Fjordman

Peder Are Nøstvold Jensen (born 11 June 1975) is a Norwegian far-right counter-jihad blogger who writes under the pseudonym Fjordman.

Early public writings from Jensen appear in 2000 in the national newspaper Dagbladet and the regional paper Sunnmørsposten, where he criticises feminism.

He also wrote comments under full name in newspapers Aftenposten and Verdens Gang.

Jensen went on to study Arabic at the University of Bergen and the American University in Cairo.

By this time he had already begun to nurture a growing skepticism towards Islamic culture, He was present in Cairo during the September 11 attacks.

According to Jensen, "Western media claimed no Arabs were happy about the attacks. This is not true. Some of my neighbors celebrated the event with a spontaneous cake party, and felt what had happened was great."

After returning home, Jensen began writing commentaries to Norway's leading newspapers, but claims his controversial opinions were not published by the mainstream media.

After having a number of articles rejected, he eventually decided to start his own blog instead.

He wrote on several blogs under the pseudonym "Norwegian kafir" in the early 2000s, but eventually took the pseudonym "Fjordman" in 2005.

During his early post-Cairo years Jensen also worked for the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Middle East.

From the start of 2002 to the summer of 2003, he worked for them as an observer in Hebron, in the West Bank, in the service of the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH).

The TIPH mission in Hebron monitors breaches of international humanitarian law and other agreements between the State of Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

They communicate their findings to the involved parties and the six member states of TIPH.

In April 2003, Jensen came close to being struck by the Mike's Place suicide bombing, while two of his colleagues had been killed in a similar attack the year before.

Following this, he completed his master's degree in culture and technology from the University of Oslo.

His master thesis, published in 2004, was titled Blogging Iran – A Case Study of Iranian English Language Weblogs, and discussed censorship and blogging in Iran.

Jensen wrote anonymously as Fjordman starting in 2005, until he disclosed his identity in 2011.

He has been active in the counter-jihad movement, which argues that multiculturalism, particularly Muslim mass immigration, poses an existential threat to Western civilization.

He has promoted this belief in a self-published book titled Defeating Eurabia, and stated that "Islam, and all those who practice it, must be totally and physically removed from the entire Western world".

Anders Behring Breivik, a neo-Nazi, exploited Fjordman's belief in the Eurabia conspiracy theory, a supposed secret Muslim plan to take over Europe, and quoted him extensively – 111 times – in his manifesto.

Fjordman condemned Breivik following his attacks.

Fjordman blogged on his own web log in 2005, giving it up at the end of the year.

Since then, he has "guested" and commented in other blogs, mainly on Gates of Vienna, but also on Jihad Watch, Brussels Journal, Faith Freedom International, Free Republic, Daily Pundit, Global Politician and FrontPage Magazine.

Fjordman published a compilation of his articles in print via lulu.com in November 2008.

Norwegian historian Vidar Enebakk has criticised the way he thought Fjordman misused academic research for political purposes.

Øyvind Strømmen argues that Fjordman's essays fulfill all the criteria of Roger Griffin's definition of fascism.

In 2011 he said that he was not affiliated with any political party, but that except having voted once in an election for the Labour Party, he has voted for the Progress Party.

Jensen finished his conscription service at the military camp in Setermoen.

Considering himself an unsatisfactory soldier, he has never again touched a weapon.

Before writing as Fjordman, Jensen wrote a few times in newspapers using his full name.

Following this, he worked at a day care centre until 2011, when his identity as the blogger Fjordman was revealed.

In August 2011, Norwegian professor Arnulf Hagen claimed that there was much to suggest that Jensen had a Wikipedia account (Misheu) which made 2000 edits.

In June 2012, writing as Fjordman, he heavily criticised Wikipedia in an article entitled "The Bias and Dishonesty of Wikipedia" in EuropeNews.

In 2013 Fjordman was given financial support by the organization Fritt Ord to write a book about the Anders Behring Breivik case.

According to the Norwegian state broadcaster NRK, Fjordman is "considered a 'hero' among the bloggers and debaters constituting the new far right."

He has however been described as comparatively considerably more dystopian and pessimistic than others in the movement for his predictions of coming civil wars across Europe.

He is mainly associated with the blog Gates of Vienna.

Peder Jensen grew up in Ålesund, with a "Socialist Left-family".

His parents are well-known personalities in Ålesund; his father an arranger of music concerts with a past in the former Marxist–Leninist Socialist Youth League (m–l), and his mother a historian and writer.

Jensen himself was for a short period in his youth a member of the Socialist Youth, the youth organisation of the Socialist Left Party.