As the gods of irony would have it, the Islamabad bombing came on the same day that Norway’s Dominique de Villepin-like Foreign Minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, was booked for a panel discussion on the Norwegian elite’s favourite topic, racism. Same old line: the only problem with “our new countrymen” is that the old countrymen are all bigots. Arriving late, Gahr Støre said he’d just been asked by an interviewer whether Pakistanis in Denmark had condemned the explosions. The audience laughed. His point was clear: of course they had; it was racist even to ask! In fact the Muslim ”condemnations” had almost invariably come with the usual “but” – violence was wrong, but the bombers’ rage was “understandable.”

Meanwhile, Norwegian Muslim politician Ali Khan was congratulating Norway for having spared itself Denmark’s fate through its wise actions – namely, the display of dhimmi grovelling at that notorious press conference. In short, Norway needn’t fear terrorist attacks – it had already surrendered.