Calls to remove statue of Iceland’s founder

Ingólfr Arnarson is the first permanent settler of Iceland, and founder, with his brother Hjörleifr Hróðmarsson, of Reykjavík in 874.

According to the journalist, the founder “murdered” and oppressed “freedom heroes” Duf­þak og Helga… and, the horror, traded and owned slaves. He wants the statue replaced with that of slaves, such as Karla or Vífli.

The reality, of course, is quite different. Ingólfr Arnarson did not murder anyone, even by modern standards. He lawfully executed terrorists, not “freedom heroes”, who were plotting a rebellion. Ingólfr Arnarson did own slaves indeed, like every Norseman at the time. None of them were black. They were primarily Irish or other Nordics.

This makes Gunnar Smári Egilsson’s reference to BLM all the more bizarre. In a more interesting twist, most slaves in Iceland also had slaves themselves at some point.

But the historic detail is quite irrelevant actually. The fact remains that Ingólfr Arnarson founded Iceland and Gunnar Smári Egilsson would not exist without his efforts, also with the freedom denigrate his own culture, heritage and history.

“At the end of the day, we shall all understand that Gunnar Smári Egilsson (who is a disgrace to the name Gunnar) is no different from Talibans and DAESH/ISIS savages, who are demonstrating exceptional intolerance, hatred, and bigotry, by trying to destroy everything and anything their pathetic little emasculated minds don’t agree with,” said one critic.

American weekly The Federalist astutely observed that any white male historical figure anywhere in the world is now “tainted” with a “racist” and “genocidal” legacy, no matter the historical record.

In the US, BLM activists make no distinction between Confederate and Union, abolitionist and pro-slavery, 15th-century figures or more recent figures. They don’t care when a monument was erected, who built it, or why. They have not come to debate or persuade anyone to relocate statues to museums or private property. They simply believe the debate is over and that they have won through violence, threats and coercion.

The target of BLM activists is not the Confederacy, it is actually the United States and in a larger sense to destroy white male symbols of history.

That is why mobs have been defacing statues of abolitionists like Matthias Baldwin and Union war heroes like Adm. David Farragut and Gen. George Thomas. That is why statues of Christopher Columbus were torn down or beheaded in three cities already.

BLM protestors vandalized a statue of John Greenleaf in Whittier, CA

A prominent Quaker abolitionist

Known for his anti-slavery writings pic.twitter.com/ULtvsDCAol

— ELIJAH SCHAFFER (@ElijahSchaffer) June 14, 2020

A “peaceful” protest in Whittier, California ended in the Quaker abolitionist considered key in the 19th century movement for equal rights, was not spared by the mob. John Greenleaf, whose statue was vandalized, including with the spray-painted letters “BLM”, was among the most prominent literary voices leading the fight to end slavery even decades before Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.