Norwegians with different views go on a pilgrimage to terrorist targets – NRK Buskerud – Local news, TV and radio

The Trinity Church in Oslo is the starting point on this first Sunday in May.

The Areopagos Foundation is one of several initiators behind the project they have called “National Wounds”.

On the church steps stands Ann Kristin van Zijp Nilsen, dialogue priest in the foundation. She is one of those who will lead the pilgrims through the government quarter, and on to Utøya in Hole.

– The special thing here is that we meet to make a pilgrimage to two terrorist targets instead of a classic pilgrimage target.

From the stairs, she sees people flocking. She quickly sees that there is great diversity here.

Over 80 people have signed up for the special pilgrimage.

Here are Christians, atheists, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus.

Together against evil

The aim is to visit places where people have experienced bad things, and thus provide a kind of resilience against the bad.

– Terror grows in the soil where there is suspicion, loneliness and division. And doing things that counteract that is meaningful, says van Zijp Nilsen.

– Wanted to learn more about history

21-year-old Bol Deng Gar, who is Catholic, says he remembers his mother talking about Utøya.

He himself has no special memories of the events that shook Norway when he was in primary school.

– I joined the pilgrimage because I wanted to know more and learn the history of what happened in 2011 in Oslo and on Utøya.

He believes it is important that people of different religions and backgrounds are brought together and allowed to talk to each other.

– So that people with different perspectives can sharpen their opinions against each other. We must use what happened in 2011 to learn.

He believes it is easy to forget how well off the vast majority of people are in Norway.

– Freedom of activity and democracy, which we take for granted, are not a matter of course. I learned that from my mother, who has experienced war and injustice in South Sudan.

Demanding, but nice experience

For Aryanayaka Hans Egil Kaiser, the reunion with Utøya was a powerful experience.

He was here as an AUF on summer camp several times in the late 1990s, but has not been back since.

He was at work in the Ministry of Justice on 22 July 2011. He was only slightly injured physically, it was worse with the psychological.

– For me, the most important thing about the trip has been to experience that hate, frustration and anger can only be replaced with love and patience.

For him, Buddhism became the way out of bitterness. And it was through the Buddhist Association that he found out about the special pilgrimage.

– I think it fits well that Utøya is made a pilgrimage destination. That the place has become a symbol of how we met the terror afterwards.

The pilgrimage to Utøya was the first of its kind.

In the next few years, “National Wounds” is scheduled to visit the synagogue in Oslo, the Al-Noor mosque and Rosenkrantz’ gate where there was a shooting during Oslo Pride.