© Global Look Press/ZUMAPRESS.com/Alexander WiddingThe cover of Breivik's manifesto / Andres Breivik
At least two online bookstores stopped selling the manifesto compiled by Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik, who reportedly inspired the mosque massacres in Christchurch, New Zealand last week.
Breivik, an extremist white supremacist, is currently serving a maximum 21-year sentence for slaughtering 77 people and injuring over 300 in an act of political violence. He timed his 2011 bomb and gun attack with the release of an anti-Muslim manifesto explaining his motivations. The 1,518-page text is mostly a compilation of what other people wrote and Breivik liked, and is available freely online.
Until recently, one could also order a hard copy of the manifesto from Amazon. This was the case until the British news outlet the
Times highlighted this fact on Sunday in an
accusatory report. A text by Dylann Roof, the white supremacist who murdered nine people at a black church in Charleston in 2015, was also available for purchase, the newspaper said, accusing the international giant of profiting from hate literature.
"Online retailers - just like social media companies - need to stop playing into the hands of terrorists by giving them the notoriety they crave and even selling their so-called manifestos," the
Times was told by Brendan Cox, the husband of Labour MP Jo Cox, who was murdered by a white supremacist in June 2016. "Too many corporates are actively making future attacks more likely."
Comment: Individuals and symbols: Mob mentality versus the individual as sacrosanct