Mainstream politicians are now expressing anti-immigration viewpoints as a means of consoling the populace. President Sarkozy banned the wearing of burkas in France earlier this year in the face of rising public support for Le Pen’s National Front Party. Sarkozy, British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have all expressed concern in recent months about national ailments associated with Islamic immigration and the “failures” of multiculturalism.

On his first day on the job in March, Germany’s new interior minister, Hans-Peter Friedrich, went so far as to say history does not support the statement that Islam belongs in Germany.

Even though the peoples of Europe are currently standing aghast at the brutal murders committed by Anders Behring Breivik, many of them are starting to adopt his ideas about the need to take radical action against the “threat of Islam.”

Watch for Europe to take more extreme measures in the future. History and prophecy reveal that Europe will indeed act forcefully to solve the “Muslim problem.” Read “The Coming War Between Catholicism and Islam” for a rundown of Europe’s history of dealing with Islam and an explanation of the coming final clash.