Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power Vol. 19, No. 4, July 2012, 418–427 The debate about multicultural Norway before and after 22 July 2011 Mette Andersson (Received July 2011) Keywords: Norway; Breivik; public debate; racism In the aftermath of Anders Behring Breivik’s terrorist acts, which left 77 vic- tims dead in Oslo and Utøya on the afternoon of 22 July 2011, many envisaged a new and more positive debate on multicultural society in Norway. The Norwegian prime minister’s plea to meet the terrorist’s acts with more democracy and open- ness was televised worldwide, and he was praised for urging people not to respond to violence with violence. Torch and rose marches were arranged in several Norwegian cities, and, during the televised official memorial ceremony on 21 August, religious leaders from many faith communities stood together in grief. Funeral speeches by the prime minister and other central officials in the Labour Party and its youth wing were broadcast on national TV channels and reproduced in newspapers, and obituaries were printed in several newspapers. Before the prime minister and the minister for justice officially revealed that the terrorist was a white Christian Norwegian (at a press conference at 22:00 on 22 July), a terrorism researcher had suggested that Islamic terrorists were behind the attack, and reports of Muslims being harassed in the streets of Oslo were spread- ing through the Internet. Norwegian Muslims interviewed in the following days revealed that they had been terrified by the thought of what would happen...