A memorial service took place at the Oslo Cathedral in recognition of the shooting that happened on June 25, 2022, in the Norwegian capital city. Police are calling the shooting that left 2 dead and 21 injured an “act of Islamist terrorism.”
The series of shootings took place on Saturday around 2 of Oslo’s most popular pubs, one of them being a well-known LGBTQ+ location. Witnesses claim the 42-year-old suspect grabbed a firearm from his bag and started gunning people down, causing customers to flee. One bystander claimed he stood on the man’s gun while he was being tackled by 4 others. He said, “my thought then was to run and stand on it, so that no one would come.”
The attacker, later named as Zaniar Matapour was eventually arrested and stripped of his 2 guns. Police are still investigating his motive, not yet calling it a hate crime. That day, the terror alert level in Norway increased to the greatest level. Fortunately, the PST intelligence service confirmed that additional attacks were unlikely.
The horrific scenes led to the pride parade, arranged for Saturday, being canceled. Even with the parade canceled, people continued to crowd the streets waving rainbow pride flags and laying down flowers as an act of resilience.
The shooting came just after the 6-year anniversary of the massacre at the Pulse Nightclub, an LGBTQ-dominant venue, in Orlando that killed 49 people. The incident in Oslo adds to the more than 250 mass shootings that have happened already in 2022, many of which either take place at schools, injuring minors, or as an act of hate crime.
Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere recalls, “during the day, the city was full of people who wanted to speak out, about sorrow and anger, but also about support and solidarity and the will to continue on fighting, for the right of every individual to live a free life, a safe life.” He added, “these misdeeds remind us of this. This fight is not over. It is not safe from dangers. But we are going to win it, together.”
Head of the Norwegian Protestant Church, Olav Fykse Tveit recognized that the church had contradicting thoughts about the LGBTQ+ community, but acknowledges that “we see that we can learn, sometimes in spite of ourselves, that diversity is a present, a richness, and that many homosexuals have a capacity for love that we are incapable of.”
Sources:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61941172
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/06/24/europe/norway-oslo-gay-bar-shooting-intl-hnk/index.html
The series of shootings took place on Saturday around 2 of Oslo’s most popular pubs, one of them being a well-known LGBTQ+ location. Witnesses claim the 42-year-old suspect grabbed a firearm from his bag and started gunning people down, causing customers to flee. One bystander claimed he stood on the man’s gun while he was being tackled by 4 others. He said, “my thought then was to run and stand on it, so that no one would come.”
The attacker, later named as Zaniar Matapour was eventually arrested and stripped of his 2 guns. Police are still investigating his motive, not yet calling it a hate crime. That day, the terror alert level in Norway increased to the greatest level. Fortunately, the PST intelligence service confirmed that additional attacks were unlikely.
The horrific scenes led to the pride parade, arranged for Saturday, being canceled. Even with the parade canceled, people continued to crowd the streets waving rainbow pride flags and laying down flowers as an act of resilience.
The shooting came just after the 6-year anniversary of the massacre at the Pulse Nightclub, an LGBTQ-dominant venue, in Orlando that killed 49 people. The incident in Oslo adds to the more than 250 mass shootings that have happened already in 2022, many of which either take place at schools, injuring minors, or as an act of hate crime.
Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere recalls, “during the day, the city was full of people who wanted to speak out, about sorrow and anger, but also about support and solidarity and the will to continue on fighting, for the right of every individual to live a free life, a safe life.” He added, “these misdeeds remind us of this. This fight is not over. It is not safe from dangers. But we are going to win it, together.”
Head of the Norwegian Protestant Church, Olav Fykse Tveit recognized that the church had contradicting thoughts about the LGBTQ+ community, but acknowledges that “we see that we can learn, sometimes in spite of ourselves, that diversity is a present, a richness, and that many homosexuals have a capacity for love that we are incapable of.”
Sources:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61941172
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/06/24/europe/norway-oslo-gay-bar-shooting-intl-hnk/index.html
