Hanne Nabintu Herland

Hanne Stine Nabintu Herland
File:Hannenabintuherland.jpg Photo by Paul Bernhard
Born	Hanne Stine Nabintu Herland Kivu, Zaire
Nationality	Norway
Citizenship	Norwegian
Education	University of Oslo
Partner	Married
Website	http://www.hannenabintuherland.no/

Hanne Stine Nabintu Herland (born 1966 in Kivu, Congo) is a Norwegian author and debater.

Herland has written several books, among which are "Alarm! Reflections over a culture in crisis" (2010) and "Respekt" (2012). Herland focuses on questions of religion, ideology and social development, with singular spotlights on feminism, racism, church politics and integration. She often participates in TV and radio programs and holds lectures at colleges and universities, business conferences and church events, as well as public debates. Herland repeatedly emphasizes the fact that constructive traditional European values are present in both left- and right-wing Norwegian politics.

Biography

Herland was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Her parents moved to Africa in the 1960s to work for UNESCO. It was a family friend, the chieftain of the Shi Tribe in the Congo that gave her the name Nabintu at her birth. She spent her childhood in the Congo, Kenya and Rwanda. At the age of 19 she returned to Norway. Herland is fluent in four languages.

Social debate

2006 – The Norwegian welfare culture

As co-author of the book New Chances, published in 2006 by the Right’s parliamentary group, Herland describes modern Norway as a benefit-oriented society that puts work-seeking immigrants in welfare waiting lines instead of offering them constructive employment. She depicts Norway as entitlement oriented, rather than duty or responsibility focused. Demands for benefits have replaced the work ethic, and stigmatization of ethnic groups is a consequence. Herland refers to this as the Norwegian tragedy – that a bureaucratic system of social welfare is emphasized rather than hard work. However, she adamantly maintains that to attack ethnicity is to merely attack the symptoms of the real illness. Norwegians themselves, not the immigrants, have created the welfare system. For years the Norwegian government has diligently provided detailed information about social benefits to non-western immigrants and asylum seekers, without any demand for services in return. The entitlement orientation of Norwegian society has become a curse with a clear message to immigrants: This is a country where nobody has to work.

2007 – About feminism in Western Civilization

Herland’s article The defeat of western women, published in the newspaper Aftenposten on Women’s Liberation Day, March 8, 2007, resulted in rife controversy. In the wake of this discussion Herland was accused of hostility to women and of expressing a discriminating view of women that completely violated the tenets of western feminism. She claimed that it was not surprising that African men rape women when they come to Norway and witness the utter lack of respect paid women’s sexuality in the Western World, where women are sexual objects and free game. Norwegians themselves have set the tone. In a country that is increasingly characterized by norm-dissolving conditions, women in miniskirts sit drunk and alone at night in bars, convinced that they are liberated.

2007 – Racism against whites and the concept of reverse racism

Herland’s Aftenposten article Racism against whites sparked flames of debate when she asserted that a state-enforced muzzle effectively silenced any individual in Norway that made the mistake of pointing out inherent weaknesses or faults of any non-ethnic Norwegian. If any taboo still exists in Norwegian society, it must be this: To publicly criticize people of color. Herland argued that this form of reverse racism intensified racial conflicts rather than improved them. Further, she claimed that as long as this nearly totalitarian attitude in “consensus society” existed—where a white man could be torn to shreds, while a colored man was treated with silk gloves --, Norwegian racism would be efficiently transferred to the next generation.

2009 – Elections

At a political caucus in Trondheim Herland received attention and was cited in several national newspapers. During the meeting she made the statement, among others, that women’s liberation has created many nasty Norwegian women and that she therefore understands why Norwegian men prefer wives from Russia or Thailand.

2010 - A demand for increased respect for Europe

Herland’s book "Alarm! Reflections on a culture in crisis" set off hefty debate the spring of 2010 and was widely reviewed in Norwegian newspapers, radio and television. The book went into a second printing after only two weeks of sale, and a third printing followed a few months later. Herland maintains that the opposition of cultural radicals from the late sixties (referred to as “the sixty-eights” - a Norwegian popular term describing the radicals of that time) to the setting of limits has ravaged Norwegian schools, destroyed the authority of the police, triggered the breakup of families, curbed the freedom of the church and censored free expression in the public sphere. In Alarm! she uses the phrase “Norwegian tyranny of opinion” frequently and opines that Europe is on the verge of committing cultural suicide.

