Norway's tolerance culture shows cracks despite 'rose marches'

For a period it seemed likely that Norway's fabled open society would emerge intact from the massacre of 77 people last year by right-wing fanatic Anders Breivik.

Yet cracks in the country's culture of tolerance are starting to show.

There is a growing consensus in Norway that the feeling of national unity, symbolised by the huge "rose marches" in which hundreds of thousands marched in defiance during the aftermath of the attacks, has slowly ebbed away as the country becomes divided over the issues of rising immigration and cultural integration.

Some experts believe that anti-immigrant antipathy has now slid back to levels that existed before Breivik's attack.

Thorbjorn Jagland, the Norwegian chairman of the Nobel peace prize committee, is among those who believe nothing has been learned in the 13 months since the July 22 attacks.

Jagland, a former prime minister of Norway and now general secretary of the Council of Europe, said that while the atrocities had dampened the anti-multicultural rhetoric of politicians, the sentiments remained. "I don't think we have changed much in the past year. People at the political level have been more cautious regarding the debate around integration and Muslims, but if you look at what is going on at the grass-roots level it has not changed," he said.