Hanne Nabintu Herland

Hanne Stine Nabintu Herland
Photo by Paul Bernhard
Born	Hanne Stine Nabintu Herland Kivu, Congo
Residence	Bergen
Nationality	Norway
Citizenship	Norwegian
Education	MA in history of religions
Religion	Christian
Partner(s)	Married
Website	http://www.hannenabintuherland.no/

Hanne Stine Nabintu Herland (born 1966 in Kivu, Congo) is a Norwegian author and debater who is educated at the University of Oslo as a historian of religions.^[1][2]

Herland has written several debate books, among them the books Alarm! Tanker om en kultur i krise translated to English: "Alarm, thoughts about a culture in crisis" (2010) and Respekt (2012). She was the editor of the political debate book Ny vind over Norge translated to English "New wind in Norway" (2013) . The book contributed to mobilize the conservative movement in connection with the 2013 government election, which ended up in a clear conservative majority. She is known for fighting for Christian and social conservative values and challenges the "politically correct" establishment in Norway.

Early life

Herland was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Her parents moved to Africa in the 1960s to work for UNESCO. Her middle name Nabintu is African. She spent her childhood in the Congo, Kenya and Rwanda. At the age of 19 she moved to Norway.^[3][4][5][6] Herland obtained an MA in the history of religions at the University of Oslo in 2005, writing her master's thesis on the Kenyan Qadi court.^[7]

Public debate

Herland has been an active and controversial^[8] public and popular commentator and debater in Norway since the mid 2000s, voicing opposition against the multiculturalism, the 1970s radical feminism, the liberal breaking up of the family and traditional values.^{[9][10] [11][12][13]}

In 2007, she wrote the op-ed "Western women's defeat," in which she wrote that it is not strange that Africans rape women when they come to Norway and experience how worthless a woman's sexuality is in Western culture, where women are sexual objects according to Herland. Herland concludes: "In a country that is increasingly characterized by a deterioration of traditional values, the woman sits drunk and alone in bars at night in miniskirts – and thinks she's free."^[14]

In the 2007 op-ed "Rasismen mot hvite," Herland claimed that the predominant form of racism in today's Norway is "the racism against white people."^[15] In 2009, she criticized radical feminism and said it had created many harsh Norwegian women, and that she understood men who preferred Russian and Thai brides.^[16][17]

In 2010, Herland gave a presentation for the missionary organization Digni, in which she attacked the neo-marxist and socialist ideologies, which caused national uproar and was later removed from Digni's website with the rationale that her claims were "biased" against socialism and that the organization could not afford to be associated with her conservative views. Herland stated that "I think both Digni and I are victims of harassing games from the power circles in Norway and that they have forced Digni to remove the presentation" and compared it to censorship in North Korea.^[18]

In 2011, Herland claimed that Norway is the West's most anti-semitic country,as even the state level is involved in a gross bias against Israel. She said that anti-Israelism is the new face of anti-Semitism in Europe.^[19][20][21] After giving speeches in Israel the following year, also addressing the problems of Middle Eastern Christians, she was widely quoted.^{[22][23][24][25]}

Since the outbreak of The Arab Spring, Herland has warned extensively against the Western naive belief that the Arab Spring would lead to Western democracy in the Middle East. She has since been one of the first to comment in leading newspapers on the Arab Spring becoming an Arab Winter. In March, 2011, she held the opening speech at the Oslo Symposium conference, where Dr. Alan M. Dershowitz also spoke, warning that chaos might be the result in Egypt after the fall of Hosni Mubarak.^[26][27][28] She has been sharply critical of US’ involvement in the Middle East.^{[29][30][31][32][33]}

In 2014, she was featured by RT in Worlds Apart.^[34][35]

Books

As a contributor to the book Ny sjanse (English: New chance), published in 2006 by the Conservative Party with Per Kristian Foss as editor, Herland argued that the Norwegian welfare state discouraged immigrants to seek work and made many too dependent on welfare benefits.^[36]

Herland’s book Alarm! Reflections on a culture in crisis was published in 2010. It became a bestseller, republished 5 times within a year^[9] In the book, she criticized the leftist radicals and argued that Europeans are about to commit cultural suicide.^[37] Her work was called a fresh contribution to Christian conservative thought by the leading TV channel, NRK.^[38] The book was criticized as a poorly written collection of extended op-eds with many factual errors by liberal critic Øyvind Strømmen.^[39]

In the autobiography Respect, published in 2012, Herland discusses what she claims is "the racism against whites," Norwegian mediocrity and lack of respect for traditional Norwegian culture and on an international level, the lack of respect for sovereign states. The last part of the book discusses The Arab Spring and the Libya war. She claims Norway is in a state of "civil war" since the generation of 1968 "destroyed" culture and society, and that Norwegians are currently living in a "constant state of war." She also writes about her cultural shock upon moving to Norway as an adult after growing up in Africa. The book was described by debate editor in Aftenposten Knut Olav Åmås as "a shockingly bad debate book" and its style as "characterizing and generalizing more than argumentative, often with thin or no supporting evidence."^[40] Dagbladet radical commentator Inger Merete Hobbelstad criticized the extent of the media coverage of Herland, arguing that Norway does not need conservative voices like Herland.^[41]

In 2013, Herland was editor of the political debate book Ny vind over Norge (English: New wind in Norway) which had 15 contributors, of which most were conservatives. Including the current Prime Minister of Norway, Erna Solberg, current Finance Minister Siv Jensen, current Minister of Education Torbjorn Roed Isaksen, Lars Roar Langslet, Asle Toje, Hege Storhaug and Walid al-Kubaisi were among the contributors. The book was published in June, prior to the Norwegian parliamentary election in September 2013.^[42][43] Aftenposten editor Knut Olav Åmås called the book "Fresh new thoughts from the Right that sum up the ideological debate the past years."^[44]

Dagbladet leftwing critic Jon Berglien described the book as "at the very best a gentle breeze" and argued that the book was "full of empty slogans" and that "some voices wondered about which company the different participants were in."^[45]

She wrote the foreword in the Norwegian painter Odd Nedrum's 2013 book Crime and Refuge.^[46]

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
• Herland, Hanne Nabintu (editor): Ny vind over Norge. Dreyers Forlag (2013). ISBN 9788282650847

References

External links

• Hanne Nabintu Herland´s blog, english version
• Hanne Nabintu Herland´s blog, norwegian version
• Hanne Nabintu Herland on Facebook
• Hanne Nabintu Herlands at Verdidebatt.no