According to Herland, extremely liberal social development over the last decades has spawned self-realization, egoism, and unrestrained sexual activity, ultimately leading to serious and self-destructive dissolution of established norms. Herland believes that it is high time to increase respect for traditional Norwegian culture – for the simple reason that it shows a time-honored ability to sufficiently motivate individuals to solidarity, empathy and compassion for others. She points out that there is no conflict between upholding your own cultural identity and living in an ethnically diverse society, and that European culture should in fact take precedence in Europe. Immigrants should adapt to the prevailing culture in their new countries. In Alarm! Herland emphasizes that faith in God is natural and common throughout the world. She urges people to rebel against hostile actions and negative attitudes towards religion. She goes on to say it must be again permissible to express pride over the, according to her, religiously based ideals of European culture – such as equality between sexes, the ethics of the Ten Commandments and the concept of social solidarity – values which provide the foundation for all of Western Civilization.

2011 - Norway as "the most anti-Semitic country in the West"

After speaking at The Oslo Symposium 2011 conference in March, Herland published an article labelling Norway "the most anti-Semitic country in the West". She cited as one example the refusal of certain Norwegian academics to host the Jewish lawyer Alan Dershowitz for a lecture. Herland wrote that anti-Semitism in Europe often came in the form of an anti-Israel bias, citing the Norwegian government's refusal to declare Hamas as a terrorist organization as one example, even though, as she stated, most Norwegians disagree with their government's stance on Israel. She said that anti-Semitism was perpetrated on a state level, and condemned the "lack of political will to present both sides of the story," which she said denied Norwegians unbiased information. She wrote:

Instead of supporting the only real democracy in the Middle East, namely Israel, we blackmail the Israelis in a manner as though we were still in 1939 at the time the socialist Hitler «sieg heil» was shouted in Norway. For the Nazis were Left Wing, and came out of Germany’s Socialist Labour Party, they were not right-wing. The individuals in the Norwegian politically powerful positions that have pushed for these solely negative attitudes for so many years, are responsible for creating a politically-correct hatred towards Israel that has made Norway the most anti-Semitic country in the West.

Altogether, Herland explained that "it all makes me ashamed to be Norwegian." She voiced similar comments at a Jerusalem event during a panel discussion.

Manfred Gerstenfeld, a board member and former chairman of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Journal for the Study of Anti-Semitism, wrote in The Jerusalem Post that Herland's prominent position in Norway made her comments widespread throughout Norway, explaining that "even major national media had to print this." He noted that through internal opposition, such as that of Herland's, the two largest opposition parties have also agreed to shift their attitude toward Israel.

Additionally in 2011, Herland has been among the very few who have harshly criticized NATOs and Norways participation in the Libya-war. Norways largest newspaper, Aftenposten, published one of her articles on the matter October 27, 2011.

2012

In the biographical book "Respect" Herland writes about her childhood in Africa, and about the cultural shock she experienced when moving to Norway as an adult.

Bibliography

• Kristiansen, Hanne Stine Nabintu; Lys over landsbyen, Filadelfiaforlaget (1980) ISBN 82-534-0508-1
• Kristiansen, Hanne Stine Nabintu; Det siste våpenet – Tenår-ringen, Filadelfiaforlaget (1985) ISBN 82-534-0684-3
• Herland, Hanne Stine Nabintu: The task of reviving islam: Qadi-domstolens betydning for islamiseringen i Kenya Universitetet i Oslo (2005)
• Herland, Hanne Stine Nabintu; Alarm! Tanker om en kultur i krise, Luther forlag (2010) ISBN 978-82-531-4611-9
• Herland, Hanne Nabintu; Respekt. Orfeus publishing (2012). ISBN 978-82-93140-07-8

External links

• Hanne Nabintu Herland´s blog
• Hanne Nabintu Herland on Facebook
• Hanne Nabintu Herlands at Verdidebatt.no